Merge branch 'homepage'

54 files changed, 4097 insertions, 57 deletions

diff --git a/hurd/advantages.mdwn b/hurd/advantages.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ff8c5560
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/advantages.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2008 Free Software Foundation,
+Inc."]]
+
+[[meta license="""[[toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[toggleable
+id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
+document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
+Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
+is included in the section entitled
+[[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
+
+The Hurd is not the most advanced kernel known to the planet (yet),
+but it does have a number of enticing features:
+
+  * **it's free software**
+    
+    Anybody can use, modify, and redistribute it under the terms of the
+    [[GNU_General_Public_License_(GPL)|GPL]]
+
+  * **it's compatible**
+
+    The Hurd provides a familiar programming and user environment.  For all
+    intents and purposes, the Hurd is a modern Unix-like kernel.  The Hurd uses
+    the [[GNU_C_Library|glibc]], whose development closely tracks standards
+    such as ANSI/ISO, BSD, POSIX, Single Unix, SVID, and X/Open.
+
+  * **it's built to survive**
+
+    Unlike other popular kernel software, the Hurd has an object-oriented
+    structure that allows it to evolve without compromising its design.  This
+    structure will help the Hurd undergo major redesign and modifications
+    without having to be entirely rewritten.
+
+  * **it's scalable**
+
+    The Hurd implementation is aggressively multithreaded so that it runs
+    efficiently on both single processors and symmetric multiprocessors.  The
+    Hurd interfaces are designed to allow transparent network clusters
+    (*collectives*), although this feature has not yet been implemented.
+
+  * **it's extensible**
+
+    The Hurd is an attractive platform for learning how to become a kernel
+    hacker or for implementing new ideas in kernel technology.  Every part of
+    the system is designed to be modified and extended.
+
+  * **it's stable**
+
+    It is possible to develop and test new Hurd kernel components without
+    rebooting the machine (not even accidentally).  Running your own kernel
+    components doesn't interfere with other users, and so no special system
+    privileges are required.  The mechanism for kernel extensions is secure by
+    design: it is impossible to impose your changes upon other users unless
+    they authorize them or you are the system administrator.
+
+  * **it exists**
+
+    The Hurd is real software that works Right Now.  It is not a research
+    project or a proposal.  You don't have to wait at all before you can start
+    using and developing it.
diff --git a/hurd/authentication.mdwn b/hurd/authentication.mdwn
index cbb164c8..14144d8e 100644
--- a/hurd/authentication.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/authentication.mdwn
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ is included in the section entitled
 
 UIDs on the Hurd are separate from processes.  A process has
 [[capabilities|capability]] designating so-called UID vectors that
-are implemented by an [[auth]] server.  This
+are implemented by an [[translator/auth]] server.  This
 makes them easily [[virtualizable|virtualization]].
 
 When a process wishes to gain access to a resource provided by a third
diff --git a/hurd/building.mdwn b/hurd/building.mdwn
index 7a24f70a..01586c84 100644
--- a/hurd/building.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/building.mdwn
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ within a Debian system.
 ## Getting the Source Code
 
 You can chose between getting the [sources from the developers's
-RCS](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/download.html#cvs):
+RCS](http://savannah.gnu.org/cvs/?group=hurd):
 
     $ cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.savannah.gnu.org:/sources/hurd co hurd
 
diff --git a/hurd/building/cross-compiling.mdwn b/hurd/building/cross-compiling.mdwn
index 11afc97f..e548c75c 100644
--- a/hurd/building/cross-compiling.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/building/cross-compiling.mdwn
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ guarantee is given.  Always the preferred version is listed first.
         `gcc-4_3-branch` needs.
         -->
 
-* `src/gnumach`: [[GNU_Mach|microkernel/mach/gnumach]]
+* `src/gnumach`: [[microkernel/mach/GNU_Mach]]
 
     * CVS `gnumach-1-branch`
 
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ guarantee is given.  Always the preferred version is listed first.
 
             $ ( cd gnumach-1-branch/ && autoreconf -vfi )
 
-* `src/mig`: [[GNU_Mach_Interface_Generator|microkernel/mach/mig]]
+* `src/mig`: [[microkernel/mach/mig/GNU_MIG]]
 
     * CVS `HEAD`
 
diff --git a/hurd/critique.mdwn b/hurd/critique.mdwn
index 9770138e..dacd7bb8 100644
--- a/hurd/critique.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/critique.mdwn
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@ Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
 is included in the section entitled
 [[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
-[[NealWalfield]] and [[MarcusBrinkmann]] wrote a paper titled [*A Critique of
-the GNU Hurd Multi-Server Operating
+Neal Walfield and Marcus Brinkmann wrote a paper titled [*A Critique of
+the GNU Hurd Multi-server Operating
 System*](http://walfield.org/papers/200707-walfield-critique-of-the-GNU-Hurd.pdf).
 This was published in ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review in July 2007.  This
 is sometimes referred to as *the critique*.
diff --git a/hurd/debugging/subhurd.mdwn b/hurd/debugging/subhurd.mdwn
index caad950b..7b5b07b1 100644
--- a/hurd/debugging/subhurd.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/debugging/subhurd.mdwn
@@ -85,6 +85,6 @@ W3
 
 Sources:
 
-* <http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/howto/subhurd.html>
+* [[subhurd/running_a_subhurd]]
 * <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2007-02/msg00030.html>
 * [[Thomas_Schwinge|tschwinge]]'s mind
diff --git a/hurd/documentation.mdwn b/hurd/documentation.mdwn
index 4d431b0b..be0874e7 100644
--- a/hurd/documentation.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/documentation.mdwn
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
+Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
 
 [[meta license="""[[toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[toggleable
 id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
@@ -8,6 +9,57 @@ Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
 is included in the section entitled
 [[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
+# Introductory Material
+
+  * [[What_Is_the_GNU_Hurd]]
+
+  * [[Advantages]]
+
   * [[FAQ]]
 
