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+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2008, 2009 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="GNU Mach Code Cleanup"]]
+
+Although there are some attempts to move to a more modern microkernel
+alltogether, the current Hurd implementation is based on
+[[GNU_Mach|microkernel/mach/gnumach]], which is only a slightly modified
+variant of the original CMU [[microkernel/Mach]].
+
+Unfortunately, Mach was created about two decades ago, and is in turn based on
+even older BSD code.  Parts of the BSD kernel -- file systems, [[UNIX]] [[mechanism]]s
+like processes and signals, etc. -- were ripped out (to be implemented in
+[[userspace_servers|hurd/translator]] instead); while other mechanisms were
+added to allow implementing stuff in userspace.
+([[Pager_interface|microkernel/mach/external_pager_mechanism]],
+[[microkernel/mach/IPC]], etc.)
+
+Also, Mach being a research project, many things were tried, adding lots of
+optional features not really needed.
+
+The result of all this is that the current code base is in a pretty bad shape.
+It's rather hard to make modifications -- to make better use of modern hardware
+for example, or even to fix bugs.  The goal of this project is to improve the
+situation.
+
+The task starts out easy, with fixing compiler warnings.  Later it moves on to
+more tricky things: removing dead or unneeded code paths; restructuring code
+for readability and maintainability.
+
+This task requires good knowledge of C, and experience with working on a large
+existing code base.  Previous kernel hacking experience is an advantage, but
+not really necessary.
+
+Possible mentors: Samuel Thibault (youpi)
+
+Exercise: Create a few simple patches that fix some of the compiler warnings,
+rework a piece of ugly code etc.