-  * <http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/docs.html>
+  * [[*The_Hurd_and_Linux*|hurd-and-linux]], a comment by Richard Stallman.
+
+  * [[*Towards_a_New_Strategy_of_OS_Design*|hurd-paper]], an architectural
+    overview by Thomas Bushnell, BSG.
+
+  * [[*The_Hurd*|hurd-talk]], a presentation by Marcus Brinkmann.
+
+  * A document about *[[translators]]* by Marcus Brinkmann.
+
+  * [[*A_Critique_of_the_GNU_Hurd_Multi-server_Operating_System*|critique]], an
+    analysis of the GNU Hurd on GNU Mach system, written by Neal Walfield and
+    Marcus Brinkmann.
+
+## External
+
+  * [*Examining the Legendary HURD
+    Kernel*](http://www.informit.com/articles/printerfriendly.aspx?p=1180992),
+    an article by David Chisnall.
+
+    Also covers a bit of GNU's and the Hurd's history, fundamental techniques
+    applied, comparisions to other systems.
+
+
+# Development
+
+  * *[[The_GNU_Hurd_Reference_Manual|reference_manual]]*.
+
+  * The *[[Hurd_Hacking_Guide]]*, an introduction to GNU&nbsp;Hurd and Mach
+    programming by Wolfgang Jährling.
+
+  * [*Manually Bootstrapping a
+    Translator*](http://walfield.org/pub/people/neal/papers/hurd-misc/manual-bootstrap.txt),
+    a text by Neal Walfield about how to *manually connect the translator to
+    the filesystem*.
+
+  * [[*The_Authentication_Server*|auth]], the transcript of a talk about the
+    details of the authentication mechanisms in the Hurd by Wolfgang Jährling.
+
+  * [*The Mach Paging Interface as Used by the
+    Hurd*](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/l4-hurd/2002-06/msg00001.html), a
+    text by Neal Walfield.
+
+  * In the
+    [[Position_paper_*Improving_Usability_via_Access_Decomposition_and_Policy*|ng/position_paper]]
+    Neal Walfield and Marcus Brinkmann give an overview about how a future,
+    subsequent system may be architected.
diff --git a/hurd/documentation/auth.html b/hurd/documentation/auth.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..487fc1fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/documentation/auth.html
@@ -0,0 +1,168 @@
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2002, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+
+[[meta license="Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
+permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved."]]
+
+[[meta title="The Authentication Server, the transcript of a talk about the
+details of the authentication mechanisms in the Hurd by Wolfgang Jährling"]]
+
+<H3><A NAME="contents">Table of Contents</A></H3>
+<UL>
+  <LI><A HREF="#intro" NAME="TOCintro">Introduction</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#ids" NAME="TOCids">How IDs are represented and used</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#posix" NAME="TOCposix">POSIX and beyond</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#servers" NAME="TOCservers">Related servers</A>
+</UL>
+<HR>
+
+<H3><A HREF="#TOCintro" NAME="intro">Introduction</A></H3>
+<P>
+In this text, which mostly resembles the talk I gave at Libre Software
+Meeting 2002 in Bordeaux, I will describe what the auth server does,
+why it is so important and which cool things you can do with it, both
+on the programming and the user side.  I will also describe related
+programs like the password and fakeauth servers.  Note that this text
+is targeted at programmers who want to understand the auth mechanism
+in detail and are already familiar with concepts like Remote Procedure
+Calls (RPCs) as well as the way User- and Group-IDs are used in the
+POSIX world.
+
+<P>
+The auth server is a very small server, therefore it gives a useful
+example when you want to learn how a server typically looks like.  One
+reason why it is so small is that the auth interface, which it
+implements, consists of only four RPCs.  You can find the interface in
+hurd/hurd/auth.defs and the server itself in hurd/auth/.
+
+<H3><A HREF="#TOCids" NAME="ids">How IDs are represented and used</A></H3>
+<P>
+Each process holds (usually) one port to auth (an auth_t in C source,
+which actually is a mach_port_t, of course).  The purpose of auth is
+to manage User-IDs and Group-IDs, which is the reason why users often
+will have no choice but to make use of the systems main auth server,
+which does not listen on /servers/auth; instead you inherit a port to
+auth from your parent process.  Each such port is (internally in the
+auth server) associated with a set of effective User- and Group-IDs as
+well as a set of available User- and Group-IDs.  So we have four sets
+of IDs in total.  The available IDs can be turned into corresponding
+effective IDs at any time.
+
+<P>
+When you send an auth_getids RPC on the port you hold, you will get
+information about which IDs are associated with it, so you can figure
+out which permissions you have.  But how will a server know that you
+have these permissions and therefore know which actions (e.g. writing
+into file "foo") it is supposed to do on your behalf and which not?
+The establishing of a trusted connection to a server works as follows:
+
+<P><OL>
+<LI>A user wants a server to know its IDs</LI>
+<LI>The user requests a reauthentication from the server</LI>
+<LI>In this request the user will include a port</LI>
+<LI>Both will hand this port to auth</LI>
+<LI>The user uses auth_user_authenticate</LI>
+<LI>The server uses auth_server_authenticate</LI>
+<LI>The server also passes a new port to auth</LI>
+<LI>auth matches these two requests</LI>
+<LI>The user gets the new port from auth</LI>
+<LI>The server learns about the IDs of the user</LI>
+<LI>The user uses the new port for further communication</LI>
+</OL>
+
+<P>
+We have different RPCs for users and servers because what we pass and
+what we get back differs for them: Users get a port, and servers get
+the sets of IDs, and have to specify the port which the user will get.
+
+<P>
+It is interesting to note that auth can match the requests by
+comparing two integers, because when you get the same port from two
+people, you will have the same mach_port_t (which is nothing but an
+integer).
+
+<P>
+All of this of course only works if they use the same auth server,
+which is why I said often you have no choice other than to use the
+one main auth server.  But this is no serious restriction, as the auth server has
+almost no functionality one might want to replace.  In fact, there is
+one replacement for the default auth implementation, but more on that
+later.
+
+<H3><A HREF="#TOCposix" NAME="posix">POSIX and beyond</A></H3>
+<P>
+Before we examine what is possible with this design, let us take a
+short look at how the POSIX semantics are implemented on top of this
+design.  When a program that comes out of POSIX-land asks for its own
+effective User- or Group-ID, we will tell it about the first of the
+effective IDs.  In the same sense, the POSIX real User- or Group-ID is
+the first available ID and the POSIX saved User- or Group-ID is the
+second available ID, which is why you have the same ID two times in
+the available IDs when you log into your GNU/Hurd machine (you can
+figure out which IDs you have with the program "ids", that basically
+just does an auth_getauth RPC).  When you lack one of those IDs (for
+example when you have no effective Group-ID), a POSIX program asking
+for this particular information will get "-1" as the ID.
+
+<P>
+But as you can imagine, we can do more than what POSIX specifies.  Fox
+example, we can modify our permissions.  This is always done with the
+auth_makeauth RPC.  In this RPC, you specify the IDs that should be
+associated with the new port.  All of these IDs must be associated
+with either the port where the RPC is sent to or one of the additional
+ports you can specify; an exception is the superuser root, which is
+allowed to creat ports that are associated with arbitrary IDs.
+Hereby you can convert available into effective IDs.
+
+<P>
+This opens the door to a bunch of nice features.  For example, we have
+the addauth program in the Hurd, which makes it possible to add an ID
+to either a single process or a group of processes if you hold the ID or know the
+appropriate password, and there is a corresponding rmauth program that
+removes an ID.  So when you are working on your computer with GNU
+Emacs and want to edit a system configuration file, you switch to
+Emacs' shell-mode, do an "addauth root", enter the password, edit the
+file, and when you are done switch back to shell-mode and do "rmauth
+root".  These programs have some interesting options, and there are
+various other programs, for setting the complete list of IDs (setauth)
+and so on.
+
+<H3><A HREF="#TOCservers" NAME="servers">Related servers</A></H3>
+<P>
+Finally, I want to explain two servers which are related to auth.  The
+first is the password server, which listens on /servers/password.  If
+you pass to it a User- or Group-ID and the correct password for it, it
+will return a port to auth to you which is associated with the ID you
+passed to it.  It can create such a port because it is running as
+root.  So let us assume you are an FTP server process.  You will start
+as root, because you want to use port 21 (in this case, "port" does
+not refer to a mach_port_t, of course).  But then, you can drop all
+your permissions so that you run without any ID.  This makes it far
+less dangerous to communicate with yet unknown users over the
+network.  But when someone now hands a username and password to you,
+you can ask the password server for a new auth port.  The password
+server will check the data you pass to it, for example by looking into
+/etc/shadow, and if it is valid, it will ask the auth server for a new
+port.  It receives this port from auth and then passes it on to you.
+So you have raised your permissions. (And for the very curious: Yes,
+we are well aware of the differences between this concept and
+capabilities; and we also do have some kinds of capabilities in
+various parts of the Hurd.)
+
+<P>
+My second example is the fakeauth server.  It also implements the auth
+protocol.  It is the part of the fakeroot implementation that gives a
+process the impression that it runs as root, even if it doesn't.  So
+when the process asks fakeauth about its own IDs, fakeauth will tell
+the process that it runs as root.  But when the process wants to make
+use of the authentication protocol described earlier in this text,
+fakeauth will forward the request to its own auth server, which will
+usually be the systems main auth server, which will then be able to
+match the auth_*_authenticate requests.  So what fakeauth does is
+acting as a proxy auth server that gives someone the impression to run
+as root, while not modifying what that one is allowed to do.
+
+<P>
+At this point, I have said at least most of what can be said about the
+auth server and the protocol it implements, so I will finish by saying
+that it might be an interesting task (for you) to modify some existing
+software to take advantage of the features I described here.
diff --git a/hurd/documentation/hurd-and-linux.html b/hurd/documentation/hurd-and-linux.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8eccd62c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/documentation/hurd-and-linux.html
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 2008 Free Software Foundation,
+Inc."]]
+
+[[meta license="Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
+permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved."]]
+
+[[meta title="The Hurd and Linux"]]
+
+by <A HREF="http://www.stallman.org/">Richard Stallman</A>.
+
+<P>
+People sometimes ask, ``Why did the FSF develop a new free kernel
+instead of using Linux?''  It's a reasonable question.  The answer,
+briefly, is that that is not the question we faced.
+
+<P>
+When we started developing the Hurd in 1990, the question facing us
+was, ``How can we get a free kernel for the GNU system?''  There was
+no free Unix-like kernel then, and we knew of no other plan to write
+one.  The only way we could expect to have a free kernel was to write
+it ourselves.  So we started.
+
+<P>
+We heard about Linux after its release.  At that time, the question
+facing us was, ``Should we cancel the Hurd project and use Linux
+instead?''
+
+<P>
+We heard that Linux was not at all portable (this may not be true
+today, but that's what we heard then).  And we heard that Linux was
+architecturally on a par with the Unix kernel; our work was leading to
+something much more powerful.
+
+<P>
+Given the years of work we had already put into the Hurd, we decided
+to finish it rather than throw them away.
+
+<P>
+If we did face the question that people ask---if Linux were already
+available, and we were considering whether to start writing another
+kernel---we would not do it.  Instead we would choose another project,
+something to do a job that no existing free software can do.
+
+<P>
+But we did start the Hurd, back then, and now we have made it work.
+We hope its superior architecture will make free operating systems
+more powerful.
diff --git a/hurd/documentation/hurd-paper.html b/hurd/documentation/hurd-paper.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..15d2daec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/documentation/hurd-paper.html
@@ -0,0 +1,760 @@
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2008 Free Software
+Foundation, Inc."]]
+
+[[meta license="Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
+permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved."]]
+
+[[meta title="Towards a New Strategy of OS Design, an architectural overview by
+Thomas Bushnell, BSG."]]
+
+
+This article explains why FSF is developing a new operating system named the
+Hurd, which will be a foundation of the whole GNU system.
+The Hurd is built
+on top of CMU's Mach 3.0 kernel and uses Mach's virtual memory management and
+message-passing facilities.
+The GNU C Library will provide the Unix system
+call interface, and will call the Hurd for needed services it can't provide
+itself.
+The design and implementation of the Hurd is being lead by Michael
+Bushnell, with assistance from Richard Stallman, Roland McGrath,
+Jan Brittenson, and others.
+
+<H2>Part 1: A More Usable Approach to OS Design</H2>
+<P>
+The fundamental purpose of an operating system (OS) is to enable a variety of
+programs to share a single computer efficiently and productively.
+This
+demands memory protection, preemptively scheduled timesharing, coordinated
+access to I/O peripherals, and other services.
+In addition, an OS can allow
+several users to share a computer.
+In this case, efficiency demands services
+that protect users from harming each other, enable them to share without
+prior arrangement, and mediate access to physical devices.
+<P>
+On today's computer systems, programmers usually implement these goals
+through a large program called the kernel.
+Since this program must be
+accessible to all user programs, it is the natural place to add functionality
+to the system.
+Since the only model for process interaction is that of
+specific, individual services provided by the kernel, no one creates other
+places to add functionality.
+As time goes by, more and more is added to the
+kernel.
+<P>
+A traditional system allows users to add components to a kernel only if they
+both understand most of it and have a privileged status within the system.
+Testing new components requires a much more painful edit-compile-debug cycle
+than testing other programs.
+It cannot be done while others are using the
+system.
+Bugs usually cause fatal system crashes, further disrupting others'
+use of the system.
+The entire kernel is usually non-pageable.
+(There are
+systems with pageable kernels, but deciding what can be paged is difficult
+and error prone.
+Usually the mechanisms are complex, making them difficult
+to use even when adding simple extensions.)
+<P>
+Because of these restrictions, functionality which properly belongs
+<STRONG>behind</STRONG>
+the wall of a traditional kernel is usually left out of systems unless it is
+absolutely mandatory.
+Many good ideas, best done with an open/read/write
+interface cannot be implemented because of the problems inherent in the
+monolithic nature of a traditional system.
+Further, even among those with
+the endurance to implement new ideas, only those who are privileged users of
+their computers can do so.
+The software copyright system darkens the mire by
+preventing unlicensed people from even reading the kernel source.
+<P>
+Some systems have tried to address these difficulties.
+Smalltalk-80 and
+the Lisp Machine both represented one method of getting around the problem.
+System code is not distinguished from user code; all of the system is
+accessible to the user and can be changed as need be.
+Both systems were
+built around languages that facilitated such easy replacement and extension,
+and were moderately successful.
+But they both were fairly poor at insulating
+users and programs from each other, failing one of the principal goals of OS
+design.
+<P>
+Most projects that use the Mach 3.0 kernel carry on the hard-to-change
+tradition of OS design.
+The internal structure is different, but the same
+heavy barrier between user and system remains.
+The single-servers, while
+fairly easy to construct, inherit all the deficiencies of the monolithic
+kernels.
+<P>
+A multi-server divides the kernel functionality up into logical blocks with
+well-defined interfaces.
+Properly done, it is easier to make changes and add
+functionality.
+So most multi-server projects do somewhat better.
+Much more
+of the system is pageable.
+You can debug the system more easily.
+You can
+test new system components without interfering with other users.
+But the
+wall between user and system remains; no user can cross it without special
+privilege.
+<P>
+The GNU&nbsp;Hurd, by contrast, is designed to make the area of
+<STRONG>system</STRONG>
+code as
+limited as possible.
+Programs are required to communicate only with a few
+essential parts of the kernel; the rest of the system is replaceable
+dynamically.
+Users can use whatever parts of the remainder of the system
+they want, and can easily add components themselves for other users to take
+advantage of.
+No mutual trust need exist in advance for users to use each
+other's services, nor does the system become vulnerable by trusting the
+services of arbitrary users.
+<P>
+This has been done by identifying those system components which users
+<STRONG>must</STRONG>
+use in order to communicate with each other.
+One of these is responsible for
+identifying users' identities and is called the
+<DFN>
+authentication server.
+</DFN>
+In
+order to establish each other's identities, programs must communicate, each
+with an authentication server they trust.
+Another component establishes
+control over system components by the superuser, provides global bookkeeping
+operations, and is called the
+<DFN>
+process server.
+</DFN>
+<P>
+Not all user programs need to communicate with the process server; it is only
+necessary for programs which require its services.
+Likewise, the
+authentication server is only necessary for programs that wish to communicate
+their identity to another.
+None of the remaining services carry any special
+status; not the network implementation, the filesystems, the program
+execution mechanism (including setuid), or any others.
+
+<H3>The Translator Mechanism</H3>
+<P>
+The Hurd uses Mach ports primarily as methods for communicating between users
+and servers.
+(A Mach port is a communication point on a Mach task where
+messages are sent and received.)  Each port implements a particular set of
+protocols, representing operations that can be undertaken on the underlying
+object represented by the port.
+Some of the protocols specified by the Hurd
+are the I/O protocol, used for generic I/O operations; the file protocol,
+used for filesystem operations; the socket protocol, used for network
+operations; and the process protocol, used for manipulating processes et al.
+<P>
+Most servers are accessed by opening files.
+Normally, when you open a file,
+you create a port associated with that file that is owned by the server
+that owns the directory containing the file.
+For example, a disk-based
+filesystem will normally serve a large number of ports, each of which
+represents an open file or directory.
+When a file is opened, the server
+creates a new port, associates it with the file, and returns the port to the
+calling program.
+<P>
+However, a file can have a
+<DFN>translator</DFN>
+associated with it.
+In this case,
+rather than return its own port which refers to the contents of the file, the
+server executes a translator program associated with that file.
+This
+translator is given a port to the actual contents of the file, and is then
+asked to return a port to the original user to complete the open operation.
+<P>
+This mechanism is used for
+<CODE>mount</CODE>
+by having a translator associated with
+each mount point.
+When a program opens the mount point, the translator (in
+this case, a program which understands the disk format of the mounted
+filesystem) is executed and returns a port to the program.
+After the
+translator is started, it need not be run again unless it dies; the parent
+filesystem retains a port to the translator to use in further requests.
+<P>
+The owner of a file can associate a translator with it without special
+permission.
+This means that any program can be specified as a translator.
+Obviously the system will not work properly if the translator does not
+implement the file protocol correctly.
+However, the Hurd is constructed so
+that the worst possible consequence is an interruptible hang.
+<P>
+One way to use translators is to access hierarchically structured data using
+the file protocol.
+For example, all the complexity of the user interface to
+the
+<CODE>ftp</CODE>
+program is removed.
+Users need only know that a particular
+directory represents FTP and can use all the standard file manipulation
+commands (e.g
+<CODE>ls</CODE>
+or
+<CODE>cp</CODE>)
+to access the remote system, rather than learning
+a new set.
+Similarly, a simple translator could ease the complexity of
+<CODE>tar</CODE>
+or
+<CODE>gzip</CODE>.
+(Such transparent access would have some added cost, but it would
+be convenient.)
+
+<H3>Generic Services</H3>
+<P>
+With translators, the filesystem can act as a rendezvous for interfaces which
+are not similar to files.
+Consider a service which implements some version
+of the X protocol, using Mach messages as an underlying transport.
+For each
+X display, a file can be created with the appropriate program as its
+translator.
+X clients would open that file.
+At that point, few file
+operations would be useful (read and write, for example, would be useless),
+but new operations (
+<CODE>XCreateWindow</CODE>
+or
+<CODE>XDrawText</CODE>)
+might become meaningful.
+In this case, the filesystem protocol is used only to manipulate
+characteristics of the node used for the rendezvous.
+The node need not
+support I/O operations, though it should reply to any such messages with a
+<CODE>message_not_understood</CODE>
+return code.
+<P>
+This translator technique is used to contact most of the services in the Hurd
+that are not structured like hierarchical filesystems.
+For example, the
+password server, which hands out authorization tags in exchange for
+passwords, is contacted this way.
+Network protocol servers are also
+contacted in this fashion.
+Roland McGrath thought up this use of translators.
+
+<H3>Clever Filesystem Pictures</H3>
+<P>
+In the Hurd, translators can also be used to present a filesystem-like view
+of another part of the filesystem, with some semantics changed.
+For example,
+it would be nice to have a filesystem that cannot itself be changed, but
+nonetheless records changed versions of its files elsewhere.
+(This could be
+useful for source code management.)
+<P>
+The Hurd will have a translator which creates a directory which is a
+conceptual union of other directories, with collision resolution rules of
+various sorts.
+This can be used to present a single directory to users that
+contains all the programs they would want to execute.
+There are other useful
+variations on this theme.
+
+<H3>What The User Can Do</H3>
+<P>
+No translator gains extra privilege by virtue of being hooked into the
+filesystem.
+Translators run with the uid of the owner of the file being
+translated, and can only be set or changed by that owner.
+The I/O and
+filesystem protocols are carefully designed to allow their use by mutually
+untrusting clients and servers.
+Indeed, translators are just ordinary
+programs.
+The GNU C library has a variety of facilities to make common sorts
+of translators easier to write.
+<P>
+Some translators may need special privileges, such as the password server or
+translators which allow setuid execution.
+These translators could be run by
+anyone, but only if they are set on a root-owned node would they be able to
+provide all their services successfully.
+This is analogous to letting any
+user call the
+<CODE>reboot</CODE>
+system call, but only honoring it if that user is root.
+
+<H3>Why This Is So Different</H3>
+<P>
+What this design provides is completely novel to the Unix world.
+Until now,
+OSs have kept huge portions of their functionality in the realm of system
+code, thus preventing its modification and extension except in extreme need.
+Users cannot replace parts of the system in their programs no matter how much
+easier that would make their task, and system managers are loath to install
+random tweaks off the net into their kernels.
+<P>
+In the Hurd, users can change almost all of the things that are decided for
+them in advance by traditional systems.
+In combination with the tremendous
+control given by the Mach kernel over task address spaces and properties, the
+Hurd provides a system in which users will, for the first time, be able to
+replace parts of the system they dislike, without disrupting other users.
+<P>
+Most Mach-based OSs to date have mostly implemented a wider set of the
+<STRONG>
+same old
+</STRONG>
+Unix semantics in a new environment.
+In contrast, GNU is extending
+those semantics to allow users to improve, bypass, or replace them.
+
+
+<H2>Part 2: A Look at Some of the Hurd's Beasts</H2>
+<H3>The Authentication Server</H3>
+<P>
+One of the Hurd's more central servers is the authentication server.
+Each
+port to this server identifies a user and is associated by this server with
+an
+<DFN>id block</DFN>.
+Each id block contains sets of user and group ids.
+Either
+set may be empty.
+This server is not the same as the password server
+referred to above.
+<P>
+The authentication server exports three services.
+First, it provides simple
+boolean operations on authentication ports: given two authentication ports,
+this server will provide a third port representing the union of the two sets
+of uids and gids.
+Second,  this server allows any user with a uid of zero to
+create an arbitrary authentication port.
+Finally, this server provides RPCs
+(Remote Procedure Calls between different programs and possibly different
+hosts) which allow mutually untrusting clients and servers to establish their
+identities and pass initial information on each other.
+This is crucial to
+the security of the filesystem and I/O protocols.
+<P>
+Any user could write a program which implements the authentication protocol;
+this does not violate the system's security.
+When a service needs to
+authenticate a user, it communicates with its trusted authentication server.
+If that user is using a different authentication server, the transaction will
+fail and the server can refuse to communicate further.
+Because, in effect,
+this forces all programs on the system to use the same authentication server,
+we have designed its interface to make any safe operation possible, and to
+include no extraneous operations.
+(This is why there is a separate password
+server.)
+<H3>The Process Server</H3>
+<P>
+The process server acts as an information categorization repository.
+There
+are four main services supported by this server.
+First, the process server
+keeps track of generic host-level information not handled by the Mach kernel.
+For example, the hostname, the hostid, and the system version are maintained
+by the process server.
+Second, this server maintains the Posix notions of
+sessions and process groups, to help out programs that wish to use Posix
+features.
+<P>
+Third, the process server maintains a one-to-one mapping between Mach tasks
+and Hurd processes.
+Every task is assigned a pid.
+Processes can register a
+message port with this server, which can then be given out to any program
+which requests it.
+This server makes no attempt to keep these message ports
+private, so user programs are expected to implement whatever security they
+need themselves.
+(The GNU C Library provides convenient functions for all
+this.) Processes can tell the process server their current `argv' and `envp'
+values; this server will then provide, on request, these vectors of arguments
+and environment.
+This is useful for writing
+<CODE>ps</CODE>-like
+programs and also
+makes it easier to hide or change this information.
+None of these features
+are mandatory.
+Programs are free to disregard all of this and never register
+themselves with the process server at all.
+They will, however, still have a
+pid assigned.
+<P>
+Finally, the process server implements
+<DFN>process collections</DFN>,
+which are used
+to collect a number of process message ports at the same time.
+Also,
+facilities are provided for converting between pids, process server ports,
+and Mach task ports, while ensuring the security of the ports managed.
+<P>
+It is important to stress that the process server is optional.
+Because of
+restrictions in Mach, programs must run as root in order to identify all the
+tasks in the system.
+But given that, multiple process servers could
+co-exist, each with their own clients, giving their own model of the
+universe.
+Those process server features which do not require root privileges
+to be implemented could be done as per-user servers.
+The user's hands are
+not tied.
+<H3>Transparent FTP</H3>
+<P>
+Transparent FTP is an intriguing idea whose time has come.
+The popular
+<CODE>ange-ftp</CODE>
+package available for GNU Emacs makes access to FTP files
+virtually transparent to all the Emacs file manipulation functions.
+Transparent FTP does the same thing, but in a system wide fashion.
+This
+server is not yet written; the details remain to be fleshed out, and will
+doubtless change with experience.
+<P>
+In a BSD kernel, a transparent FTP filesystem would be no harder to write
+than in the Hurd.
+But mention the idea to a BSD kernel hacker, and the
+response is that ``such a thing doesn't belong in the kernel''.
+In a sense,
+this is correct.
+It violates all the layering principles of such systems to
+place such things in the kernel.
+The unfortunate side effect, however, is
+that the design methodology (which is based on preventing users from changing
+things they don't like) is being used to prevent system designers from making
+things better.
+(Recent BSD kernels make it possible to write a user program
+that provides transparent FTP.
+An example is
+<CODE>alex</CODE>,
+but it needs to run
+with full root privileges.)
+<P>
+In the Hurd, there are no obstacles to doing transparent FTP.
+A translator
+will be provided for the node
+<CODE>/ftp</CODE>.
+The contents of
+<CODE>/ftp</CODE>
+will probably
+not be directly listable, though further subdirectories will be.
+There will
+be a variety of possible formats.
+For example, to access files on uunet, one
+could
+<CODE>
+cd /ftp/ftp.uu.net:anonymous:mib@gnu.
+</CODE>
+Or to access files on a remote
+account, one might
+<CODE>
+cd /ftp/gnu.org:mib:passwd.
+</CODE>
+Parts of this
+command could be left out and the transparent FTP program would read them
+from a user's
+<CODE>.netrc</CODE>
+file.
+In the last case, one might just
+<CODE>
+cd /ftp/gnu.org;
+</CODE>
+when the rest of the data is already in
+<CODE>.netrc</CODE>.
+<P>
+There is no need to do a
+<CODE>cd</CODE>
+first--use any file command.
+To find out about
+RFC 1097 (the Telnet Subliminal Message Option), just type
+<CODE>
+more /ftp/ftp.uu.net/inet/rfc/rfc1097.
+</CODE>
+A copy command to a local disk
+could be used if the RFC would be read frequently.
+<H3>Filesystems</H3>
+<P>
+Ordinary filesystems are also being implemented.
+The initial release of the
+Hurd will contain a filesystem upwardly compatible with the BSD 4.4 Fast File
+System.
+In addition to the ordinary semantics, it will provide means to
+record translators, offer thirty-two bit user ids and group ids, and supply a
+new id per file, called the
+<DFN>author</DFN>
+of the file, which can be set by the
+owner arbitrarily.
+In addition, because users in the Hurd can have multiple
+uids (or even none), there is an additional set of permission bits providing
+access control for
+<DFN>
+unknown user
+</DFN>
+(no uids) as distinct from
+<DFN>
+known but arbitrary user
+</DFN>
+(some uids: the existing
+<DFN>world</DFN>
+category of file
+permissions).
+<P>
+The Network File System protocol will be implemented using 4.4 BSD as a
+starting point.
+A log-structured filesystem will also be implemented using
+the same ideas as in Sprite, but probably not the same format.
+A GNU network
+file protocol may be designed in time, or NFS may be extended to remove its
+deficiencies.
+There will also be various ``little'' filesystems, such as the
+MS-DOS filesystem, to help people move files between GNU and other OSs.
+
+<H3>Terminals</H3>
+<P>
+An I/O server will provide the terminal semantics of Posix.
+The GNU C
+Library has features for keeping track of the controlling terminal and for
+arranging to have proper job control signals sent at the proper times, as
+well as features for obeying keyboard and hangup signals.
+<P>
+Programs will be able to insert a terminal driver into communications
+channels in a variety of ways.
+Servers like
+<CODE>rlogind</CODE>
+will be able to insert
+the terminal protocol onto their network communication port.
+Pseudo-terminals will not be necessary, though they will be provided for
+backward compatibility with older programs.
+No programs in GNU will depend
+on them.
+<P>
+Nothing about a terminal driver is forced upon users.
+A terminal driver
+allows a user to get at the underlying communications channel easily, to
+bypass itself on an as-needed basis or altogether, or to substitute a
+different terminal driver-like program.
+In the last case, provided the
+alternate program implements the necessary interfaces, it will be used by the
+C Library exactly as if it were the ordinary terminal driver.
+<P>
+Because of this flexibility, the original terminal driver will not provide
+complex line editing features, restricting itself to the behavior found in
+Posix and BSD.
+In time, there will be a
+<CODE>readline</CODE>-based
+terminal driver,
+which will provide complex line-editing features for those users who want
+them.
+<P>
+The terminal driver will probably not provide good support for the
+high-volume, rapid data transmission required by UUCP or SLIP.
+Those
+programs do not need any of its features.
+Instead they will be using the
+underlying Mach device ports for terminals, which support moving large
+amounts of data efficiently.
+
+<H3>Executing Programs</H3>
+<P>
+The implementation of the
+<CODE>execve</CODE>
+call is spread across three programs.
+The
+library marshals the argument and environment vectors.
+It then sends a
+message to the file server that holds the file to be executed.
+The file
+server checks execute permissions and makes whatever changes it desires in
+the exec call.
+For example, if the file is marked setuid and the fileserver
+has the ability, it will change the user identification of the new image.
+The file server also decides if programs which had access to the old task
+should continue to have access to the new task.
+If the file server is
+augmenting permissions, or executing an unreadable image, then the exec needs
+to take place in a new Mach task to maintain security.
+<P>
+After deciding the policy associated with the new image, the filesystem calls
+the exec server to load the task.
+This server, using the BFD (Binary File
+Descriptor) library, loads the image.
+BFD supports a large number of object
+file formats; almost any supported format will be executable.
+This server
+also handles scripts starting with
+<CODE>#!</CODE>,
+running them through the indicated
+program.
+<P>
+The standard exec server also looks at the environment of the new image; if
+it contains a variable
+<CODE>EXECSERVERS</CODE>
+then it uses the programs specified
+there as exec servers instead of the system default.
+(This is, of course,
+not done for execs that the file server has requested be kept secure.)
+<P>
+The new image starts running in the GNU C Library, which sends a message to
+the exec server to get the arguments, environment, umask, current directory,
+etc.
+None of this additional state is special to the file or exec servers;
+if programs wish, they can use it in a different manner than the Library.
+
+<H3>New Processes</H3>
+<P>
+The
+<CODE>fork</CODE>
+call is implemented almost entirely in the GNU C Library.
+The new
+task is created by Mach kernel calls.
+The C Library arranges to have its
+image inherited properly.
+The new task is registered with the process server
+(though this is not mandatory).
+The C Library provides vectors of functions
+to be called at fork time: one vector to be called before the fork, one after
+in the parent, and one after in the child.
+(These features should not be
+used to replace the normal fork-calling sequence; it is intended for
+libraries which need to close ports or clean up before a fork occurs.)
+The C
+library will implement both fork calls specified by the draft Posix.4a (the
+proposed standard dealing with the threads extension to the real-time
+extension).
+<P>
+Nothing forces the user to create new tasks this way.
+If a program wants to
+use almost the normal fork, but with some special characteristics, then it
+can do so.
+Hooks will be provided by the C Library, or the function can even
+be completely replaced.
+None of this is possible in a traditional Unix
+system.
+
+<H3>Asynchronous Messages</H3>
+<P>
+As mentioned above, the process server maintains a
+<DFN>
+message port
+</DFN>
+for each
+task registered with it.
+These ports are public, and are used to send
+asynchronous messages to the task.
+Signals, for example, are sent to the
+message port.
+The signal message also provides a port as an indication that
+the sender should be trusted to send the signal.
+The GNU C Library lists a
+variety of ports in a table, each of which identifies a set of signals that
+can be sent by anyone who possesses that port.
+For example, if the user
+possesses the task's kernel port, it is allowed to send any signal.
+If the
+user possesses a special
+<DFN>
+terminal id
+</DFN>
+port, it is allowed to send the
+keyboard and hangup signals.
+Users can add arbitrary new entries into the C
+library's signal permissions table.
+<P>
+When a process's process group changes, the process server will send it a
+message indicating the new process group.
+In this case, the process server
+proves its authority by providing the task's kernel port.
+<P>
+The C library also has messages to add and delete uids currently used by the
+process.
+If new uids are sent to the program, the library adds them to its
+current set, and then exchanges messages with all the I/O servers it knows
+about, proving to them its new authorization.
+Similarly, a message can
+delete uids.
+In the latter case, the caller must provide the process's task
+port.
+(You can't harm a process by giving it extra permission, but you can
+harm it by taking permission away.)  The Hurd will provide user programs to
+send these messages to processes.
+For example, the
+<CODE>su</CODE>
+command will be able
+to cause all the programs in your current login session, to gain a new uid,
+rather than spawn a subshell.
+<P>
+The C library will allow programs to add asynchronous messages they wish to
+recognize, as well as prevent recognition of the standard set.
+<H3>Making It Look Like Unix</H3>
+<P>
+The C Library will implement all of the calls from BSD and Posix as well as
+some obvious extensions to them.
+This enables users to replace those calls
+they dislike or bypass them entirely, whereas in Unix the calls must be used
+``as they come'' with no alternatives possible.
+<P>
+In some environments binary compatibility will also be supported.
+This works
+by building a special version of the library which is then loaded somewhere
+in the address space of the process.
+(For example, on a VAX, it would be
+tucked in above the stack.)  A feature of Mach, called system call
+redirection, is then used to trap Unix system calls and turn them into jumps
+into this special version of the library.
+(On almost all machines, the cost
+of such a redirection is very small; this is a highly optimized path in Mach.
+On a 386 it's about two dozen instructions.
+This is little worse than a
+simple procedure call.)
+<P>
+Many features of Unix, such as signal masks and vectors, are handled
+completely by the library.
+This makes such features significantly cheaper
+than in Unix.
+It is now reasonable to use
+<CODE>sigblock</CODE>
+extensively to protect
+critical sections, rather than seeking out some other, less expensive method.
+
+<H3>Network Protocols</H3>
+<P>
+The Hurd will have a library that will make it very easy to port 4.4 BSD
+protocol stacks into the Hurd.
+This will enable operation, virtually for
+free, of all the protocols supported by BSD.
+Currently, this includes the
+CCITT protocols, the TCP/IP protocols, the Xerox NS protocols, and the ISO
+protocols.
+<P>
+For optimal performance some work would be necessary to take advantage of
+Hurd features that provide for very high speed I/O.
+For most protocols this
+will require some thought, but not too much time.
+The Hurd will run the
+TCP/IP protocols as efficiently as possible.
+<P>
+As an interesting example of the flexibility of the Hurd design, consider the
+case of IP trailers, used extensively in BSD for performance.
+While the Hurd
+will be willing to send and receive trailers, it will gain fairly little
+advantage in doing so because there is no requirement that data be copied and
+avoiding copies for page-aligned data is irrelevant.
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+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2001 Marcus Brinkmann"]]
+
+[[meta license="Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
+permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved."]]
+
+[[meta title="The Hurd, a presentation by Marcus Brinkmann"]]
+
+
+<H4><A NAME="contents">Table of Contents</A></H4>
+<UL>
+  <LI><A HREF="#int" NAME="TOCint">Introduction</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#ove" NAME="TOCove">Overview</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#his" NAME="TOChis">Historicals</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#ker" NAME="TOCker">Kernel Architectures</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#mic" NAME="TOCmic">Micro vs Monolithic</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#sin" NAME="TOCsin">Single Server vs Multi Server</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#mul" NAME="TOCmul">Multi Server is superior, ...</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#the" NAME="TOCthe">The Hurd even more so.</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#mac" NAME="TOCmac">Mach Inter Process Communication</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#how" NAME="TOChow">How to get a port?</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#exa" NAME="TOCexa">Example of <SAMP>hurd_file_name_lookup</SAMP></A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#pat" NAME="TOCpat">Pathname resolution example</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#map" NAME="TOCmap">Mapping the POSIX Interface</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#filser" NAME="TOCfilser">File System Servers</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#act" NAME="TOCact">Active vs Passive</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#aut" NAME="TOCaut">Authentication</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#ope" NAME="TOCope">Operations on authentication ports</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#est" NAME="TOCest">Establishing trusted connections</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#pas" NAME="TOCpas">Password Server</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#pro" NAME="TOCpro">Process Server</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#filsys" NAME="TOCfilsys">Filesystems</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#dev" NAME="TOCdev">Developing the Hurd</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#sto" NAME="TOCsto">Store Abstraction</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#deb" NAME="TOCdeb">Debian GNU/Hurd</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#stabin" NAME="TOCstabin">Status of the Debian GNU/Hurd binary archive</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#stainf" NAME="TOCstainf">Status of the Debian infrastructure</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#staarc" NAME="TOCstaarc">Status of the Debian Source archive</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#debide" NAME="TOCdebide">Debian GNU/Hurd: Good idea, bad idea?</A>
+  <LI><A HREF="#end" NAME="TOCend">End</A>
+</UL>
+<HR>
+<H3>Talk about the Hurd</H3>
+<P>
+This talk about the Hurd was written by Marcus Brinkmann for
+<UL>
+<LI>OSDEM, Brussels, 4. Feb 2001,
+<LI>Frühjahrsfachgespräche, Cologne, 2. Mar 2001 and
+<LI>Libre Software Meeting, Bordeaux, 4. Jul 2001.
+</UL>
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCint" NAME="int">Introduction</A></H4>
+<P>
+When we talk about free software, we usually refer to the free
+software licenses.  We also need relief from software patents, so our
+freedom is not restricted by them.  But there is a third type of
+freedom we need, and that's user freedom.
+
+<P>
+Expert users don't take a system as it is.  They like to change the
+configuration, and they want to run the software that works best for
+them.  That includes window managers as well as your favourite text
+editor.  But even on a GNU/Linux system consisting only of free
+software, you can not easily use the filesystem format, network
+protocol or binary format you want without special privileges.  In
+traditional unix systems, user freedom is severly restricted by the
+system administrator.
+
+<P>
+The Hurd removes these restrictions from the user.  It provides an
+user extensible system framework without giving up POSIX compatibility
+and the unix security model.  Throughout this talk, we will see that
+this brings further advantages beside freedom.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCove" NAME="ove">Overview</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+
+<P>
+The Hurd is a POSIX compatible multi-server
+system operating on top of the GNU&nbsp;Mach microkernel.
+
+<P>
+Topics:
+<UL>
+  <LI>GNU&nbsp;Mach</LI>
+  <LI>The Hurd</LI>
+  <LI>Development</LI>
+  <LI>Debian GNU/Hurd</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+
+<P>
+The Hurd is a POSIX compatible multi-server system operating on top of
+the GNU&nbsp;Mach Microkernel.
+
+<P>
+I will have to explain what GNU&nbsp;Mach is, so we start with that.  Then
+I will talk about the Hurd's architecture.  After that, I will give a
+short overview on the Hurd libraries.  Finally, I will tell you how
+the Debian project is related to the Hurd.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOChis" NAME="his">Historicals</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%">
+<TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<UL>
+  <LI>1983: Richard Stallman founds the GNU project.</LI>
+  <LI>1988: Decision is made to use Mach 3.0 as the kernel.</LI>
+  <LI>1991: Mach 3.0 is released under compatible license.</LI>
+  <LI>1991: Thomas Bushnell, BSG, founds the Hurd project.</LI>
+  <LI>1994: The Hurd boots the first time.</LI>
+  <LI>1997: Version 0.2 of the Hurd is released.<BR><BR></LI>
+  <LI>1998: Debian hurd-i386 archive is created.</LI>
+  <LI>2001: Debian GNU/Hurd snapshot fills three CD images.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+
+<P>
+When Richard Stallman founded the GNU project in 1983, he wanted to
+write an operating system consisting only of free software.  Very
+soon, a lot of the essential tools were implemented, and released
+under the GPL.  However, one critical piece was missing: The kernel.
+<P>
+After considering several alternatives, it was decided not to write a
+new kernel from scratch, but to start with the Mach microkernel.  This
+was in 1988, and it was not before 1991 that Mach was released under a
+license allowing the GNU project to distribute it as a part of the
+system.
+<P>
+In 1998, I started the Debian GNU/Hurd project, and in 2001 the number
+of available GNU/Hurd packages fills three CD images.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCker" NAME="ker">Kernel Architectures</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Microkernel:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Enforces resource management (paging, scheduling)</LI>
+  <LI>Manages tasks</LI>
+  <LI>Implements message passing for IPC</LI>
+  <LI>Provides basic hardware support</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Monolithic kernel:
+<UL>
+  <LI>No message passing necessary</LI>
+  <LI>Rich set of features (filesystems, authentication, network
+  sockets, POSIX interface, ...)</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+Microkernels were very popular in the scientific world around that
+time.  They don't implement a full operating system, but only the
+infrastructure needed to enable other tasks to implement most
+features.  In contrast, monolithical kernels like Linux contain
+program code of device drivers, network protocols, process management,
+authentication, file systems, POSIX compatible interfaces and much
+more.
+<P>
+So what are the basic facilities a microkernel provides?  In general,
+this is resource management and message passing.  Resource management,
+because the kernel task needs to run in a special privileged mode of
+the processor, to be able to manipulate the memory management unit and
+perform context switches (also to manage interrupts).  Message
+passing, because without a basic communication facility the other
+tasks could not interact to provide the system services. Some
+rudimentary hardware device support is often necessary to bootstrap
+the system.  So the basic jobs of a microkernel are enforcing the
+paging policy (the actual paging can be done by an external pager
+task), scheduling, message passing and probably basic hardware device
+support.
+<P>
+Mach was the obvious choice back then, as it provides a rich set of
+interfaces to get the job done.  Beside a rather brain-dead device
+interface, it provides tasks and threads, a messaging system allowing
+synchronous and asynchronous operation and a complex interface for
+external pagers.  It's certainly not one of the sexiest microkernels
+that exist today, but more like a big old mama.  The GNU project
+maintains its own version of Mach, called GNU&nbsp;Mach, which is based on
+Mach 4.0.  In addition to the features contained in Mach 4.0, the GNU
+version contains many of the Linux 2.0 block device and network card
+drivers.
+<P>
+A complete treatment of the differences between a microkernel and
+monolithical kernel design can not be provided here.  But a couple of
+advantages of a microkernel design are fairly obvious.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCmic" NAME="mic">Micro vs Monolithic</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Microkernel
+<UL>
+  <LI>Clear cut responsibilities
+  <LI>Flexibility in operating system design, easier debugging</LI>
+  <LI>More stability (less code to break)</LI>
+  <LI>New features are not added to the kernel</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Monolithic kernel
+<UL>
+  <LI>Intolerance or creeping featuritis</LI>
+  <LI>Danger of spaghetti code</LI>
+  <LI>Small changes can have far reaching side effects</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+Because the system is split up into several components, clean
+interfaces have to be developed, and the responsibilities of each part
+of the system must be clear.
+<P>
+Once a microkernel is written, it can be used as the base for several
+different operating systems.  Those can even run in parallel which
+makes debugging easier.  When porting, most of the hardware dependant
+code is in the kernel.
+<P>
+Much of the code that doesn't need to run in the special kernel mode
+of the processor is not part of the kernel, so stability increases
+because there is simply less code to break.
+<P>
+New features are not added to the kernel, so there is no need to hold
+the barrier high for new operating system features.
+<P>
+Compare this to a monolithical kernel, where you either suffer from
+creeping featuritis or you are intolerant of new features (we see both
+in the Linux kernel).
+<P>
+Because in a monolithical kernel, all parts of the kernel can access
+all data structures in other parts, it is more likely that short cuts
+are used to avoid the overhead of a clean interface.  This leads to a
+simple speed up of the kernel, but also makes it less comprehensible
+and more error prone.  A small change in one part of the kernel can
+break remote other parts.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCsin" NAME="sin">Single Server vs Multi Server</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Single Server
+<UL>
+  <LI>A single task implements the functionality of the operating system.</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Multi Server
+<UL>
+  <LI>Many tasks cooperate to provide the system's functionality.</LI>
+  <LI>One server provides only a small but well-defined part of the
+  whole system.</LI>
+  <LI>The responsibilities are distributed logically among the servers.</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+A single-server system is comparable to a monolithic kernel system. It
+has similar
+advantages and disadvantages.
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+There exist a couple of operating systems based on Mach, but they all
+have the same disadvantages as a monolithical kernel, because those
+operating systems are implemented in one single process running on top
+of the kernel.  This process provides all the services a monolithical
+kernel would provide.  This doesn't make a whole lot of sense (the
+only advantage is that you can probably run several of such isolated
+single servers on the same machine).  Those systems are also called
+single-server systems.  The Hurd is the only usable multi-server
+system on top of Mach.  In the Hurd, there are many server programs,
+each one responsible for a unique service provided by the operating
+system.  These servers run as Mach tasks, and communicate using the
+Mach message passing facilities.  One of them does only provide a
+small part of the functionality of the system, but together they build
+up a complete and functional POSIX compatible operating system.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCmul" NAME="mul">Multi Server is superior, ...</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Any multi-server has advantages over single-server:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Clear cut responsibilities</LI>
+  <LI>More stability: If one server dies, all others remain</LI>
+  <LI>Easier development cycle: Testing without reboot (or replacing
+  running servers), debugging with gdb</LI>
+  <LI>Easier to make changes and add new features
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+Using several servers has many advantages, if done right.  If a file
+system server for a mounted partition crashes, it doesn't take down
+the whole system.  Instead the partition is "unmounted", and
+you can try to start the server again, probably debugging it this time
+with gdb.  The system is less prone to errors in individual
+components, and over-all stability increases.  The functionality of
+the system can be extended by writing and starting new servers
+dynamically.  (Developing these new servers is easier for the reasons
+just mentioned.)
+<P>
+But even in a multi-server system the barrier between the system and
+the users remains, and special privileges are needed to cross it.  We
+have not achieved user freedom yet.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCthe" NAME="the">The Hurd even more so.</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+The Hurd goes beyond all this, and allows users to write and run their
+servers, too!
+<UL>
+  <LI>Users can replace system servers dynamically with their own
+  implementations.</LI>
+  <LI>Users can decide what parts of the remainder of the system they
+  want to use.</LI>
+  <LI>Users can extend the functionality of the system.</LI>
+  <LI>No mutual trust necessary to make use of other users
+  services.</LI>
+  <LI>Security of the system is not harmed by trusting users
+  services.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+To quote Thomas Bushnell, BSG, from his paper
+[[``Towards_a_New_Strategy_of_OS_design''_(1996)|hurd-paper]]:
+<BLOCKQUOTE>
+The GNU&nbsp;Hurd, by contrast, is designed to make the area of system code
+as limited as possible.  Programs are required to communicate only
+with a few essential parts of the kernel; the rest of the system is
+replaceable dynamically.  Users can use whatever parts of the
+remainder of the system they want, and can easily add components
+themselves for other users to take advantage of.  No mutual trust need
+exist in advance for users to use each other's services, nor does the
+system become vulnerable by trusting the services of arbitrary users.
+</BLOCKQUOTE>
+
+<P>
+<EM>So the Hurd is a set of servers running on top of the Mach
+micro-kernel, providing a POSIX compatible and extensible operating
+system.  What servers are there?  What functionality do they provide,
+and how do they cooperate?</EM>
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCmac" NAME="mac">Mach Inter Process Communication</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Ports are message queues which can be used as one-way communication
+channels.
+<UL>
+  <LI>Port rights are receive, send or send-once</LI>
+  <LI>Exactly one receiver</LI>
+  <LI>Potentially many senders</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+MIG provides remote procedure calls on top of Mach IPC. RPCs look like
+function calls to the user.
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+Inter-process communication in Mach is based on the ports concept.  A
+port is a message queue, used as a one-way communication channel.  In
+addition to a port, you need a port right, which can be a send right,
+receive right, or send-once right.  Depending on the port right, you
+are allowed to send messages to the server, receive messages from it,
+or send just one single message.
+<P>
+For every port, there exists exactly one task holding the receive
+right, but there can be no or many senders.  The send-once right is
+useful for clients expecting a response message.  They can give a
+send-once right to the reply port along with the message.  The kernel
+guarantees that at some point, a message will be received on the reply
+port (this can be a notification that the server destroyed the
+send-once right).
+<P>
+You don't need to know much about the format a message takes to be
+able to use the Mach IPC.  The Mach interface generator mig hides the
+details of composing and sending a message, as well as receiving the
+reply message.  To the user, it just looks like a function call, but
+in truth the message could be sent over a network to a server running
+on a different computer.  The set of remote procedure calls a server
+provides is the public interface of this server.
+
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOChow" NAME="how">How to get a port?</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Traditional Mach:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Nameserver provides ports to all registered servers.</LI>
+  <LI>The nameserver port itself is provided by Mach.</LI>
+  <LI>Like a phone book: One list.</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+The Hurd:
+<UL>
+  <LI>The filesystem is used as the server namespace.</LI>
+  <LI>Root directory port is inserted into each task.</LI>
+  <LI>The C library finds other ports with hurd_file_name_lookup,
+  performing a pathname resolution.</LI>
+  <LI>Like a tree of phone books.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+So how does one get a port to a server?  You need something like a
+phone book for server ports, or otherwise you can only talk to
+yourself.  In the original Mach system, a special nameserver is
+dedicated to that job.  A task could get a port to the nameserver from
+the Mach kernel and ask it for a port (with send right) to a server
+that registered itself with the nameserver at some earlier time.
+<P>
+In the Hurd, there is no nameserver.  Instead, the filesystem is used
+as the server namespace.  This works because there is always a root
+filesystem in the Hurd (remember that the Hurd is a POSIX compatible
+system); this is an assumption the people who developed Mach couldn't
+make, so they had to choose a different strategy.  You can use the
+function hurd_file_name_lookup, which is part of the C library, to get
+a port to the server belonging to a filename.  Then you can start to
+send messages to the server in the usual way.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCexa" NAME="exa">Example of <SAMP>hurd_file_name_lookup</SAMP></A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"><PRE>
+mach_port_t identity;
+mach_port_t pwserver;
+kern_return_t err;
+
+pwserver = hurd_file_name_lookup
+                ("/servers/password");
+
+err = password_check_user (pwserver,
+                           0 /* root */, "supass",
+                           &identity);
+</PRE></TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+As a concrete example, the special filename
+<SAMP>/servers/password</SAMP> can be used to request a port to the
+Hurd password server, which is responsible to check user provided
+passwords.
+<P>
+(explanation of the example)
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCpat" NAME="pat">Pathname resolution example</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Task: Lookup /mnt/readme.txt where /mnt has a mounted filesystem.
+<UL>
+  <LI>The C library asks the root filesystem server about
+  <SAMP>/mnt/readme.txt</SAMP>.</LI>
+  <LI>The root filesystem returns a port to the mnt filesystem server
+  (matching <SAMP>/mnt</SAMP>) and the retry name
+  <SAMP>/readme.txt</SAMP>.</LI>
+  <LI>The C library asks the mnt filesystem server about
+  <SAMP>/readme.txt</SAMP>.</LI>
+  <LI>The mnt filesystem server returns a port to itself and records
+  that this port refers to the regular file
+  <SAMP>/readme.txt</SAMP>.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+The C library itself does not have a full list of all available
+servers.  Instead pathname resolution is used to traverse through a
+tree of servers.  In fact, filesystems themselves are implemented by
+servers (let us ignore the chicken and egg problem here).  So all the
+C library can do is to ask the root filesystem server about the
+filename provided by the user (assuming that the user wants to resolve
+an absolute path), using the <SAMP>dir_lookup</SAMP> RPC.  If the
+filename refers to a regular file or directory on the filesystem, the
+root filesystem server just returns a port to itself and records that
+this port corresponds to the file or directory in question.  But if a
+prefix of the full path matches the path of a server the root
+filesystem knows about, it returns to the C library a port to this
+server and the remaining part of the pathname that couldn't be
+resolved.  The C library than has to retry and query the other server
+about the remaining path component.  Eventually, the C library will
+either know that the remaining path can't be resolved by the last
+server in the list, or get a valid port to the server in question.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCmap" NAME="map">Mapping the POSIX Interface</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="10">
+<TR>
+<TH>Filedescriptor</TH>
+<TH>Port to server providing the file</TH>
+</TR><TR>
+<TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"><SAMP>fd = open(name,...)</SAMP></TD>
+<TD VALIGN="TOP"
+ALIGN="LEFT"><SAMP>dir_lookup(..,name,..,&amp;port)</SAMP><BR>
+[pathname resolution]</TD>
+</TR><TR>
+<TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"><SAMP>read(fd, ...)</SAMP></TD>
+<TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"><SAMP>io_read(port, ...)</SAMP></TD>
+</TR><TR>
+<TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"><SAMP>write(fd, ...)</SAMP></TD>
+<TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"><SAMP>io_write(port, ...)</SAMP></TD>
+</TR><TR>
+<TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"><SAMP>fstat(fd, ...)</SAMP></TD>
+<TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"><SAMP>io_stat(port, ...)</SAMP></TD>
+</TR><TR>
+<TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">...</TD><TD></TD>
+</TR>
+</TABLE>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+It should by now be obvious that the port returned by the server can
+be used to query the files status, content and other information from
+the server, if good remote procedure calls to do that are defined and
+implemented by it.  This is exactly what happens.  Whenever a file is
+opened using the C libraries <SAMP>open()</SAMP> call, the C library
+uses the above pathname resolution to get a port to a server providing
+the file.  Then it wraps a file descriptor around it.  So in the Hurd,
+for every open file descriptor there is a port to a server providing
+this file.  Many other C library calls like <SAMP>read()</SAMP> and
+<SAMP>write()</SAMP> just call a corresponding RPC using the port
+associated with the file descriptor.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCfilser" NAME="filser">File System Servers</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<UL>
+  <LI>Provide file and directory services for ports (and more).</LI>
+  <LI>These ports are returned by a directory lookup.</LI>
+  <LI>Translate filesystem accesses through their root path (hence the
+  name translator).</LI>
+  <LI>The C library maps the POSIX file and directory interface (and
+  more) to RPCs to the filesystem servers ports, but also does work on
+  its own.</LI>
+  <LI>Any user can install file system servers on inodes they own.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+So we don't have a single phone book listing all servers, but rather a
+tree of servers keeping track of each other.  That's really like
+calling your friend and asking for the phone number of the blond girl
+at the party yesterday.  He might refer you to a friend who hopefully
+knows more about it. Then you have to retry.
+<P>
+This mechanism has huge advantages over a single nameserver.  First,
+note that standard unix permissions on directories can be used to
+restrict access to a server (this requires that the filesystems
+providing those directories behave).  You just have to set the
+permissions of a parent directory accordingly and provide no other way
+to get a server port.
+<P>
+But there are much deeper implications.  Most of all, a pathname never
+directly refers to a file, it refers to a port of a server.  That
+means that providing a regular file with static data is just one of
+the many options the server has to service requests on the file port.
+A server can also create the data dynamically.  For example, a server
+associated with <SAMP>/dev/random</SAMP> can provide new random data
+on every <SAMP>io_read()</SAMP> on the port to it.  A server
+associated with <SAMP>/dev/fortune</SAMP> can provide a new fortune
+cookie on every <SAMP>open()</SAMP>.
+<P>
+While a regular filesystem server will just serve the data as stored
+in a filesystem on disk, there are servers providing purely virtual
+information, or a mixture of both.  It is up to the server to behave
+and provide consistent and useful data on each remote procedure call.
+If it does not, the results may not match the expectations of the user
+and confuse him.
+<P>
+A footnote from the Hurd info manual:
+<BLOCKQUOTE>
+(1) You are lost in a maze of twisty little filesystems, all
+alike....
+</BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>
+Because a server installed in the filesystem namespace translates all
+filesystem operations that go through its root path, such a server is
+also called "active translator".  You can install translators using
+the settrans command with the <SAMP>-a</SAMP> option.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCact" NAME="act">Active vs Passive</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Active Translators:
+<UL>
+  <LI>"<SAMP>settrans -a /cdrom /hurd/isofs /dev/hd2</SAMP>"</LI>
+  <LI>Are running filesystem servers.</LI>
+  <LI>Are attached to the root node they translate.</LI>
+  <LI>Run as a normal process.</LI>
+  <LI>Go away with every reboot, or even time out.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+Many translator settings remain constant for a long time.  It would be
+very lame to always repeat the same couple of dozens settrans calls
+manually or at boot time.  So the Hurd provides a filesystem extension
+that allows to store translator settings inside the filesystem and let
+the filesystem servers do the work to start those servers on demand.
+Such translator settings are called "passive translators".  A passive
+translator is really just a command line string stored in an inode of
+the filesystem.  If during a pathname resolution a server encounters
+such a passive translator, and no active translator does exist already
+(for this node), it will use this string to start up a new translator
+for this inode, and then let the C library continue with the path
+resolution as described above.  Passive translators are installed with
+settrans using the <SAMP>-p</SAMP> option (which is already the
+default).
+
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Passive Translators:
+<UL>
+  <LI>"<SAMP>settrans /mnt /hurd/ext2fs /dev/hd1s1</SAMP>"</LI>
+  <LI>Are stored as command strings into an inode.</LI>
+  <LI>Are used to start a new active translator if there isn't
+  one.</LI>
+  <LI>Startup is transparent to the user.</LI>
+  <LI>Startup happens the first time the server is needed.</LI>
+  <LI>Are permanent across reboots (like file data).</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+So passive translators also serve as a sort of automounting feature,
+because no manual interaction is required.  The server start up is
+deferred until the service is need, and it is transparent to the user.
+<P>
+When starting up a passive translator, it will run as a normal process
+with the same user and group id as those of the underlying inode.  Any
+user is allowed to install passive and active translators on inodes
+that he owns.  This way the user can install new servers into the
+global namespace (for example, in his home or tmp directory) and thus
+extend the functionality of the system (recall that servers can
+implement other remote procedure calls beside those used for files and
+directories).  A careful design of the trusted system servers makes
+sure that no permissions leak out.
+<P>
+In addition, users can provide their own implementations of some of
+the system servers instead the system default.  For example, they can
+use their own exec server to start processes.  The user specific exec
+server could for example start java programs transparently (without
+invoking the interpreter manually).  This is done by setting the
+environment variable <SAMP>EXECSERVERS</SAMP>.  The systems default
+exec server will evaluate this environment variable and forward the
+RPC to each of the servers listed in turn, until some server accepts
+it and takes over.  The system default exec server will only do this
+if there are no security implications.  (XXX There are other ways to
+start new programs than by using the system exec server.  Those are
+still available.)
+<P>
+Let's take a closer look at some of the Hurd servers.  It was already
+mentioned that only few system servers are mandatory for users.  To
+establish your identity within the Hurd system, you have to
+communicate with the trusted systems authentication server
+<SAMP>auth</SAMP>.  To put the system administrator into control over
+the system components, the process server does some global
+bookkeeping.
+<P>
+But even these servers can be ignored.  However, registration with the
+authentication server is the only way to establish your identity
+towards other system servers.  Likewise, only tasks registered as
+processes with the process server can make use of its services.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCaut" NAME="aut">Authentication</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+A user identity is just a port to an authserver. The auth server
+stores four set of ids for it:
+<UL>
+  <LI>effective user ids</LI>
+  <LI>effective group ids</LI>
+  <LI>available user ids</LI>
+  <LI>available group ids</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Basic properties:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Any of these can be empty.</LI>
+  <LI>A 0 among the user ids identifies the superuser.</LI>
+  <LI>Effective ids are used to check if the user has the
+  permission.</LI>
+  <LI>Available ids can be turned into effective ids on user
+  request.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+The Hurd auth server is used to establish the identity of a user for a
+server.  Such an identity (which is just a port to the auth server)
+consists of a set of effective user ids, a set of effective group ids,
+a set of available user ids and a set of available group ids.  Any of
+these sets can be empty.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCope" NAME="ope">Operations on authentication ports</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+The auth server provides the following operations on ports:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Merge the ids of two ports into a new one.</LI>
+  <LI>Return a new port containing a subset of the ids in a port.</LI>
+  <LI>Create a new port with arbitrary ids (superuser only).</LI>
+  <LI>Establish a trusted connection between users and servers.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+If you have two identities, you can merge them and request an identity
+consisting of the unions of the sets from the auth server.  You can
+also create a new identity consisting only of subsets of an identity
+you already have.  What you can't do is extending your sets, unless
+you are the superuser which is denoted by having the user id 0.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCest" NAME="est">Establishing trusted connections</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<UL>
+  <LI>User provides a rendezvous port to the server (with
+  <SAMP>io_reauthenticate</SAMP>).</LI>
+  <LI>User calls <SAMP>auth_user_authenticate</SAMP> on the
+  authentication port (his identity), passing the rendezvous port.</LI>
+  <LI>Server calls <SAMP>auth_server_authenticate</SAMP> on its
+  authentication port (to a trusted auth server), passing the
+  rendezvous port and the server port.</LI> 
+  <LI>If both authentication servers are the same, it can match the
+  rendezvous ports and return the server port to the user and the user
+  ids to the server.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+Finally, the auth server can establish the identity of a user for a
+server.  This is done by exchanging a server port and a user identity
+if both match the same rendezvous port.  The server port will be
+returned to the user, while the server is informed about the id sets
+of the user.  The server can then serve or reject subsequent RPCs by
+the user on the server port, based on the identity it received from
+the auth server.
+<P>
+Anyone can write a server conforming to the auth protocol, but of
+course all system servers use a trusted system auth server to
+establish the identity of a user.  If the user is not using the system
+auth server, matching the rendezvous port will fail and no server port
+will be returned to the user.  Because this practically requires all
+programs to use the same auth server, the system auth server is
+minimal in every respect, and additional functionality is moved
+elsewhere, so user freedom is not unnecessarily restricted.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCpas" NAME="pas">Password Server</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+The password server <SAMP>/servers/password</SAMP> runs as root and
+returns a new authentication port in exchange for a unix password.
+<P>
+The ids corresponding to the authentication port match the unix user
+and group ids.
+<P>
+Support for shadow passwords is implemented here.
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+The password server sits at <SAMP>/servers/password</SAMP> and runs as
+root.  It can hand out ports to the auth server in exchange for a unix
+password, matching it against the password or shadow file.  Several
+utilities make use of this server, so they don't need to be setuid
+root.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCpro" NAME="pro">Process Server</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+The superuser must remain control over user tasks, so:
+<UL>
+  <LI>All mach tasks are associated with a PID in the system default
+  proc server.</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Optionally, user tasks can store:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Their environment variables.</LI>
+  <LI>Their argument vector.</LI>
+  <LI>A port, which others can request based on the PID (like a
+  nameserver).</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Also implemented in the proc server:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Sessions and process groups.</LI>
+  <LI>Global configuration not in Mach, like hostname, hostid, system
+  version.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+The process server is responsible for some global bookkeeping.  As
+such it has to be trusted and is not replaceable by the user.
+However, a user is not required to use any of its service.  In that
+case the user will not be able to take advantage of the POSIXish
+appearance of the Hurd.
+<P>
+The Mach Tasks are not as heavy as POSIX processes.  For example,
+there is no concept of process groups or sessions in Mach.  The proc
+server fills in the gap.  It provides a PID for all Mach tasks, and
+also stores the argument line, environment variables and other
+information about a process (if the mach tasks provide them, which is
+usually the case if you start a process with the default
+<SAMP>fork()</SAMP>/<SAMP>exec()</SAMP>).  A process can also register
+a message port with the proc server, which can then be requested by
+anyone.  So the proc server also functions as a nameserver using the
+process id as the name.
+<P>
+The proc server also stores some other miscellaneous information not
+provided by Mach, like the hostname, hostid and system version.
+Finally, it provides facilities to group processes and their ports
+together, as well as to convert between pids, process server ports and
+mach task ports.
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+User tasks not registering themselve with proc only have a PID assigned.
+<P>
+Users can run their own proc server in addition to the system default,
+at least for those parts of the interface that don't require superuser
+privileges.
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+Although the system default proc server can't be avoided (all Mach
+tasks spawned by users will get a pid assigned, so the system
+administrator can control them), users can run their own additional
+process servers if they want, implementing the features not requiring
+superuser privileges.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCfilsys" NAME="filsys">Filesystems</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Store based filesystems
+<UL>
+  <LI><SAMP>ext2fs</SAMP></LI>
+  <LI><SAMP>ufs</SAMP></LI>
+  <LI><SAMP>isofs</SAMP> (iso9660, RockRidge, GNU extensions)</LI>
+  <LI><SAMP>fatfs</SAMP> (under development)</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Network file systems
+<UL>
+  <LI><SAMP>nfs</SAMP></LI>
+  <LI><SAMP>ftpfs</SAMP></LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Miscellaneous
+<UL>
+  <LI><SAMP>hostmux</SAMP></LI>
+  <LI><SAMP>usermux</SAMP></LI>
+  <LI><SAMP>tmpfs</SAMP> (under development)</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+We already talked about translators and the file system service they
+provide.  Currently, we have translators for the ext2, ufs and iso9660
+filesystems.  We also have an nfs client and an ftp filesystem.
+Especially the latter is intriguing, as it provides transparent access
+to ftp servers in the filesystem.  Programs can start to move away
+from implementing a plethora of network protocols, as the files are
+directly available in the filesystem through the standard POSIX file
+interface.
+
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCdev" NAME="dev">Developing the Hurd</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Over a dozen libraries support the development of new servers.
+<P>
+For special server types highly specialized
+libraries require only the implementation of a
+number of callback functions.
+<UL>
+  <LI>Use <SAMP>libdiskfs</SAMP> for store based filesystems.</LI>
+  <LI>Use <SAMP>libnetfs</SAMP> for network filesystems, also for
+  virtual filesystems.</LI>
+  <LI>Use <SAMP>libtrivfs</SAMP> for simple filesystems providing only
+  a single file or directory.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+The Hurd server protocols are complex enough to allow for the
+implementation of a POSIX compatible system with GNU extensions.
+However, a lot of code can be shared by all or at least similar
+servers. For example, all storage based filesystems need to be able to
+read and write to a store medium splitted in blocks. The Hurd comes
+with several libraries which make it easy to implement new servers.
+Also, there are already a lot of examples of different server types in
+the Hurd.  This makes writing a new server easier.
+<P>
+<SAMP>libdiskfs</SAMP> is a library that supports writing store based
+filesystems like ext2fs or ufs. It is not very useful for filesystems
+which are purely virtual, like <SAMP>/proc</SAMP> or files in
+<SAMP>/dev</SAMP>.
+<P>
+<SAMP>libnetfs</SAMP> is intended for filesystems which provide a rich
+directory hierarchy, but don't use a backing store (for example ftpfs,
+nfs).
+<P>
+<SAMP>libtrivfs</SAMP> is intended for filesystems which just provide
+a single inode or directory. Most servers which are not intended to
+provide a filesystem but other services (like
+<SAMP>/servers/password</SAMP>) use it to provide a dummy file, so
+that file operations on the servers node will not return errors. But
+it can also be used to provide meaningful data in a single file, like
+a device store or a character device.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCsto" NAME="sto">Store Abstraction</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Another very useful library is libstore, which is used by all store
+based filesystems.  It provides a store media abstraction.  A store
+consists of a store class and a name (which itself can sometimes
+contain stores).
+<P>
+Primitive store classes:
+<UL>
+  <LI>device store like device:hd2, device:hd0s1, device:fd0</LI>
+  <LI>file store like file:/tmp/disk_image</LI>
+  <LI>task store like task:PID</LI>
+  <LI>zero store like zero:4m (like /dev/zero, of size 4 MB)</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Composed store classes:
+<UL>
+  <LI>copy store like copy:zero:4m</LI>
+  <LI>gunzip/bunzip2 store like gunzip:device:fd0</LI>
+  <LI>concat store like concat:device:hd0s2:device:hd1s5</LI>
+  <LI>ileave store (RAID-0(2))</LI>
+  <LI>remap store like remap:10+20,50+:file:/tmp/blocks</LI>
+  <LI>...</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Wanted: A similar abstraction for streams (based on channels), which
+can be used by network and character device servers.
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+<SAMP>libstore</SAMP> provides a store abstraction, which is used by
+all store based filesystems. The store is determined by a type and a
+name, but some store types modify another store rather than providing
+a new store, and thus stores can be stacked. For example, the device
+store type expects a Mach device, but the remap store expects a list
+of blocks to pick from another store, like remap:1+:device:hd2, which
+would pick all blocks from hd2 but the first one, which skipped.
+Because this functionality is provided in a library, all libstore
+using filesystems support many different store kinds, and adding a new
+store type is enough to make all store based filesystems support it.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCdeb" NAME="deb">Debian GNU/Hurd</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Goal:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Provide a binary distribution of the Hurd that is easy to
+  install.</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Constraints:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Use the same source packages as Debian GNU/Linux.</LI>
+  <LI>Use the same infrastructure:
+  <UL>
+    <LI>Policy</LI>
+    <LI>Archive</LI>
+    <LI>Bug tracking system</LI>
+    <LI>Release process</LI>
+  </UL></LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Side Goal:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Prepare Debian for the future:
+  <UL>
+    <LI>More flexibility in the base system</LI>
+    <LI>Identify dependencies on the Linux kernel</LI>
+  </UL></LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+The Debian distribution of the GNU&nbsp;Hurd that I started in 1998 is
+supposed to become a complete binary distribution of the Hurd that is
+easy to install.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCstabin" NAME="stabin">Status of the Debian GNU/Hurd binary archive</A></H4>
+<P>
+See
+<A HREF="http://buildd.debian.org/stats/graph.png">http://buildd.debian.org/stats/graph.png</A>
+for the most current version of the statistic.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCstainf" NAME="stainf">Status of the Debian infrastructure</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Plus:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Source packages can identify build and host OS using
+  dpkg-architecture.</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Minus:
+<UL>
+  <LI>The binary architecture field is insufficient.</LI>
+  <LI>The BTS has no architecture tag.</LI>
+  <LI>The policy/FHS need (small) Hurd specific extensions.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+While good compatibiity can be achieved at the source level,
+the binary packages can not always express their relationship
+to the available architectures sufficiently.
+<P>
+For example, the Linux version of makedev is binary-all, where
+a binary-all-linux relationship would be more appropriate.
+<P>
+More work has to be done here to fix the tools.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCstaarc" NAME="staarc">Status of the Debian Source archive</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<UL>
+  <LI>Most packages just work.</LI>
+  <LI>Maintainers are usually responsive and cooperative.</LI>
+  <LI>Turtle, the autobuilder, crunches through the whole list right
+  now.</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Common pitfalls are POSIX incompatibilities:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Upstream:
+  <UL>
+    <LI>Unconditional use of <SAMP>PATH_MAX</SAMP>
+    (<SAMP>MAXPATHLEN</SAMP>), <SAMP>MAXHOSTNAMELEN</SAMP>.</LI>
+    <LI>Unguarded use of Linux kernel features.</LI>
+    <LI>Use of legacy interfaces (<SAMP>sys_errlist</SAMP>,
+    <SAMP>termio</SAMP>).</LI>
+  </UL></LI>
+  <LI>Debian:
+  <UL>
+    <LI>Unguarded activation of extensions available with Linux.</LI>
+    <LI>Low quality patches.</LI>
+    <LI>Assuming GNU/Linux in package scripts.</LI>
+  </UL></LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+Most packages are POSIX compatible and can be compiled without
+changes on the Hurd.  The maintainers of the Debian source packages
+are usually very kind, responsiver and helpful.
+<P>
+The Turtle autobuilder software (<A
+HREF="http://turtle.sourceforge.net" >http://turtle.sourceforge.net</A>)
+builds the Debian packages on the Hurd automatically.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCdebide" NAME="debide">Debian GNU/Hurd: Good idea, bad idea?</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Upstream benefits:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Software packages become more portable.</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+Debian benefits:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Debian becomes more portable.</LI>
+  <LI>Maintainers learn about portability and other systems.</LI>
+  <LI>Debian gets a lot of public recognition.</LI>
+</UL>
+<P>
+GNU/Hurd benefits:
+<UL>
+  <LI>Large software base.</LI>
+  <LI>Great infrastructure.</LI>
+  <LI>Nice community to partner with.</LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+The sheet lists the advantages of all groups involved.
+
+<H4><A HREF="#TOCend" NAME="end">End</A></H4>
+<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="5" WIDTH="100%"><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT">
+<P>
+Join us at
+<UL>
+  <LI><A HREF="http://hurd.gnu.org/" >http://hurd.gnu.org/</A></LI>
+  <LI><A HREF="http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd"
+  >http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd</A></LI>
+  <LI><A HREF="http://www.hurdfr.org"
+  >http://www.hurdfr.org</A></LI>
+</UL>
+</TD></TR></TABLE>
+<P>
+List of contacts.
diff --git a/hurd/documentation/translators.html b/hurd/documentation/translators.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4e47a9c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/documentation/translators.html
@@ -0,0 +1,236 @@
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation,
+Inc."]]
+
+[[meta license="Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
+permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved."]]
+
+[[meta title="Translators"]]
+
+By Marcus Brinkmann.
+
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#concept" name="TOC_concept">Concept</a></li>
+<li><a href="#examples" name="TOC_examples">Examples</a></li>
+<li><a href="#actpas" name="TOC_actpas">Passive Translators, Active Translators</a></li>
+<li><a href="#manage" name="TOC_manage">Managing Translators</a></li>
+</ul>
+<h3><a href="#TOC_concept" name="concept">Concept</a></h3>
+<p>
+Before we take a closer look at translators, let us consider regular
+filesystems. A filesystem is store for a hierarchical tree of directories
+and files. You access directories and files by a special character string,
+the path. Furthermore, there are symbolic links to refer to one file at
+several places in the tree, there are hard links to give one and the same
+file several names. There are also special device files for communication
+with the hardware device drivers of the kernel, and there are mount points
+to include other stores in the directory tree. Then there are obscure
+objects like fifos and hard links.</p>
+<p>
+Although these objects are very different, they share some common
+properties, for example, they have all an owner and a group associated with
+them as well as access rights (permissions). This information is written in
+inodes. This is a actually a further commonality: Every object has exactly
+one inode associated with it (hard links are somewhat special as they share
+one and the same inode). Sometimes, the inode has further information
+stored in it. For example, the inode can contain the target of a symbolic
+link.</p>
+<p>
+However, these commonalities are usually not exploited in the
+implementations, despite the common programming interface to them. All
+inodes can be accessed through the standard POSIX calls, for example
+<code>read()</code> and <code>write()</code>. For example, to add a new
+object type (for example a new link type) to a common monolithic unix
+kernel, you would need to modify the code for each filesystem
+seperately.</p>
+<p>
+In the Hurd, things work differently. Although in the Hurd a special
+filesystem server can exploit special properties of standard object types
+like links (in the ext2 filesystem with fast links, for example), it has a
+general interface to add such features without modifying existing code.</p>
+<p>
+The trick is to allow a program to be inserted between the actual content of
+a file and the user accessing this file. Such a program is called a
+translator, because it is able to process the incoming requests in many
+different ways. In other words, a translator is a Hurd server which provides
+the basic filesystem interface.</p>
+<p>
+Translators have very interesting properties. From the kernels point of
+view, they are just another user process. This means, translators can be run
+by any user. You don't need root priviligies to install or modify a
+translator, you only need the access rights for the underlying inode the
+translator is attached to. Many translators don't require an actual file to
+operate, they can provide information by their own means. This is why
+the information about translators is stored in the inode.</p>
+<p>
+Translators are responsible to serve all file system operations that involve
+the inode they are attached to. Because they are not restricted to the usual
+set of objects (device file, link etc), they are free to return anything
+that makes sense to the programmer. One could imagine a translator that
+behaves like a directory when accessed by <code>cd</code> or
+<code>ls</code> and at the same time behaves like a file when accessed by
+<code>cat</code>.</p>
+<h3><a href="#TOC_examples" name="examples">Examples</a></h3>
+<h4>Mount Points</h4>
+<p>
+A mount point can be seen as an inode that has a special translator attached
+to it. Its purpose would be to translate filesystem operations on the mount
+point in filesystem operations on another store, let's say, another
+partition.</p>
+<p>
+Indeed, this is how filesystems are implemented under the Hurd. A
+filesystem is a translator. This translator takes a store as its argument,
+and is able to serve all filesystem operations transparently.</p>
+<h4>Device Files</h4>
+<p>
+There are many different device files, and in systems with a monolithical
+kernel, they are all provided by the kernel itself. In the Hurd, all device
+files are provided by translators. One translator can provide support for
+many similar device files, for example all hard disk partitions. This way,
+the number of actual translators needed is quite small. However, note that
+for each device file accessed, a seperate translator task is started.
+Because the Hurd is heavily multi threaded, this is very cheap.</p>
+<p>
+When hardware is involved, a translator usually starts to communicate with
+the kernel to get the data from the hardware. However, if no hardware access
+is necessary, the kernel does not need to be involved. For example,
+<code>/dev/zero</code> does not require hardware access, and can therefore
+be implemented completely in user space.</p>
+<h4>Symbolic Links</h4>
+<p>
+A symbolic link can be seen as a translator. Accesing the symbolic link
+would start up the translator, which would forward the request to the
+filesystem that contains the file the link points to.</p>
+<p>
+However, for better performance, filesystems that have native support
+for symbolic links can take advantage of this feature and implement
+symbolic links differently. Internally, accessing a symbolic link would not
+start a new translator process. However, to the user, it would still look
+as if a passive translator is involved (see below for an explanation what a
+passsive translator is).</p>
+<p>
+Because the Hurd ships with a symlink translator, any filesystem server that
+provides support for translators automatically has support for symlinks (and
+firmlinks, and device files etc)! This means, you can get a working
+filesystem very fast, and add native support for symlinks and other features
+later.</p>
+<h3><a href="#TOC_actpas" name="actpas">Passive Translators, Active Translators</a></h3>
+<p>
+There are two types of translators, passive and active. They are really
+completely different things, so don't mix them up, but they have a close
+relation to each other.</p>
+<h4>Active Translators</h4>
+<p>
+An active translator is a running translator process, as introduced above.
+You can set and remove active translators using the
+<code>settrans -a</code></a>
+command. The <code>-a</code> option is necessary to tell
+<code>settrans</code> that you want to modify the active translator.</p>
+<p>
+The <code>settrans</code> command takes three kind of arguments. First, you
+can set options for the <code>settrans</code> command itself, like
+<code>-a</code> to modify the active translator. Then you set the inode you
+want to modify. Remember that a translator is always associated with an
+inode in the directory hierarchy. You can only modify one inode at a time.
+If you do not specify any more arguments, <code>settrans</code> will try to
+remove an existing translator. How hard it tries depends on the force
+options you specify (if the translator is in use by any process, you will
+get "device or resource busy" error message unless you force it to go away).</p>
+<p>
+But if you specify further arguments, it will be interpreted as a command
+line to run the translator. This means, the next argument is the filename of
+the translator executable. Further arguments are options to the translator,
+and not to the <code>settrans</code> command.</p>
+<p>
+For example, to mount an ext2fs partition, you can run
+<code>settrans -a -c /mnt /hurd/ext2fs /dev/hd2s5</code>. The
+<code>-c</code> option will create the mount point for you if it doesn't
+exist already. This does not need to be a directory, by the way. To unmount,
+you would try <code>settrans -a /mnt</code>.</p>
+<h4>Passive Translators</h4>
+<p>
+A passive translator is set and modified with the same syntax as the active
+translator (just leave away the <code>-a</code>, so everything said above is
+true for passive translators, too. However, there is a difference: passive
+translators are not yet started.</p>
+<p>
+This makes sense, because this is what you usually want. You don't want the
+partition mounted unless you really access files on this partition. You
+don't want to bring up the network unless there is some traffic and so
+on.</p>
+<p>
+Instead, the first time the passive translator is accessed, it is
+automatically read out of the inode and an active translator is started on
+top of it using the command line that was stored in the inode. This is
+similar to the Linux automounter functionality. However, it does not come as
+an additional bonus that you have to set up manually, but an integral part of
+the system. So, setting passive translators defers starting the translator
+task until you really need it. By the way, if the active translator dies for
+some reason, the next time the inode is accessed the translator is
+restarted.</p>
+<p>
+There is a further difference: active translators can die or get lost. As
+soon as the active translator process is killed (for example, because you
+reboot the machine) it is lost forever. Passive translators are not transient
+and stay in the inode during reboots until you modify them with the
+<code>settrans</code> program or delete the inodes they are attached to.
+This means, you don't need to maintain a configuration file with your mount
+points.</p>
+<p>
+One last point: Even if you have set a passive translator, you can still
+set a different active translator. Only if the translator is automatically
+started because there was no active translator the time the inode was
+accessed the passive translator is considered.</p>
+<h3><a href="#TOC_manage" name="manage">Managing Translators</a></h3>
+<p>
+As mentioned above, you can use
+<code>settrans</code></a>
+to set and alter passive and active translators. There are a lot of options
+to change the behaviour of <code>settrans</code> in case something goes
+wrong, and to conditionalize its action. Here are some common usages:</p>
+<ul><li><code>settrans -c /mnt /hurd/ext2fs /dev/hd2s5</code> mounts a
+partition, the translator will stay across reboots.</li>
+<li><code>settrans -a /mnt /hurd/ext2fs ~/dummy.fs</code> mounts a
+filesystem inside a data file, the translator will go away if it dies.</li>
+<li><code>settrans -fg /nfs-data</code> forces a translator to go away.</li>
+</ul>
+<p>
+You can use the <code>showtrans</code></a>
+command to see if a translator is attached to an inode. This will only show
+you the passive translator though.</p>
+<p>
+You can change the options of an active (filesystem) translator with
+<code>fsysopts</code> without actually restarting it. This is very
+convenient. For example, you can do what is called "remounting a
+partition read-only" under Linux simply by running <code>fsysopts
+/mntpoint --readonly</code>. The running active translator
+will change its behaviour according to your request if possible.
+<code>fsysopts /mntpoint</code> without a parameter shows you the current
+settings.</p>
+<h4>Examples</h4>
+<p>
+I recommend that you start by reading the <code>/bin/mount</code> command,
+it is only a small script. Because setting filesystem translators is
+similar to mounting partitions, you can easily grasp the concept this way.
+Make a file system image with <code>dd if=/dev/zero of=dummy.fs bs=1024k
+count=8; mke2fs dummy.fs</code> and "mount" it with <code>settrans -c dummy
+/hurd/ext2fs `pwd`/dummy.fs</code>. Note that the translator is not started
+yet, no new <code>ext2fs</code> process is running (verify with <code>ps
+Aux</code>). Check that everything is correct using <code>showtrans</code></p>
+<p>
+Now type <code>ls dummy</code> and you will notice the short delay that
+occurs while the translator is started. After that, there will be no more
+delays accessing dummy. Under Linux, one would say that you automounted a
+loop file system. Check with <code>ps Aux</code> that there is an <code>ext2fs
+dummy</code> process up and running now. Now put some files into the new
+directory. Try to make the filesystem read-only with <code>fsysopts</code>.
+Note how further write attempts fail now. Try to kill the active translator
+with <code>settrans -g</code>.</p>
+<p>
+You should have some understanding of what is going on now. Now remember
+that this was only <em>one</em> special server, the Hurd ext2fs server.
+There are many more server in the <code>hurd</code> directory. Some of them
+are for filesystems. Some are needed for file system features like links.
+Some are needed for device files. Some are useful for networking. Imagine
+"mounting" an FTP Server with <code>settrans</code> and downloading files
+simply with the standard <code>cp</code> command. Or editing your web sites
+with <code>emacs /ftp/homepage.my.server.org/index.html</code>!</p>
diff --git a/hurd/faq/old_hurd_faq.txt b/hurd/faq/old_hurd_faq.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a94a28f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/faq/old_hurd_faq.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,289 @@
+The Unofficial (and no longer maintained) GNU&nbsp;Hurd FAQ, Version 0.13
+
+Contributions by:
+
+Michael I. Bushnell <mib@gnu.org>
+Len Tower <tower@gnu.org>
+Trent Fisher <trent@gnurd.uu.pdx.edu>
+jlr@usoft.spb.su
+Remy Card <Remy.Card@masi.ibp.fr>
+Louis-Dominique Dubeau <hallu@info.polymtl.ca>
+
+Original Document by: Derek Upham <upham@cs.ubc.ca>
+
+
+==============================
+
+Contents:
+
+Q0.  Where can I get the Unofficial GNU&nbsp;Hurd FAQ?
+Q2.  Where can I get a copy?
+Q3.  Why bother writing a new OS when we have Linux and 386/BSD?
+Q4.  What's all this about Mach 3.0 (and Mach 4.0)?
+Q5.  Where can I find more information?
+Q6.  What's a proper machine?
+Q7.  What sort of machines will run Hurd in the future?
+Q8.  What is the current development status?
+Q9.  What sort of system would we have if the Hurd was bootable today?
+
+==============================
+
+Q0.  Where can I get the Unofficial GNU&nbsp;Hurd FAQ?
+
+The Unofficial Hurd FAQ (what you are reading now) is occasionally
+posted to the USENET newsgroup, gnu.misc.discuss.  It is also
+available from
+
+   http://www.enci.ucalgary.ca/~gord/hurd/hurd-faq.txt
+
+If you don't have WWW access, you may send mail to me, Gordon
+Matzigkeit <gord@enci.ucalgary.ca> with a subject line that reads:
+
+   Subject: send hurd-faq
+
+You should receive a PGP-signed copy of the current version of this
+document in a matter of minutes.
+
+
+Q2.  Where can I get a copy?
+
+To put it simply, you can't.  It is still under development (by
+Michael Bushnell, Roland McGrath and Miles Bader).  It is almost, but
+not quite, at the point where you can do real work on it.  Keep your
+fingers crossed.
+
+Some people have actually bootstrapped it, but the work is not easy,
+and the current snapshot won't work until a new multiserver boot
+mechanism is made.
+
+If you *really* want to try it, beware that it is still pre-alpha
+code, and that it will likely crash on you.  See Trent Fisher's Hurd
+pages (under question 5) for the latest information.
+
+
+Q3.  Why bother writing a new OS when we have Linux and 386/BSD?
+
+For one thing, Linux and BSD don't scale well.  Hardware designers are
+shifting more and more toward multiprocessor machines for performance,
+and standard Unix kernels do not provide much multiprocessor support.
+The Hurd, on the other hand, runs on top of the Mach 3.0 micro-kernel
+[[1]] from CMU.  Mach was designed precisely for multiprocessing
+machines, so its portability should carry over nicely to the Hurd.
+
+In addition, the Hurd will be considerably more flexible and robust
+than generic Unix.  Wherever possible, Unix kernel features have been
+moved into unprivileged space.  Once there, anyone who desires can
+develop custom replacements for them.  Users will be able to write and
+use their own file systems, their own `exec' servers, or their own
+network protocols if they like, all without disturbing other users.
+
+The Linux kernel has now been modified to allow user-level file
+systems, so there is proof that people will actually use features such
+as these.  It will be much easier to do under the Hurd, however,
+because the Hurd is almost entirely run in user space and because the
+various servers are designed for this sort of modification.
+
+
+Q4.  What's all this about Mach 3.0 (and Mach 4.0)?
+
+As mentioned above, Mach is a micro-kernel, written at Carnegie Mellon
+University.  A more descriptive term might be a greatest-common-factor
+kernel, since it provides facilities common to all ``real'' operating
+systems, such as memory management, interprocess communication,
+processes, and a bunch of other stuff.  Unfortunately, the system
+calls used to access these facilities are only vaguely related to the
+familiar and cherished Unix system calls.  There are no "fork",
+"wait", or "sleep" system-calls, no SIGHUPs, nothing like that.  All
+this makes it rather difficult to, say, port GNU Emacs to a Mach box.
+
+The trick is, of course, to write an emulation library.  Unix programs
+can then use (what they think are) POSIX system calls and facilities
+while they are really using Mach system calls and facilities.
+
+The simplest way of going about this is to take an ordinary Unix
+kernel, open it up, and rip out all the machine-specific guts; any
+time the Unix kernel talks to the machine, replace the code with calls
+to the Mach micro-kernel.  Run this fake kernel on a Mach machine and
+you end up with something that looks and acts just like Unix (even to
+GNU Emacs).  Note that the Unix kernel we have implemented is just one
+Really Big Mach program (called a single-server).
+
+The Hurd, on the other hand, breaks the giant Unix kernel down into
+various Mach programs running as daemons.  Working in concert with
+facilities placed in the C library, these daemons provide all of the
+POSIX system-calls and features; from the outside they look just like
+a standard Unix kernel.  This means that, for practical purposes,
+anything that you can port to Linux will also port to the Hurd.
+
+Of course, if a user wishes to run his own daemons, he can do that as
+well....
+
+Mach 4.0 is an enhanced version of Mach 3.0, put out by the people at
+the University of Utah.  They are working on another free operating
+system, and part of it includes an enhanced, more flexible version of
+Mach.  The Hurd has moved to Mach 4.0, which is good, because it is a
+lot easier to build than 3.0 was.
+
+You can find more information on Mach by browsing the Hurd pages given
+in the next answer, or by looking at the Project Mach and Flux
+homepages at:
+
+Carnegie Mellon University (for Mach versions before 4.0):
+
+   http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/mach/public/www/mach.html
+
+the University of Utah (for Mach 4.0):
+
+   http://www.cs.utah.edu/projects/flux/mach4/html/
+
+
+Q5.  Where can I find more information?
+
+The June 1995 GNU's Bulletin contains the following official
+information:
+
+   The GNU&nbsp;Hurd now runs programs native.  We have implemented both
+   shared libraries using ELF, & the popular `ext2' file system used
+   by Linux.  It can run GCC, `make', Emacs, & most other GNU
+   utilities.  Progress is being made so rapidly that by the time you
+   read this it probably does much more.  It is right on the verge of
+   being self-hosting (able to run on its own well enough to compile
+   its own source code, & be used for its own development).  We have
+   much better device supportm [sic] & some new utilities, including a
+   fancy `ps' & `settrans'.  For a complete system we still have much
+   more work to do, but we will make an alpha release as soon as the
+   network software is finished & shared libraries have been well
+   tested.  We have a mailing list to announce progress; to be added
+   to it, ask `hurd-announce-request@gnu.org'.
+
+The Portland State University CS department (via Trent Fisher)
+maintains a WWW server with various Hurd documents, including Michael
+Bushnell's Hurd paper, all the collected GNU's Bulletins, and various
+announcements posted to "gnu.misc.discuss".  The top-level GNU page is
+
+   http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/gnu.html
+
+and the Hurd page is
+
+   http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/hurd/hurd.html
+
+People in Europe might want to try the GNU WWW server for DESY
+Germany, first:
+
+   http://info.desy.de/gnu/www
+
+This site lacks culled, Hurd-specific information at the moment, but
+it does have the last two GNU's Bulletins plus lots of general
+information.
+
+There is a snapshot of the Hurd development tree on
+"alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu" in the "/gnu" directory.  It is updated as
+significant changes are made, and not guaranteed to run.
+
+You can subscribe to the Hurd announcement list by sending a request
+to "hurd-announce-request@gnu.org".  This is a moderated list
+for distributing Hurd info to ``all and sundry'', and anyone can join.
+In addition, there is a private (invitation-only) list for developers
+to coordinate their efforts.  It's not even worth thinking about
+unless you (a) have a lot of free time on your hands, (b) know Unix
+internals and Mach very well, and (c) have a proper machine.
+
+
+Q6.  What's a proper machine?
+
+A ``proper machine'', at the moment, means an x86 box running Mach 3.0
+(or 4.0), with FreeBSD 2.x, NetBSD 1.x, or Linux.
+
+A single-server OS is no longer required for development because by
+the time the Hurd bootstrap mechanism is finished, the Hurd will
+probably be self-hosting.
+
+Linux, FreeBSD, or NetBSD will only be required to splat the Hurd
+binaries onto a partition of some sort, and to provide a way of
+transferring files to the Hurd until the networking code is ready.
+
+
+Q7.  What sort of machines will run Hurd in the future?
+
+The first thing a prospective Hurd machine needs is a Mach 3.0 port.
+According to the most recent "comp.os.mach" FAQ (which hasn't been
+updated since February 1994), the following chips have redistributable
+Mach micro-kernels and device drivers:
+
+    Intel 80x86         (ISA and PS/2 buses)
+    Motorola 68000      (Sun 3)
+    Motorola 88000      (Omron Luna)
+    DEC Vax
+    DEC Pmax            (DECstation 3100)
+    DEC Alpha
+    MIPS R4000          (DECstation 5000 et al.)
+    IBM RS/6000
+    Apple Macintosh
+
+IBM is planning to run WorkplaceOS (the OS/2 successor) over Mach 3.0
+on the PowerPC chip (closely related to the RS/6000), so the PowerPC
+will likely be added to this list soon.  The University of Utah has
+ported Mach 4.0 to the HP700, but it is not yet stable.
+
+Sun Sparc machines have a redistributable Mach microkernel, but the
+device drivers require a SunOS 4.1.1 source license.
+
+In addition, any prospective Hurd machine needs a port of the GNU C
+library.  Version 1.07.4 of the library can handle the following
+chips:
+
+    Intel 80x86         (BSD, Dynix, Hurd, SCO, SysV)
+    Motorola 68000      (HP BSD, NEWS, Sun 4)
+    MIPS R4000          (Ultrix)
+    Sun Sparc           (Solaris 2, Sun 4)
+    DEC Alpha           (OSF/1, mostly finished)
+
+So if the next Hurd snapshot is self-hosting, we will be able to run
+it (in theory) on Intel 80x86s, Motorola 68000s, MIPS R4000s and DEC
+Alphas.
+
+People who can port the Mach micro-kernel to new architectures are
+encouraged to do so.  People who can port the GNU C library to new
+chips (a much larger group) are also encouraged to do so.  You can
+help out here without knowing anything about Mach or having any
+special machine.  Note that once the GNU C library exists for a new
+chip, for _any_ OS, making a Hurd port later is simple (and making
+ports to other chips becomes easier as well---the effects are
+cumulative).
+
+By current indications, the other hardware requirements (RAM, disk
+space, and the like) will be about the same as those of BSD 4.4.
+
+
+Q8.  What is the current development status?
+
+Please see Trent Fisher's Hurd pages for details.
+
+
+Q9.  What sort of a system would we have if the Hurd was bootable
+today?
+
+Quite likely, if you already use an end-user system like Linux,
+FreeBSD, or NetBSD, you'll be disappointed with the Hurd.  It will
+take some time before the OS hackers really get to work on
+applications and major enhancements.
+
+But, rest assured, Hurd development should proceed very rapidly.
+
+Of course, if you think you can help, or you just enjoy neat stuff,
+then you'll probably like the Hurd.  When you actually understand a
+fraction of what's going on behind the scenes, it's very impressive.
+
+All I'm saying is that I'm not expecting all the Windows '95 users in
+the world to switch to the Hurd right away.  Wait a little while,
+maybe 5-6 years (ample time for GNUStep and Guile to be in use), and
+GNU users everywhere will be very happy that the FSF proceeded with
+the Hurd. :)
+
+
+==============================
+
+Footnotes:
+
+[[1]] Yes, I know that ``micro-kernel'' is about as apt a description
+as ``Reduced Instruction Set Chip'', but we're stuck with it.
diff --git a/hurd/getting_help.mdwn b/hurd/getting_help.mdwn
index 540dc851..c4f80ff9 100644
--- a/hurd/getting_help.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/getting_help.mdwn
@@ -11,16 +11,11 @@ is included in the section entitled
 # Essential Documentation
 
 * [[FAQ]]
-* [[microkernel/mach/gnumach/Hardware_Compatibility_List]]
+* [[microkernel/mach/gnu_mach/Hardware_Compatibility_List]]
 
 # Forums
 
-Please follow these [guidelines](http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html)
-when asking your question.  Namely: spend some time trying
-to solve the problem on your own (e.g., [search the web](http://www.google.com),
-use this wiki, etc.), show us that you did so when you
-ask your question, and provide as many relevant details as possible
-reproducing them as exactly as possible.
+[[inline pages=asking_questions raw=yes feeds=no]]
 
 * [[Mailing_lists]]
 * [[IRC]]
diff --git a/hurd/history.mdwn b/hurd/history.mdwn
index 7ee5df5a..e749136f 100644
--- a/hurd/history.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/history.mdwn
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software
+Foundation, Inc."]]
 
 [[meta license="""[[toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[toggleable
 id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
@@ -8,5 +9,79 @@ Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
 is included in the section entitled
 [[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
-<a href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/l4-hurd/2005-10/msg00718.html" target="_top">History 1997-2003</a></dt>
-<dd> Personal view of Marcus Brinkmann about Hurd development in 1997-2003.
+Richard Stallman (RMS) started GNU in 1983, as a project to create a
+complete free operating system.  In the text of the GNU Manifesto, he
+mentioned that there is a primitive kernel.  In the first GNUsletter,
+Feb. 1986, he says that GNU's kernel is TRIX, which was developed at
+the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
+
+By December of 1986, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) had "started
+working on the changes needed to TRIX" [Gnusletter, Jan. 1987].
+Shortly thereafter, the FSF began "negotiating with Professor Rashid
+of Carnegie-Mellon University about working with them on the
+development of the Mach kernel" [Gnusletter, June, 1987].  The text
+implies that the FSF wanted to use someone else's work, rather than
+have to fix TRIX.
+
+In [Gnusletter, Feb. 1988], RMS was talking about taking Mach and
+putting the Berkeley Sprite filesystem on top of it, "after the parts
+of Berkeley Unix... have been replaced."
+
+Six months later, the FSF is saying that "if we can't get Mach, we'll
+use TRIX or Berkeley's Sprite."  Here, they present Sprite as a
+full-kernel option, rather than just a filesystem.
+
+In January, 1990, they say "we aren't doing any kernel work.  It does
+not make sense for us to start a kernel project now, when we still
+hope to use Mach" [Gnusletter, Jan. 1990].  Nothing significant occurs
+until 1991, when a more detailed plan is announced:
+
+<BLOCKQUOTE>
+We are still interested in a multi-process kernel running on top of
+Mach.  The CMU lawyers are currently deciding if they can release Mach
+with distribution conditions that will enable us to distribute it.  If
+they decide to do so, then we will probably start work.  CMU has
+available under the same terms as Mach a single-server partial Unix
+emulator named Poe; it is rather slow and provides minimal
+functionality.  We would probably begin by extending Poe to provide
+full functionality.  Later we hope to have a modular emulator divided
+into multiple processes.  [Gnusletter, Jan. 1991].
+</BLOCKQUOTE>
+
+RMS explains the relationship between the [[documentation/Hurd_and_Linux]], where he mentions
+that the FSF started developing the Hurd in 1990.  As of [Gnusletter,
+Nov. 1991], the Hurd (running on Mach) is GNU's official kernel.
+
+---
+
+# Announcements
+
+These are all the announcements made over the years. Most of them were
+either sent to the <A HREF="news:gnu.announce">gnu.announce</A> news group or Hurd interest
+mailing lists.
+
+  * [[hurd-flash15]] -- Release 0.2 announcement (complete GNU system)
+  * [[hurd-flash14]] -- Release 0.2 announcement (Hurd)
+  * [[hurd-flash13]] -- Test release announcement (Aug 96)
+  * [[hurd-flash12]] -- Test release status (Jul 96)
+  * [[hurd-flash11]] -- Binary image available, Apr 96
+    This and [NetBSD](http://www.netbsd.org/) boot flopies should be enough to
+    get a working GNU/Hurd system!
+  * [[hurd-flash10]] -- New Snapshot, Apr 96 -- NFS and lots else works!
+  * [[hurd-flash9]] -- News Flash, Nov 95 -- ftp works!
+  * [[hurd-flash8]] -- New Snapshot, Jul 95 -- ext2fs support
+  * [[hurd-flash7]] -- New Snapshot, Apr 95
+  * [[hurd-flash6]] -- News flash, Nov 94
+  * [[hurd-flash5]] -- News flash, Sep 94 -- gcc runs!
+  * [[hurd-flash4]] -- News flash, Aug 94
+  * [[hurd-flash3]] -- News flash, Jul 94 -- emacs runs!
+  * [[hurd-flash2]] -- News flash, May 94
+  * [[hurd-flash]] -- News flash, Apr 94 -- it boots!
+  * [[hurd-announce2]] -- GNU Hurd announcement, Nov 93
+  * [[hurd-announce]] -- GNU Hurd announcement, May 91
+
+---
+
+  * [History
+    1997-2003](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/l4-hurd/2005-10/msg00718.html)
+    -- personal view of Marcus Brinkmann about Hurd development in 1997-2003.
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-announce b/hurd/history/hurd-announce
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2f165ad8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-announce
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+From mib@PREP.AI.MIT.EDU Tue May  7 12:07:53 1991
+From: mib@PREP.AI.MIT.EDU
+Newsgroups: gnu.announce
+Subject: FSF work on a GNU OS
+Date: 6 May 91 22:15:22 GMT
+Reply-To: mib@prep.ai.mit.edu
+Distribution: gnu
+Organization: GNUs Not Usenet
+
+The Free Software Foundation is beginning work on a GNU operating
+system built on top of the Mach 3.0 microkernel.  There are three
+goals to this project worth noting:
+
+o Binary compatability with 4.4 BSD, and other U*x or U*xish systems
+  on other hardware where appropriate, convenient, and consistent with
+  the design;
+
+o Posix compliance (in combination with the GNU C Library and the GNU
+  C Compiler); and
+
+o Ease of use as well as several new features and functionality.
+
+
+I am interested in constructive criticism on the interfaces, design,
+and implementation from experts in the field of OS research and design
+consistent with the above goals.  Advice from seasoned U*x hackers is
+especially welcome.
+
+We have a mailing list for discussion.  Currently there is little
+discussion on the group; the major contributors to the ideas behind
+the design all live in the Boston area at this point, and work has
+been done via face-to-face communication.  I would like to open the
+field of discussion to a broader base, both to get wider dissemination
+of the ideas behind the current design, as well as to get a greater
+breadth of criticism.  Periodic postings are currently made to the
+mailing list containing a snapshot of the interfaces used by the
+various pieces of the system.  I would like to see discussion as well;
+perhaps we need a critical mass to get this.
+
+Interested individuals should send me email.  I don't regularly read
+the newsgroups to which this message is posted.
+
+
+[U*x is an abbreviation for a well-known trademark of AT&T.  :-)]
+
+	-mib
+
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-announce2 b/hurd/history/hurd-announce2
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..dce41c43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-announce2
@@ -0,0 +1,143 @@
+From mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu Wed Nov  3 21:51:03 1993
+Path: usenet.ee.pdx.edu!cs.uoregon.edu!ogicse!emory!nigel.msen.com!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!spool.mu.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!ai-lab!prep.ai.mit.edu!gnulists
+From: mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I Bushnell)
+Newsgroups: gnu.announce,gnu.misc.discuss
+Subject: Hurd status and call for volunteers
+Message-ID: <9311020719.AA02206@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+Date: 1 Nov 93 21:19:05 GMT
+Article-I.D.: geech.9311020719.AA02206
+Followup-To: gnu.misc.discuss
+Distribution: world
+Lines: 124
+Approved: info-gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
+To: info-gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
+X-Shopping-List: 
+   (1) Chaotic casino griddles (2) Cervical congestion (3) Neoclassical
+   consoles
+Xref: usenet.ee.pdx.edu gnu.announce:160 gnu.misc.discuss:3985
+
+This message to help sate curiosity, as well as to ask for volunteers.
+Until we are ready for alpha test, this is the last such message that
+will be posted here.  If you want to receive further such messages,
+send mail to hurd-ann-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu and ask to be put on that
+(moderated) announcements list.
+
+
+What is already done with the Hurd:
+
+The filesystem is complete; it runs (read-only), and most of its calls
+have been tested and work.  The filesystem is able to download
+programs, by a kludge similar to the kludge used to enable the kernel
+to download the first task.  In the actual bootstap sequence, it will
+download the execserver.
+
+The proc and auth servers are completed; the exec server is nearly
+complete (for a.out, not for bfd).  
+
+C library support for Mach and Hurd rpc stubs, and some of the mach
+and hurd specific code, is done.  Much untested and probably wrong
+code has been written to implement Unix "system calls".  A large piece
+of this (the descriptor management code) is believed by Roland to have
+some architectural flaw, but he isn't sure.
+
+Some small filesystem servers (shadow directories, for example) have
+been written, but have not been compiled, let alone tested.
+
+
+There are currently three things happening wrt the Hurd:
+
+I am spending nearly all my time getting things to boot and run.  My
+work is currently directed toward that goal; in the immediate present
+I am working with Roland on getting the library in its near-final
+state (which will last a long time) to make compiling easier.  It is
+because this is nearly done that I can send this message.
+
+Roland is working on the library.  Most of the remaining architectural
+work is done and being tested.  Then Roland will work on integrating
+cthreads (which is mostly busywork), miscellaneous filesystem calls,
+and then file descriptors.  After that comes signals.
+
+Jan Brittenson will be working on the network server library.  This is
+a library that, when linked against a BSD protocol stack, will produce
+a Hurd network server.  (Such a server implements the socket interface
+in socket.defs.)
+
+
+There are four general tasks that can be done by other people:
+
+1. Completing the existing work on the terminal driver.  The existing
+work implements most of the logic you already associate with a Posixy
+terminal driver; it needs the port management and buffering logic
+added.  
+
+2. Writing a readline terminal driver.  We will want, as an
+alternative to the Posixy terminal driver, a readline type terminal
+driver.
+
+3. Writing miscellaneous shell utilities.  Here we need shell
+utilities to create translators, etc.  They should have a nice rich
+set of features to do all kinds of GNU things.  
+
+4. Writing miscellaneous filesystem servers.  Here we need a
+transparent tar server, a transparent FTP server, and the like.
+
+
+Future plans for work to be written by me (once the bootstrap works,
+and in addition to testing library code as Roland finishes it):
+
+o split the existing filesystem into three parts:
+  o a library for port management for complicated multi-threaded
+    servers;
+  o a library for "normal" disk-based filesystems;
+  o ufs specific code.
+
+o Write the PF_FILE socket server (what you know as PF_UNIX).
+
+o Finish the posixy terminal driver if nobody else has.
+
+o Write miscellaneous shell utilities that nobody else has.
+
+o Build a self-hosting system.
+
+
+What you need in order to be able to help now:
+
+o A 386 PC running Mach 3.0.  If you have some other kind of hardware,
+  then you need to port the GNU C library support first.  I'm not
+  entirely sure how much work that involves; you will need to contact
+  Roland.  It might be too much trouble at this point to spend any
+  effort on it.  It's best if it's a machine for which a free port of
+  Mach is available, though you could do useful work even if it's not.
+
+  If you are not currently running Mach 3.0 with somebody's
+  single-server, then it is very unlikely you could help, unless you
+  have a Unix source license.  In that case, you could talk to CMU
+  (write mach@cs.cmu.edu) to find out how to get Mach 3.0 running on
+  your machine.  It is not possible to do development without a Unix
+  emulator of some kind; just bare Mach 3.0 is not sufficient.  I have
+  neither the time nor knowledge to help someone get a 3.0
+  single-server system running.
+
+o Clue.  I don't have enough time to explain operating systems or Unix
+  to people.  You need to have an iron-clad grasp of Unix semantics
+  (specificaly BSD); it's essential that things be exactly right from
+  that standpoint.  It's not enough that you've programmed Unix
+  before; you need to understand all the nits.  However, you may
+  disregard my previous comments about a "two question limit".  You do
+  need the ability to intuit to some extent, however.
+
+o Time.  It's not good for me to delegate a task and then have nothing
+  happen on it.  If you have a full-time job where you can't justify
+  Hurd work as part of your job, you might find that you don't really
+  have as much time as you thought.  Please make sure you really have
+  enough time before volunteering for a task.
+
+o Efficient net access.  Without a real Internet connection (mail only
+  is not sufficient), it will be impossible for you to do development
+  right now.
+
+
+If you think you can help, send me email.  If you don't think you can
+help right now, then don't give up: the list of conditions will change
+as the list of delegatable tasks changes.  
+
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash b/hurd/history/hurd-flash
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d1bacc79
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+Path: gnurd!usenet.ee.pdx.edu!cs.uoregon.edu!sgiblab!swrinde!gatech!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!MathWorks.Com!news.kei.com!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!ai-lab!life.ai.mit.edu!mib
+From: mib@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I Bushnell)
+Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,comp.os.mach
+Subject: Hurd now bootstraps
+Date: 05 Apr 1994 21:49:50 GMT
+Organization: Free Software Foundation, Cambridge, MA
+Lines: 11
+Message-ID: <MIB.94Apr5174952@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+NNTP-Posting-Host: churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu
+
+
+The GNU Hurd now bootstraps, successfully starting the core servers
+(the filesystem, exec server, process server, auth server, and init)
+and running the first program.  A snapshot of the code that did this
+is on alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu in the usual place, /gnu/hurd-snap.tar.gz.
+
+--
++1 617 623 3248 (H)    |   The soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David,
++1 617 253 8568 (W)   -+-   and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
+1105 Broadway          |  Then Jonathan made a covenant with David
+Somerville, MA 02144   |    because he loved him as his own soul.
+
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash10 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash10
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d6d5685b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash10
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 15:28:29 -0400
+Message-Id: <199604151928.PAA00636@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+From: mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I. Bushnell, p/BSG)
+To: hurd-ann@gnu.ai.mit.edu
+Subject: New Hurd snapshot available
+X-Geek-Code: (V2.1) GCS/J/M/MU/P/S/O>AT d- H-- s-: g+++ p0 !au a- w++ v+++(*) C+
++$ UB++++$ P--- L 3- E++ N++ K++++ W-- M- V-- po-- Y+(--) t++ 5+ j++ R- G'''' tv
++ b+++ !D B-- e+ u++(*) h* f? r n y++
+X-Tom-Swiftie: "Use the `&' operator to get the address," Tom pointed out.
+Sender: owner-abshurd@cs.pdx.edu
+Precedence: bulk
+
+
+I have just cut a new source snapshot.  If things go nicely, a binary
+snapshot may appear soon as well.  You can find this snapshot as
+
+ftp://alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu/gnu/hurd-snap-960415.tar.gz
+
+Many many things work!  Emacs built native and just *went*.  The
+system now works standalone; you can use gdb (it's much nicer than
+other mach-ish gdb's, of course); the network is functional (complete
+with NFS), etc.
+
+Michael
+
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash11 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash11
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..57851b01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash11
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+From:     Miles Bader <miles@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+To:       hurd-ann@gnu.ai.mit.edu
+Date:     Thu, 18 Apr 1996 19:08:07 -0400
+Subject:  hurd binary image
+
+
+A filesystem image from a working hurd system, corresponding to the latest
+snapshot, is available as:
+
+  ftp://alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu/gnu/hurd-image-960418.tar.gz 
+
+The whole tree takes about 37meg (warning -- it unpacks into `.').  Follow
+the instructions in ./INSTALL-binary to make a working hurd system.
+
+Due to a timely trashing of the disk on our main hurd machine, it has been
+verified that it is possible to make a bootable hurd system from scratch
+using this image and a set of netbsd 1.1 boot floppies...
+
+The sources for the mach kernel included in the image are available in the
+same directory as mach4-UK22.tar.gz and mach4-i386-UK22.tar.gz.
+
+-Miles
+-- 
+Miles Bader / miles@gnu.ai.mit.edu / (617) 253-8568
+Amadera e ike!
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash12 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash12
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5be9c94e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash12
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+From: mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I. Bushnell, p/BSG)
+Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
+Subject: Hurd 0.0 release status
+Followup-To: gnu.misc.discuss
+Date: 13 Jul 1996 23:53:41 GMT
+Organization: Touring Consulting Services
+Lines: 35
+Message-ID: <MIB.96Jul13195341@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+NNTP-Posting-Host: churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu
+
+
+People are eager to know how close we are to release, so here's an
+update:
+
+There is one rather annoying bug I'd like to find which is causing
+random crashes.  I expect this will not be too hard to locate.  There
+are some more trivial bugs, but the release will not be held up for
+them. 
+
+Forty-three packages of GNU software have been built native.
+Remaining to be built are three packages for which new releases are
+expected soon.
+
+Also remaining to be built native are bash, gdb, mach, the Hurd
+itself, and the internet utilities and daemons.  We intend to sync our
+separate copy of libc source with the libc maintainer, and then build
+it native too.
+
+Because of obnoxious export restrictions, we have still to make
+separate shared libraries for the crypt functions.
+
+Except for the actual final packaging, all the release engineering
+tasks to be done have been completed.
+
+
+To summarize, we still need to:
+
+o Fix one obnoxious bug
+o Compile three packages that are waiting for release;
+o Compile gdb, bash, mach, and hurd native
+o Sync libc source and compile native
+o Deal with crypt shared libraries
+o Final packaging
+
+Michael
+
+From: mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I. Bushnell, p/BSG)
+Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss
+Subject: Re: Hurd--ne plus ultra of vaporware?
+Date: 17 Jul 1996 03:02:14 GMT
+
+In article <4sg6tp$n4t@linux.cs.Helsinki.FI> torvalds@linux.cs.Helsinki.FI (Linus Torvalds) writes:
+
+   Hey! We could also ask some well-known rock-group for one of their
+   lyrics, and use that as the theme song for the Hurd release.  And then
+   we could ask shops to stay open longer to sell the Hurd! Whaddaya think?
+   Don't say it has been delayed, just shout so loudly about all the new
+   features that nobody cares about the delay?
+
+Perhaps we could get Morrisey to sing the song.  He's very good
+looking.  Much better looking than that Mick Jagger fellow.
+
+Or something delicate, like Bach's French Suite in G.  That would be
+fun.  
+
+In any case, here's the state of the release:
+
+o Everything but nine packages has been compiled native.
+o The random crash bug I alluded to is fixed.
+o We have to build a floppy image for part of the installation instructions.
+
+That's it.  I bet you nobody in Redmond has ever made a statement like
+that...
+
+Michael
+
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash13 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash13
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a2de6bfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash13
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 22:36:31 -0400
+From: thomas@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Thomas Bushnell, n/BSG)
+To: info-gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu, hurd-ann@gnu.ai.mit.edu, hurd-dev@gnu.ai.mit.edu
+Subject: Hurd 0.0 and GNU 0.0 released
+X-Name-Change: My name used to be `Michael'; now it is `Thomas'.
+X-Tom-Swiftie: "I guess I shouldn't have broken the mirror," Tom reflected.
+
+
+
+
+I am pleased to announce version 0.0 of the GNU Hurd, available via
+anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu [18.159.0.42] in the file
+/pub/gnu/hurd-0.0.tar.gz (about 1.2 MB compressed).
+
+This file contains complete source code for the following:
+
+Hurd servers: 
+ 
+ auth, crash, devio, devport, exec, ext2fs, fifo, fwd, ifsock, init,
+ magic, new-fifo, nfs, null, pfinet, pflocal, proc, symlink, term,
+ ufs.
+
+Hurd libraries: 
+ 
+ diskfs, fshelp, ihash, iohelp, netfs, pager, pipe, ports, ps,
+ shouldbeinlibc, store, threads, trivfs.
+
+Hurd utilities and other programs: 
+
+ boot, shd, ps, settrans, showtrans, sync, su, mount, fsysopts,
+ storeinfo, login, w, uptime, hurdids, loginpr, sush, vmstat,
+ portinfo, devprobe, reboot, halt, fsck, fsck.ufs, mkfs.ufs, clri.ufs,
+ stati.ufs, getty, rc.
+
+
+------
+
+
+In addition, we have prepared a binary distribution of a complete
+version 0.0 GNU system corresponding to this Hurd release.  This
+release runs only on PC-AT compatible systems with i[345]86
+processors.
+
+The GNU Hurd, plus Mach, is a kernel, not an operating system.  The
+GNU operating system, like the Unix operating system, consists of many
+components, including kernel, libraries, compilers, assembler, shell,
+parser generators, utilities, window system, editors, text formatters,
+and so on.  The GNU project set out a decade ago to develop this
+system, and we've been writing various components of it ever since.
+
+This release uses the `UK22' version of the Mach kernel, as
+distributed by the University of Utah.  It is too difficult to prepare
+a detailed list of supported devices at this point.  Common disk
+controllers and ethernet cards are generally supported.
+
+This release does not contain the X Window System.
+
+This release may be fetched by anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu
+[18.159.42] in the directory /pub/gnu/gnu-0.0/.
+
+In that directory, you should find the following files:
+
+ README
+ SOURCES
+ INSTALL-binary
+ grub-boot.image		(about 1.4 MB, not compressed)
+ gnu-0.0.tar.gz			(about 56.9 MB compressed)
+ gnu-0.0-stripped.tar.gz	(about 26.2 MB compressed)
+
+SOURCES contains a complete list describing the sources for the
+binaries found in the image.  INSTALL-binary contains complete
+installation instructions for this release.  
+
+(The files README, SOURCES, and INSTALL-binary are also found in the
+root directory of the gnu-0.0 release.)
+
+gnu-0.0.tar.gz holds the image of the complete system.  It unpacks
+into a directory that requires approximately 233 MB of disk space.
+
+gnu-0.0-stripped.tar.gz holds the same contents as gnu-0.0, except
+that executable programs have been stripped to save space, and the
+libraries have had debugging symbols stripped to save space and speed
+linking.  It unpacks into a directory that requires about 85.5 MB of
+disk space.
+
+We recommend using the unstripped image, or you will be unable to
+debug anything.  Surely there are bugs.  So fetch the unstripped
+image, at least to have around.
+
+grub-boot.image is an image of a 3.5" floppy disk that you will need
+in order to complete part of the installation instructions.
+
+The following free software packages are found in this release:
+
+ autoconf, automake, bash, bc, binutils, bison, cpio, cvs, diffutils,
+ doschk, e2fsprogs, ed, emacs, fileutils, findutils, flex, from, gawk,
+ gcal, gcc, gdb, gdbm, gettext, glibc, gmp, gperf, grep, grub, gzip,
+ hello, hurd, indent, inetutils, less, mach, make, m4, miscfiles,
+ ncurses, nethack, nvi, patch, ptx, rcs, readline, recode, sed,
+ serverboot, sharutils, shellutils, tar, termcap, termutils, texinfo,
+ textutils, time, wdiff.
+
+
+------
+
+
+Here are md5sum checksums for the files mentioned in this message:
+
+b5f888bab3eb193fe97a00a141324c9d  INSTALL-binary
+345dcd826747d7b11fc78f4db162d75b  README
+1a5744bb4ed3448045fa6d24153d65fe  SOURCES
+f7b1bc428bc4ee29977a5b28f5762092  gnu-0.0-stripped.tar.gz
+24554c58e5c89f295176e17d21dbae8e  gnu-0.0.tar.gz
+8338c619d860b71bc4128c9c0fd39d63  grub-boot.image
+1fd18ccc4c81d051b83d28b13dc07ee2  hurd-0.0.tar.gz
+
+-----
+
+Br. Thomas Bushnell, n/BSG
+
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash14 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash14
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2d67687a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash14
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+I am pleased to announce version 0.2 of the GNU Hurd, available via
+anonymous FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu [18.159.0.42] in the file
+/pub/gnu/hurd-0.2.tar.gz (about 1.37 MB compressed).  
+
+(The GNU Hurd, plus Mach, is a kernel, not an operating system.  The
+GNU operating system, like the Unix operating system, consists of many
+components, including kernel, libraries, compilers, assembler, shell,
+parser generators, utilities, window system, editors, text formatters,
+and so on.  The GNU project set out a decade ago to develop this
+system, and we've been writing various components of it ever since.)
+
+This release contains many bug fixes from version 0.1.  Many thanks to
+all the people who are helping find bugs!  
+
+The best way you can help find bugs is to try and compile and use on
+the Hurd as many programs as you can find and find out where bugs
+still exist.  There are also unimplemented features, and your reports
+will help us to prioritize which things we work on.
+
+The system is vastly more reliable than it has been in the past.
+
+One important addition:
+
+  New programs addauth, rmauth, unsu, su, and setauth modify the uid
+  sets of running programs.  Using addauth you can add root to your
+  emacs, write a file, and then use rmauth to take the uid back.  (Of
+  course, passwords are required when necessary.)  New program `ids'
+  will tell you what all the user ids are that a program has.  Note
+  that in the Hurd a program can have several user ids all at once,
+  just like Unix supports having several group ids.  Now that you can
+  dynamically change the ids of running programs, system
+  administration (among other things) becomes much easier.
+
+For more detailed news, see the NEWS file in the distribution.
+
+This release contains complete source code for the following:
+
+Hurd servers: 
+ 
+ auth, crash, devport, exec, ext2fs, fifo, fwd, ifsock, init,
+ magic, new-fifo, nfs, null, pfinet, pflocal, proc, symlink, term,
+ ufs, storeio, firmlink.
+
+Hurd libraries: 
+ 
+ diskfs, fshelp, ihash, iohelp, netfs, pager, pipe, ports, ps,
+ shouldbeinlibc, store, threads, trivfs, hurdbugaddr, ftpconn
+
+Hurd utilities and other programs: 
+
+ boot, shd, ps, settrans, showtrans, sync, su, mount, fsysopts,
+ storeinfo, login, w, uptime, ids, sush, vmstat, portinfo, devprobe,
+ reboot, halt, fsck, fsck.ufs, mkfs.ufs, clri.ufs, stati.ufs, getty,
+ rc, e2os, vminfo, nfsd, mail.local, serverboot, MAKEDEV, loginpr,
+ addauth, rmauth, unsu, setauth, ftpcp, ftpdir.
+
+We are also making a complete GNU 0.2 binary release, which will
+include Hurd 0.2, glibc 2.0.4, gnumach 1.1.2, and many other
+programs.  This binary release is announced separately.
+
+
+Thomas Bushnell, n/BSG
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash15 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash15
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0785ac59
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash15
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+
+I am pleased to announce version 0.2 of the complete Hurd based GNU
+system.  This release runs only on PC-AT compatible systems with
+i[3456]86 processors.
+
+The GNU Hurd, plus Mach, is a kernel, not an operating system.  The
+GNU operating system, like the Unix operating system, consists of many
+components, including kernel, libraries, compilers, assembler, shell,
+parser generators, utilities, window system, editors, text formatters,
+and so on.  The GNU project set out a decade ago to develop this
+system, and we've been writing various components of it ever since.
+
+This release uses the GNUmach distribution of the Mach kernel, version
+1.1.3.  Popular PC devices are generally supported.
+
+This release does not contain the X Window System.
+
+This release may be fetched from the directory
+ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/gnu-0.2.  (prep.ai.mit.edu is 18.159.42,
+for the nameserver-impaired).
+
+In that directory, you should find the following files:
+
+README
+SOURCES
+INSTALL-binary
+grub-boot.image			(about 1.5 MB, not compressed)
+gnu-0.2.tar.gz			(about 73 MB compressed)
+
+SOURCES contains a complete list describing the sources for the
+binaries found in the image.  INSTALL-binary contains complete
+installation instructions for this release.
+
+(The files README, SOURCES, and INSTALL-binary are also found in the
+root directory of the gnu-0.2 release.)
+
+gnu-0.2.tar.gz holds the image of the complete system.  It unpacks
+into a directory that requires approximately 285 MB of disk space.
+
+grub-boot.image is an image of a 3.5" floppy disk that you will need
+in order to complete part of the installation instructions.
+
+The following free software packages are included in this release:
+
+autoconf automake bash bc binutils bison cpio cvs diffutils doschk
+e2fsprogs ed emacs emacs lisp manual fileutils findutils flex from g77
+gawk gcal gcc gdb gettext glibc gmp gnuchess gnumach gnugo grep grub
+gzip hello hurd indent inetutils less libg++ lynx m4 make miscfiles
+ncurses nethack nvi patch perl ptx readline rcs recode sed sendmail
+sh-utils sharutils tar termutils texinfo textutils time wdiff
+
+--
+
+Here are md5sum checksums for the files mentioned in this message:
+
+3749b016ab581e007b90d17b9092e134  INSTALL-binary
+1f800c326ba4c3a0b3f3a3463597317b  README
+40d1e1a38dd86f28fe2718081ac865cb  SOURCES
+f29c1a03c1667a8019b66f6effa89d39  gnu-0.2.tar.gz
+8ad3c7254802a16068a956e836266212  grub-boot.image
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash2 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash2
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b1d4f66f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash2
@@ -0,0 +1,152 @@
+From: mib@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I Bushnell)
+Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,comp.os.mach,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit
+Subject: GNU Hurd Task List and Call for Volunteers
+Followup-To: gnu.misc.discuss
+Date: 18 May 1994 17:54:47 GMT
+Organization: FOO
+Lines: 140
+Message-ID: <MIB.94May18135447@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+NNTP-Posting-Host: churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu
+Xref: usenet.ee.pdx.edu gnu.misc.discuss:7630 comp.os.mach:1434 comp.os.linux.d
+evelopment:9867 comp.os.linux.misc:16767 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:5854
+
+
+Now that the Hurd can run (albeit haltingly) on its own, it is
+possible for people who do not have Mach 3.0 single-servers to
+contribute without much trouble.  (However, if you don't have a
+single-server, you probably won't be able to use a debugger, but that
+doesn't mean you can't do debugging, right?)
+
+We at the FSF don't have any expertise in setting up Mach 3.0
+machines; the machines that we do development on belong to the Open
+Software Foundation and were set up by them.  So one of the things on
+the task list is to organize things so that people (like us and most
+of you) who don't know how to do it can do it.  It's not impossible to
+figure out, it's just a pain and a marvelous thing for a volunteer to
+do.
+
+You can get Mach 3.0 from CMU; you get the C library and the Hurd from
+us.  You need the soon-to-be-released version 1.07.6 of the C library
+and the latest Hurd snapshot (as well as our special version of MiG)
+from alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu.
+
+All our work is based upon i386.  The Hurd (except for a few programs;
+see the Hurd README file) is machine independent.  The C library
+should not be too much trouble to port.  Ports and information about
+porting difficulty for either of these are greatly desired.
+
+The Hurd is not yet self-hosting.  While you are welcome to fetch the
+code and put things together, it is not likely that you will have a
+useful system right now.  But you might be able to do significant work
+(see the task list below).  And, even if you can't do significant
+work, I'm interested in hearing about any places where you had
+particular difficulty.
+
+If you want to start on one of these tasks, please let me know so I
+can keep track of volunteers properly.  This task list will be updated
+periodically; gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu always has the latest version.
+
+	-mib
+
+GNU Hurd Task List Version 1.0.
+
+If you would like to work on one of these, please contact mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu.
+
+
+Mach 3.0 Work
+
+  o Mach 3.0 comes with CMU makefiles that depend on a drecky environment.  
+  It would be very helpful to have makefiles and installation stuff so
+  that it worked well for cross-compilation between systems and used 
+  GNU tools.
+
+  o MiG needs to be made able to support cross-compilation.
+
+  o A replacement for MiG that understood C .h files.
+
+  o Bootstrap tools and documentation to help people set up Mach 3.0
+  machines if they already have Linux; if they already have Net BSD;
+  if they don't have anything.
+
+  o Mach 3.0 needs to provide support for task virtual timers similar
+  in functionality to the Unix ITIMER_PROF and ITIMER_VIRTUAL timers.
+
+  o Mach 3.0 needs to provide a way for users to do statistical PC
+  profiling similar to the Unix profil system call.
+
+  o Mach 3.0 needs a facility to automatically send task and thread 
+  status on task/thread exit to a port that can only be changed by
+  a privileged user; this would be used to implement process 
+  accounting.
+
+  o Mach 3.0 needs a facility to find out what task is the parent of
+  a given task.
+
+  o Mach 3.0 needs a facility to find out which pages of a task's
+  address space are in core to implement Unix's mincore call.
+
+  o Mach 3.0 needs a facility to do msync.
+
+  o Mach 3.0 needs a replacement for MEMORY_OBJECT_COPY_CALL that 
+  works at least for the cases needed in ordinary files.  (Write mib if
+  you want to know what the problem is and some ideas about how to
+  solve it.)
+
+  o Mach 3.0 needs proxy memory objects.  (mib can tell you what these
+  are and why they are important.)
+
+  o Mach 3.0 needs a way to do per-task resource counters that are
+  accessible to servers called by the task.
+
+  o Mach 3.0 needs facilities to implement resource limits of various sorts.
+
+  o Mach 3.0 needs a way to have a thread's CPU time statistics
+  include time spent by servers on its behalf.
+
+  o Of course, free ports are always necessary to machines that don't
+  already have free ports.
+
+  o Much work can be done doing research in how to improve Mach VM
+  performance and timesharing scheduling policy.
+
+
+Hurd work (these are brief descriptions; mib can give more information):
+
+  o We need a translator for /dev.
+
+  o We need a replacement for utmp and wtmp that understands the
+  Hurd `login collection' concept.  Programs like who and finger
+  then need to be changed to use this.
+
+  o We need some existing shell programs changed to do Hurd things:
+  like ls, su, fsck, tar, cpio, etc.
+
+  o Some new programs need to be written: login, getty, ps, tools
+  for new filesystem features.
+
+  o Shadow directory translators.  (Roland has the beginnings of this.)
+
+  o A system for write, send, talkd and so forth to bleep users;
+  this should be integrated with the utmp replacement above.
+
+  o X.
+
+  o A filesystem for /tmp that uses virtual memory instead of disk.
+
+  o Filesystem implementations (using libdiskfs) for other popular
+  formats, especially the Linux formats as well as MSDOG.
+
+  o Transparent FTP translator.  
+  
+  o NFS client implementation.  You should start with BSD's 4.4 code
+  and support the extensions they support; don't worry about Hurd
+  extensions right now.  (The server we want to write ourselves
+  because it will probably involve changing the Hurd interfaces.)
+
+  o A fancy terminal driver that uses readline and supports detach/attach.
+
+--
++1 617 623 3248 (H)    |   The soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David,
++1 617 253 8568 (W)   -+-   and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
+1105 Broadway          |  Then Jonathan made a covenant with David
+Somerville, MA 02144   |    because he loved him as his own soul.
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash3 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash3
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..19a5f371
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash3
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+Date:    Tue, 05 Jul 1994 20:15:09 -0400
+From:    mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I Bushnell)
+To:      hurd-ann@gnu.ai.mit.edu
+Subject: New Hurd snapshot
+
+
+A new Hurd snapshot has been released.  You can get it from
+alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu in the file /gnu/hurd-snap.tar.gz.  You will need
+the most recent version of the GNU C library; version 1.08.3 or later.
+(Version 1.08.3 is an alpha release; you can get it from
+alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu in the same directory.)
+
+This snapshot of the Hurd has a limping terminal driver.  It can run
+emacs, bash, a whole slew of utilities, and (most importantly) GNU
+Hello.
+
+	-mib
+
+
+Here is the new part of the NEWS file:
+
+The Hurd now runs all the programs in the GNU fileutils, textutils,
+and shellutils distributions, with the exception of who.  Most
+importantly it runs GNU Hello.  Also, emacs works (with the kludgy
+`boot' terminal driver) and bash works.
+
+The simple pipes server works; it will be replaced eventually by the
+pflocal server (which isn't done yet).  The terminal driver is limping
+but working.  It doesn't support terminal ioctls yet.  A minor bug in
+auth has been fixed.  boot interprets more Hurd protocols; this was
+done to get emacs functioning.  Some more-or-less serious bugs in exec
+were fixed; they were found by running emacs (a quite large executable
+indeed).  At bootstrap time, init starts pipes and term itself;
+eventually these will be passive translators, but we don't want to
+write the new disk format until we're self-hosting or fsck and UX will
+get confused.  The file proc/primes.c has been documented; thanks go
+to Jim Blandy.  Some bugs in proc dealing with pgrp and wait were
+fixed; a nasty hash table bug was also fixed.  The simple shell can do
+pipes.  Several serious bugs in ufs were fixed dealing with extension
+of large files and writes of data not aligned on block boundaries.
+The ufs pager was over-serialized; that's been fixed.  Directory
+lookups and modifications now use mapped I/O directly; this is an
+important speed-up.  The structure of the pager lockes has been
+changed significantly.  UFS now supports Mach copying mode
+MEMORY_OBJECT_COPY_DELAY; this significantly improves process startup
+time.  
+
+Some minor changes have been made to several interfaces.  The
+interface for fs.defs:dir_readdir has been totally changed.  There are
+some new fs.defs interfaces: file_check_access, file_notice_changes,
+dir_notice_changes.  The fsys.defs:fsys_getroot interface was changed
+to work correctly.  process.defs:proc_setprocargs is renamed, and a
+fetch function proc_get_arg_locations is added.  The ifsock.defs
+interface was simplified.  
+
+Several bugs were fixed in libdiskfs.  The new dir_readdir interface
+requires new support from format-specific code.  Some race conditions
+have been fixed.  dir-pathtrans.c now deals correctly with multiple
+slashes in a row.  A new concept called "light references" allows
+pagers to remain active without preventing truncate-on-nolinks from
+working right.  New interfaces in fs.defs are implemented (except
+file_notice_changes).  Active translator usage has been fixed to work
+correctly, but passive translators are still untested.  libdiskfs now
+thinks it supports S_IFSOCK nodes, but that's untested (of course)
+because pflocal isn't done yet.
+
+The passive translator startup interface in libfshelp has been
+radically simplified.  The pager library now lets other code set and
+changee the attributes on objects, synchronously if desired.  An
+init/terminate race condition was fixed.   The ports library now
+allows single-threaded users to work right (they didn't before).  The
+trivfs library works; see the ifsock server for a simple example of
+its use.  See term or pipes for more complex examples.  
+
+There is a task list in the file `tasks'; let me know if you are
+interested in working on one of these.
+
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash4 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash4
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..89ae9848
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash4
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+From:     mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I Bushnell)
+To:       hurd-ann@gnu.ai.mit.edu
+Date:     Mon, 8 Aug 94 16:01:23 -0400
+Subject:  New Hurd Snapshot
+X-Shopping-List: 
+	  (1) Starboard sauce (2) Cinematic lesions (3) Two-way alphabetic
+	  accordions
+
+
+A new Hurd snapshot has been placed on alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu in
+/pub/gnu/hurd-snap.tar.gz.
+
+It is expected that the next snapshot after this one will have signals
+basically working and thus be usable for a self-hosting system.  In
+addition, the next snapshot will probably have the current state of
+our networking code (which has been proceeding, but has been absent
+from the snapshots).
+
+Here is the NEWS about this current snapshot, however.  Because some
+big changes were made to the makefile and directory structure, things
+might have gotten inadvertently ommitted from the snapshot.  If this
+happened, please let me know ASAP and I'll fix it and make a new
+snapshot.
+
+	-mib
+
+
+August 8, 1994:
+
+Structural changes:
+
+Makefiles have been vastly improved and are simpler.  The programs
+`su', `ps', and `sh' have been moved from separate dirs into `utils';
+the programs `symlink' and `ifsock' have been moved into `trans'.
+
+Several changes were made to GCC use.  You should definitely get GCC
+version 2.6.0 now.  Version 2.6.1 will have distributed the proper
+`specs' file for the i386-gnu target, but it isn't quite ready yet, so
+you still have to copy hurd/gcc-specs into
+gcc-lib/i386-gnu/2.6.0/specs.
+
+
+Interface changes:
+
+The tioctl.defs suite is complete now.
+
+INTR RPC's have been changed; individual RPC's are no longer marked
+INTR.  Rather, entire interfaces are marked `INTR_INTERFACE' if they
+conform to the library's signalling/interruption expectations.
+
+There is a new magical retry type (for dir_pathtrans and fsys_getroot)
+called `machtype' and a new one `/'; the former is for @sys tweaks and
+the latter cleans up the retry of root-based symlinks a bit.
+
+There is a new interface `login.defs'.
+
+The "dotdot node" is no longer passed at fsys_startup time; instead,
+it is passed by fsys_getroot.
+
+
+Library changes:
+
+The ports library now does death-timeouts for multi-threaded servers;
+it doesn't actually work right yet, however.  Also the ports library
+has new features (soft vs. hard ports; no outstanding ports
+notifications) that enable server-death to be done cleanly.  (I hope;
+libdiskfs and ufs haven't yet been changed to use it, so libports
+might not actually have the right facilities yet.)
+
+The translator startup routines in libfshelp have been vastly improved
+(so that they can actually be used).
+
+Numerous bugfixes in libdiskfs, particularly relating to translator
+usage.  Use new magical retry type `/' when appropriate.  Use new
+dotdot node protocol.  O_FSYNC and O_NOATIME are now honored properly.
+Alternative methods of storing symlinks are now supported through new
+hooks.  
+
+The new dotdot protocol is now used by libtrivfs.  Also, users of the
+library are now able to set the atime and mtime when necessary.
+
+The special threads version of malloc has been placed back in
+libthreads now that the C library uses a Mach-safe version on its own.
+
+
+Program changes:
+
+The `boot' program no longer implements the tioctl interface now that
+the terminal driver works.
+
+A bug was fixed in the handling of pgrps in `proc'.
+
+Many bugfixes in term.  The tioctl interface is now implemented.  EOF
+processing is fixed; break characters now work right.  Signals and
+interruption are now done correctly.  VDISCARD works.  
+
+Ufs has Some bigs fixed in dir.c.  Filesystem upgraded to BSD 4.4.
+There are now some compatibility flags.  
+
+New program dev.trim does a very minimal /dev (but doesn't work yet).
+New program dev is an initial (but poor) attempt at a real /dev.
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash5 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash5
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..041a0ef7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash5
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+From: mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I Bushnell)
+Message-Id: <9409210619.AA17570@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+To: "Lots of potentially interested people and" <nobody@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+Subject: New milestone acheived by the GNU Hurd
+X-Tom-Swiftie: "I can't get this fire started," Tom said woodenly.
+
+
+I have just successfully compiled and run a null C program on the
+Hurd.  This is using GCC native as one would normally use GCC.
+
+Sadly, it took quite a while (too long, in fact) to read the large
+archives that make up the GNU C library, but I think I know where the
+substantial inefficiency is.
+
+Once that is done, I would be happy to label this a "self-hosting
+system".  But not just yet.
+
+The last bug preventing this was an error in dealing with files over
+about 8 M; this came about because in order to link a program one
+needed the GNU C library, which is over 9M when symbols are included.
+
+        -mib
+
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash6 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash6
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e774714e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash6
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+Return-Path: <pdxgate.cs.pdx.edu!gnu.ai.mit.edu!mib>
+Received: from pdxgate.cs.pdx.edu by gnurd  with uucp
+	(Linux Smail3.1.28.1 #14) id m0r66pm-00010fC; Fri, 11 Nov 94 17:00 PST
+Received: from cs.pdx.edu by pdxgate.cs.pdx.edu (4.1/CATastrophe-9/19/94-U)
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+	id <AA12580@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu>; Fri, 11 Nov 94 16:38:44 -0500
+Date: Fri, 11 Nov 94 16:38:44 -0500
+From: mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I Bushnell)
+Message-Id: <9411112138.AA12580@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+To: hurd-ann@gnu.ai.mit.edu, hurd-dev@gnu.ai.mit.edu, info-gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
+Subject: New Hurd Snapshot
+X-Shopping-List: 
+   (1) Horrendous collision devotions (2) Wondrous consolation (3)
+   Conscious cooking auctions
+X-Filter: mailagent [version 3.0 PL19] for trent@gnurd.uu.pdx.edu
+
+
+A new Hurd snapshot has been placed on alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu.  There
+may be unforseen problems with this snapshot, so the old one has been
+left.  You may fetch this snapshot via anonymous FTP in the file
+/gnu/hurd-snap.tar.gz.
+
+The Hurd requires a modified version of MiG; you can get it by
+anonymous ftp to kahlua.cs.utah.edu in /pub/mach/mach4-UK02p6.tar.gz.
+Note that we are not yet using Mach4 for the Hurd, but we plan to
+switch as soon as its feasible.
+
+Other necessary software to run this snapshot include the latest
+snapshot of binutils/ld/gas source from Cygnus and the latest GCC.
+(Problems have been reported with GCC 2.6.1; you might want to wait
+until 2.6.2 is released.)  And, of course, you also need the latest
+test version of the GNU C Library, found on alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu.
+
+This is not yet a real release; it is certainly not up to the quality
+of even a hesitant alpha release.  But it may be useful for
+educational value or to help with the Hurd effort.  
+
+I will be out of town for most of the rest of the year; I will be
+reading email but I may not be able to help with problems.  Sorry...
+
+	-mib
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash7 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash7
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ce6e08d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash7
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+Date: Wed, 12 Apr 1995 15:08:18 -0400
+From: Michael I Bushnell <mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+To: hurd-ann@duality.gnu.ai.mit.edu
+Subject: New Hurd Snapshot available
+
+A new hurd snapshot is now available from
+ftp://alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu/gnu/hurd-snap.tar.gz.
+
+This snapshot contains many improvements over the last one, and is
+also probably easier to compile.  
+
+This snapshot must be used with the most recent libc snapshot,
+ftp://alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu/gnu/libc-950411.tar.gz.  Previous versions
+of the library will not work right.
+
+If any files are discovered to be missing, please let me know asap.
+
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash8 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash8
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..555186ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash8
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+Date: Sun, 23 Jul 1995 16:27:46 -0400
+Message-Id: <199507232027.QAA09306@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+From: Michael I Bushnell <mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+To: hurd-ann@gnu.ai.mit.edu
+Subject: Hurd snapshot!
+X-Geek-Code: (V2.1) GCS/J/M/MU/P/S/O>AT d- H-- s-: g+++ p0 !au a- w++ v+++(*) C+
++$ UB++++$ P--- L 3- E++ N++ K++++ W-- M- V-- po-- Y+(--) t++ 5+ j++ R- G'''' tv
++ b+++ !D B-- e+ u++(*) h* f? r n y++
+X-Zippy-Says: I just had a NOSE JOB!!
+Sender: owner-abshurd@cs.pdx.edu
+Precedence: bulk
+
+
+I have just put a new Hurd snapshot on alpha.gnu.ai.mit.edu in
+/gnu/hurd-snap-950723.tar.gz.
+
+You will also need the new libc snapshot, which should appear in the
+same place today.  Older libc snapshots will not be happy.
+
+The binary images (hurd-floppy.fs.gz and hurd-image.tar.gz) have not
+been updated.  It is difficult to use the Hurd standalon, because the
+Mach boot loaders can now no longer boot the Hurd.  A new boot loader
+is nearly finished.  Perhaps we can make new binary images then, or a
+volunteer might take over this useful work.  (Hint, hint.)
+
+Michael
+
+
+
+Here is the NEWS:
+
+July 23, 1995
+
+Shared libraries now work; use -static to link programs and avoid the
+shared libraries.  The Hurd programs are normally built static; this
+will probably change soon.
+
+The ext2fs server now works, as do the tools to manipulate ext2fs
+filesystems.  A snapshot of the tools will be made soon under separate
+cover.  Many thanks to Ted Ts'o for his valuable work on the tools.
+
+Readers of the Makefiles will notice that we now generate dependencies
+automatically.
+
+The old netserv library is gone.
+
+The `boot' hack has been modified slightly to avoid the normalq libc startup
+files, because they no longer work with UX.
+
+Some small bugs have been fixed in the devio server.
+
+The ports library has been totally rewritten; new features permit
+servers to have greater control over thread RPC's and port creation.
+
+The fshelp library now does most of the work for translator
+interaction; it's simpler now too.  Filesystems have much less work to
+do; the relevant code in libdiskfs is now understanble instead of
+unparseable chaos.
+
+The ports library provides for timeouts; the diskfs library almost
+uses it, but because of a bug, it's disabled for now.
+
+Filesystems are now expected to sync themselves if necessary; the new
+fsys_set_options RPC provides for changeing (or cancelling) the sync
+intervale.  The diskfs library does this for you.  The update program
+is no longer necessary.
+
+A small bug in the proc server has been hacked around; the real fix
+will come later.
+
+Many important bugs in the C library have been fixed since the last
+snapshot; perhaps all of them.  ;-)
+
diff --git a/hurd/history/hurd-flash9 b/hurd/history/hurd-flash9
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1ff32ba9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/history/hurd-flash9
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 13:13:23 -0500
+Message-Id: <199511291813.NAA10983@duality.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
+From: mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Michael I. Bushnell, p/BSG)
+To: hurd-ann@gnu.ai.mit.edu (and others)
+Subject: Announcement
+X-Geek-Code: (V2.1) GCS/J/M/MU/P/S/O>AT d- H-- s-: g+++ p0 !au a- w++ v+++(*) C+
++$ UB++++$ P--- L 3- E++ N++ K++++ W-- M- V-- po-- Y+(--) t++ 5+ j++ R- G'''' tv
++ b+++ !D B-- e+ u++(*) h* f? r n y++
+X-Windows: The Cutting Edge of Obsolescence.
+Sender: owner-abshurd@cs.pdx.edu
+Precedence: bulk
+
+
+The Hurd has succesfully completed its first FTP:
+
+bash# ftp 128.52.46.31
+Connected to 128.52.46.31.
+220 albert.gnu.ai.mit.edu FTP server (Version 5.60) ready.
+Name (128.52.46.31:root):
+331 Password required for root.
+Password:230 User root logged in.
+ftp> cd ~mib
+250 CWD command successful.
+ftp> get ftptest
+200 PORT command successful.
+150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for ftptest (16 bytes).
+226 Transfer complete.
+17 bytes received in 0.07 secs (0.24 Kbytes/sec)
+ftp> quit
+221 Goodbye.
+bash# cat ftptest
+this is a test.
+bash#
+
+
+Tre cool.
+
+Michael
+
diff --git a/hurd/hurd_hacking_guide.mdwn b/hurd/hurd_hacking_guide.mdwn
index 0cb96f32..2ef08f8a 100644
--- a/hurd/hurd_hacking_guide.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/hurd_hacking_guide.mdwn
@@ -8,6 +8,16 @@ Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
 is included in the section entitled
 [[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
-Originally written by Wolfgang Jährling, the [Hurd Hacking Guide](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hacking-guide/hhg.html)
-contains an overview of some of the Hurd's features. 
-Also contains a tutorial on writing your own [[translator]].
+Originally written by Wolfgang Jährling, the *Hurd Hacking Guide* contains an
+introduction to GNU Hurd and GNU Mach programming, an overview of some of the
+Hurd's features.  It also contains a tutorial on writing your own
+[[translator]].
+
+  * [HTML version](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hacking-guide/hhg.html) for
+    browsing online,
+  * [PostScript version](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hacking-guide/hhg.ps)
+    [187kB, 37 pages],
+  * [ASCII text
+    version](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hacking-guide/hhg.txt) [59kB],
+  * [Texinfo source](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hacking-guide/hhg.texi)
+    [60kB].
diff --git a/hurd/libstore.mdwn b/hurd/libstore.mdwn
index ab649ebc..3de42be3 100644
--- a/hurd/libstore.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/libstore.mdwn
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ is included in the section entitled
 [[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
 `libstore` is more than just a thin layer between
-[[GNU_Mach|microkernel/mach/gnumach]] devices (`hd0` for example) and the
+[[microkernel/mach/GNU_Mach]] devices (`hd0` for example) and the
 device node below `/dev`...
 
 # Available Stores
diff --git a/hurd/logo.mdwn b/hurd/logo.mdwn
index b1030e50..fcfe22dd 100644
--- a/hurd/logo.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/logo.mdwn
@@ -20,6 +20,6 @@ sources](http://www.gnu.org/graphics/hurd.mf) to
 [[img boxes-redrawn.png]]
 
 
-This symbol is also being used as a favicon for this whole wiki.
+This symbol is also being used as a favicon for this web site.
 
 [[img /favicon.ico]]
diff --git a/hurd/logo.png b/hurd/logo.png
deleted file mode 100644
index a892b47d..00000000
--- a/hurd/logo.png
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/hurd/ng/position_paper.mdwn b/hurd/ng/position_paper.mdwn
index 3240a41d..e0f4bf60 100644
--- a/hurd/ng/position_paper.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/ng/position_paper.mdwn
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@ Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
 is included in the section entitled
 [[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
-[[NealWalfield]] and [[MarcusBrinkmann]] wrote a paper titled [*Improving
-Usability via Access Decomposition and Policy
-Refinement*](http://walfield.org/papers/20070104-walfield-access-decomposition-policy-refinement.pdf).
-This is sometimes referred to as *the position paper*.
+Neal Walfield and Marcus Brinkmann wrote a paper titled [*Improving Usability
+via Access Decomposition and Policy
+Refinement*](http://walfield.org/papers/20070104-walfield-access-decomposition-policy-refinement.pdf)
+where they give an overview about how a future, subsequent system may be
+architected.  This is sometimes referred to as *the position paper*.
diff --git a/hurd/gettinghelp.mdwn b/hurd/reference_manual.mdwn
index 1faa94c5..5b5bff2d 100644
--- a/hurd/gettinghelp.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/reference_manual.mdwn
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
+Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
 
 [[meta license="""[[toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[toggleable
 id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
@@ -8,4 +9,10 @@ Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
 is included in the section entitled
 [[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
-[[meta redir=getting_help]]
+*The GNU Hurd Reference Manual* documents the architecture, the usage and the
+programming of the GNU Hurd.  At the moment, the manual is quite incomplete.
+
+  * [HTML version](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/doc/hurd_toc.html) for
+    browsing online,
+  * [PostScript version](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/doc/hurd.ps)
+    [1020KiB, 91 pages].
diff --git a/hurd/running.mdwn b/hurd/running.mdwn
index 162bc9ea..78815099 100644
--- a/hurd/running.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/running.mdwn
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ is included in the section entitled
 [[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
 * [[Distrib]] - Distributions based on the Hurd
-* [[microkernel/mach/gnumach/ports/Xen]] - In Xen
+* [[microkernel/mach/gnu_mach/ports/Xen]] - In Xen
 * [[Live_CD]]
 * [[QEMU]] - In QEMU
 * [[vmware]] (**non-free!**)
diff --git a/hurd/running/debian.mdwn b/hurd/running/debian.mdwn
index f291b75b..f80c1cfc 100644
--- a/hurd/running/debian.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/running/debian.mdwn
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 [[meta title="Debian GNU/Hurd"]]
 
-[[img logo.png]]
-
 - Debian [[FAQ]] -- Frequently Asked Questions
 - [[After_install]] -- Do this to get networking, new console and X
 - [Presentation](http://people.debian.org/~mbanck/talks/hurd_lt2004/html/)
diff --git a/hurd/running/debian/logo.png b/hurd/running/debian/logo.png
deleted file mode 100644
index 068d9584..00000000
--- a/hurd/running/debian/logo.png
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/hurd/running/distrib.mdwn b/hurd/running/distrib.mdwn
index fc42e862..b0a6badd 100644
--- a/hurd/running/distrib.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/running/distrib.mdwn
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ about getting applications to work (if possible).
 
 * GNU [Coding Standards](http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards.html)
 * [[TestSuites]] - Posix, Perl, results feedback, etc.
-* [docs and papers](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/docs.html)
+* [[Documentation]]
 * [[SystemAPILimits]]
 * [[CodeAnnouncements]] - Recent coding projects related to the Hurd
 
diff --git a/hurd/running/gnu.mdwn b/hurd/running/gnu.mdwn
index 2ae2f2ca..26d93279 100644
--- a/hurd/running/gnu.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/running/gnu.mdwn
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-[[img logo.png]]
-
 # <a name="The_GNU_Operating_System"> </a> The GNU Operating System
 
 The GNU Operating System, or GNU System as it is more commonly known, will be a
diff --git a/hurd/running/gnu/gnu.mdwn b/hurd/running/gnu/gnu.mdwn
index 2a3629d7..3ee5f657 100644
--- a/hurd/running/gnu/gnu.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/running/gnu/gnu.mdwn
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-[[img logo.png]]
-
 ## <a name="GNU_FSF_amp_RMS"> </a> GNU, FSF &amp; RMS
 
 GNU stands for GNU's Not [[Unix]].  It is a project announced in 1983 by
diff --git a/hurd/running/gnu/logo.png b/hurd/running/gnu/logo.png
deleted file mode 100644
index 50c392cf..00000000
--- a/hurd/running/gnu/logo.png
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/hurd/running/gnu/universal_package_manager.mdwn b/hurd/running/gnu/universal_package_manager.mdwn
index 009b26bf..440f1122 100644
--- a/hurd/running/gnu/universal_package_manager.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/running/gnu/universal_package_manager.mdwn
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ OK. I will give you steps.
 
 i. Install a GNU System by folowing [[these_instructions|setup]]
 
-ii. Read about GNU Design <http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd-paper.html>
+ii. Read about GNU Design: [[Towards_a_New_Strategy_of_OS_Design|documentation/hurd-paper]]
 
 iii. Read about translators <http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-doc-translator>
 
diff --git a/hurd/status.mdwn b/hurd/status.mdwn
index a84d7c45..b4ece046 100644
--- a/hurd/status.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/status.mdwn
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation,
+Inc."]]
 
 [[meta license="""[[toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[toggleable
 id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
@@ -8,19 +9,44 @@ Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
 is included in the section entitled
 [[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
-The Hurd team doesn't create hurd-only releases, but instead relies 
-on a distribution done by folks from **Debian**. 
+The Hurd, together with the GNU Mach microkernel, the GNU C Library
+and the other GNU and non-GNU programs in the GNU system, provide a
+rather complete and usable operating system today.  It may not be ready
+for production use, as there are still many bugs and missing features.
+However, it should be a good base for further development and
+non-critical application usage.
+
+The GNU system (also called GNU/Hurd) is completely self-contained
+(you can compile all parts of it using GNU itself).  You can run
+several instances of the Hurd in parallel, and debug even critical
+servers in one Hurd instance with gdb running on another Hurd
+instance.  You can run the X window system, applications that use it,
+and advanced server applications like the Apache webserver.
+
+On the negative side, the support for character devices (like sound
+cards) and other hardware is mostly missing.  Although the POSIX
+interface is provided, some additional interfaces like POSIX shared
+memory or semaphores are still under development.
+
+All this applies to the current development version, and not to the
+last release (0.2).  We encourage everybody who is interested to try
+out the latest development version, and send feedback to the Hurd
+developers.
+
+
+The Hurd team doesn't create Hurd-only releases, but instead relies
+on a distribution done by folks from *Debian*.
 
 That Debian version closely tracks the progress of the Hurd 
 (and often includes many new features), 
 so little would be gained by creating an official pure Hurd release. 
 
-The Debian GNU/Hurd [[distribution|running/debian]] offers **livecds and qemu images** 
+The Debian GNU/Hurd [[distribution|running/debian]] offers *LiveCDs and QEMU images*
 to test-drive the Hurd in a real life system with access to about 
 50% of the Debian software archive. 
 
 The most recent version of the Debian port at the time of writing 
-is **Debian GNU/Hurd K16**. 
+is *Debian GNU/Hurd K16*.
 
 
 That said, the last official release of the Hurd 
@@ -34,3 +60,4 @@ already expect delays; to disappoint them in this way as
 well would be unfortunate. Moreover, it would lessen the
 possibility that they would want to try the Hurd again in the future.
 
+
diff --git a/hurd/subhurd.mdwn b/hurd/subhurd.mdwn
index 8816e312..d2b80cf9 100644
--- a/hurd/subhurd.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/subhurd.mdwn
@@ -118,5 +118,4 @@ characteristic thread counts.
 
 Read about using a subhurd for [[debugging_purposes|debugging/subhurd]].
 
-Roland's [tutorial](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/howto/subhurd.html) on
-setting up sub-hurds.
+Roland's tutorial about [[running_a_subhurd]].
diff --git a/hurd/subhurd/running_a_subhurd.mdwn b/hurd/subhurd/running_a_subhurd.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5d9693cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/subhurd/running_a_subhurd.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation,
+Inc."]]
+
+[[meta license="""[[toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[toggleable
+id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
+document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
+Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
+is included in the section entitled
+[[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
+
+[[meta title="Running a Subhurd"]]
+
+By Roland McGrath.
+
+The most useful thing you can do when trying to troubleshoot the boot
+sequence of the Hurd is try to run your the system in a
+sub-hurd, while watching it using ps and gdb from the working hurd.  Since
+the sub-hurd is never going to make it all the way up, you don't even
+really need to make a separate filesystem for it; you can just boot the
+sub-hurd read-only on your main root filesystem if you like.
+
+The way to boot the sub-hurd is with `boot`.  I would suggest something
+like this:
+
+    boot -d -I -Tdevice /boot/servers.boot hd0s6
+
+The -d says to pause before the start-up of each server and wait for you to
+hit return, which gives you time to go attach gdb to the task before it
+starts running.  The -I says to leave the terminal signals normal, so
+hitting C-z will suspend boot rather than sending a C-z to the virtual
+console device of the sub-hurd.  (Note that suspending boot does not
+suspend the sub-hurd, just boot itself; boot acts as the server for device
+access from the sub-hurd, so the sub-hurd's attempts to write to its
+console or open devices block while boot is suspended.)
+
+When you do `ps -A` on the main hurd, the sub-hurd tasks will appear as
+unknown processes.  You can figure out which is which just by looking at
+the order of unknown processes that appear with higher PIDs than the boot
+process.  They appear in the order you see in the "bootstrap: ..."
+messages, i.e. the first unknown after boot will be ext2fs.static, the
+second exec, then init, then proc.
diff --git a/hurd/translator.mdwn b/hurd/translator.mdwn
index b9952931..1a987b09 100644
--- a/hurd/translator.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/translator.mdwn
@@ -40,9 +40,12 @@ Also there is an [[writing/example]] about how to write a simple translator.
 
 See some [[examples]] about how to use translators.
 
+Marcus Brinkmann has written a document about [[documentation/translators]].
+
 
 # Existing Translators
 
+* [[auth]]
 * [[pfinet]]
 * [[pflocal]]
 * [[hostmux]]
diff --git a/hurd/running/creating_image_tarball.mdwn b/hurd/translator/auth.mdwn
index 2938c79a..73e7e025 100644
--- a/hurd/running/creating_image_tarball.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/translator/auth.mdwn
@@ -8,4 +8,6 @@ Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
 is included in the section entitled
 [[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
-[[meta redir=debian/creating_image_tarball]]
+[[*The_Authentication_Server*|documentation/auth]], the transcript of a talk
+about the details of the authentication mechanisms in the Hurd by Wolfgang
+Jährling.
diff --git a/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd.mdwn b/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b125fc48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 Free
+Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+
+[[meta license="""[[toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[toggleable
+id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
+document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
+Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
+is included in the section entitled
+[[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
+
+[[meta title="What Is the GNU Hurd?"]]
+
+The Hurd is the GNU project's replacement for the [[Unix]] kernel.
+
+The Hurd is firstly a collection of protocols formalizing how different
+components may interact.  The protocols are designed to reduce the mutual
+[[trust]] requirements of the actors thereby permitting a more
+[[extensible|extensibility]] system.  These include interface definitions to
+manipulate files and directories and to resolve path names.  This allows any
+process to implement a file system.  The only requirement is that it have
+access to its backing store and that the [[principal]] that started it own the
+file system node to which it connects.
+
+The Hurd is also a set of servers that implement these protocols.
+They include file systems, network protocols and authentication.
+The servers run on top of the [[microkernel/Mach]] [[microkernel]] and use
+Mach's [[microkernel/mach/IPC]] mechanism to transfer information.
+
+The Hurd supplies the last major software component needed for a complete
+[[GNU_operating_system|running/gnu]] as originally conceived by Richard
+M. Stallman (RMS) in 1983.  The GNU vision directly drove the creation and has
+guided the evolution of the [Free Software Foundation](http://fsf.org/), the
+organization that is the home of the [GNU project](http://gnu.org/gnu/).
+
+The Hurd development effort is a somewhat separate project from the
+[[Debian_GNU/Hurd|hurd/running/debian]] port.
+
+
+Read about what the GNU Hurd is [[gramatically_speaking]].
+
+Read about the [[origin_of_the_name]].
diff --git a/hurd/faq/gramatically_speaking.mdwn b/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd/gramatically_speaking.mdwn
index 7aa3edac..4a2ddc67 100644
--- a/hurd/faq/gramatically_speaking.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd/gramatically_speaking.mdwn
@@ -9,19 +9,27 @@ Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
 is included in the section entitled
 [[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
-[[meta title="Grammatically speaking, what is the Hurd?"]]
+[[meta title="Grammatically speaking..."]]
 
-*Hurd*, as an acronym, stands for *Hird of [[Unix]]-Replacing Daemons*.  *Hird*, in
-turn, stands for *Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth*.
+> [[It's_time_to_explain|origin_of_the_name]] the meaning of *Hurd*.
+> 
+> *Hurd* stands for *Hird of [[Unix]]-Replacing Daemons*.
+> And, then, *Hird* stands for *Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth*.
 
-We treat *Hurd* as a title rather than as a proper name: it requires an
-article, as in *the Hurd*.  For instance: *The ext2 filesystem is provided by
-the Hurd, not by Mach.*  Note that all of the following are incorrect: *Hurd*,
-*HURD*, *The HURD*, and *the hurd*.
+The Hurd has its share of linguistic debate.  The subject of proper usage comes
+up quite often.
 
-We write *the GNU Hurd* instead of *the Hurd* when we want to emphasize that
-the Hurd is a GNU package.  Once this has been made clear, we usually use the
-shorter form, without *GNU*.
+Although [[Thomas_Bushnell_states|origin_of_the_name]] that the word *Hurd* is
+an acronym; we do not treat it as such, but rather as a concrete noun.  We
+treat *Hurd* as a title rather than as a proper name: it requires an article,
+as in *the Hurd*.  For instance: *The ext2 filesystem is provided by the Hurd,
+not by Mach.* Note that all of the following are incorrect: *Hurd*, *HURD*,
+*H.U.R.D.*, *The HURD*, and *the hurd*.
+
+Since the Hurd is part of the GNU Project, we also refer to it as *GNU Hurd*
+which is treated as a proper noun.  We write *the GNU Hurd* instead of *the
+Hurd* when we want to emphasize that the Hurd is a GNU package.  Once this has
+been made clear, we usually use the shorter form, without *GNU*.
 
 The whole operating system includes not only the kernel and the system servers,
 but also many more programs.  This system is called *GNU*, or *the GNU
@@ -40,3 +48,7 @@ singular, capitalized as in English.
 When we are referring to the microkernel, we say *Mach* and use it as a proper
 noun.  For example: *Mach uses the device drivers found in version 2.0.x of
 Linux.*  We sometimes say *the Mach microkernel* instead of just *Mach*.
+
+
+To pronounce the word *Hurd*, you should say the English word *herd*.  This is
+pronounced as *hɚd* using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
diff --git a/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd/origin_of_the_name.mdwn b/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd/origin_of_the_name.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3527703a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd/origin_of_the_name.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008
+Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+
+[[meta license="""[[toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[toggleable
+id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
+document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
+Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
+is included in the section entitled
+[[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
+
+[[meta title="Origin of the Name"]]
+
+[According to Thomas
+Bushnell](http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/hurd/hurd-name), the primary
+architect of the Hurd:
+
+> It's time to explain the meaning of *Hurd*.
+> 
+> *Hurd* stands for *Hird of [[Unix]]-Replacing Daemons*.
+> And, then, *Hird* stands for *Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth*.
+> 
+> We have here, to my knowledge, the first software to be named by a
+> pair of mutually recursive acronyms.
+
+[Quoting](http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/help-hurd/2002-10/msg00099.html)
+him further:
+
+> The name *Hurd* was invented by me, as an alternate spelling for the English
+> word *herd*.  *Hird* is just another alternate spelling for the same word.
+> By the [[normal_rules_of_English_orthography|gramatically_speaking]], they
+> all have the same pronunciations.
+
+
+---
+
+<!-- TODO.  Source?  Or remove? -->
+
+In other contexts:
+
+One contributor from Norway described two other uses of Hird.
+
+  * "the kings men", a name given to the men accompanying the Norwegian kings at about 
+    year 1000 and on.
+    
+    This was later coined by V. Quisling when he formed a party with
+    nationalistic traits to denote a set of helpers promoting his agenda of
+    national and Nordic ideas.
+
+  * a symbol of collaboration with the (German) enemy used in World War II.