diff options
| author | Thomas Schwinge <thomas@schwinge.name> | 2010-03-28 21:48:46 +0200 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Thomas Schwinge <thomas@schwinge.name> | 2010-03-28 21:48:46 +0200 |
| commit | 4b35fc7bdd7ab723cb3db8e9122ed08d996f33b4 (patch) | |
| tree | e4bb2ffadd136ab05b8abc3c0fa9f305f8c360fe /community | |
| parent | 34794c7002f679ab9c2d076284ff58288224c47d (diff) | |
| parent | 96611f76b833159bafeab3443229dfa690178d92 (diff) | |
Merge commit '96611f76b833159bafeab3443229dfa690178d92' into master-news_next
Conflicts:
news/2010-03-31.mdwn
Diffstat (limited to 'community')
37 files changed, 456 insertions, 288 deletions
diff --git a/community/gsoc.mdwn b/community/gsoc.mdwn index ce3b26fb..c8b8f6a6 100644 --- a/community/gsoc.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc.mdwn @@ -1,4 +1,5 @@ -[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]] +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2008, 2009, 2010 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 @@ -10,44 +11,34 @@ is included in the section entitled [[!meta title="Google Summer of Code"]] -# 2009 +# 2010 -The GNU Hurd project this year unfortunately is not in the list of accepted -mentoring organizations. +This year we are again participating in [Google Summer of Code](http://socghop.appspot.com) +under the [GNU umbrella](http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/org/show/google/gsoc2010/gnuproject). +Take a look at our [[project_ideas]] list. +If you are a student and want to apply for one of these tasks, +please mind the distinct [[student_application_form]] for the Hurd. -However, don't despair! This doesn't mean that you'd not be allowed to work on -your favorite GNU Hurd project. For one, there's the possibility that a slot -for your project can be allocated under the [auspices of the GNU -project](http://www.gnu.org/software/soc-projects/). Second, we're of course -always open to introducing newcomers to the world of the GNU Hurd outside of -any Google Summer of whatever project. Just pick a task from the list pointed -to below on this page and get in touch with us! - -<!-- The GSoC 2009 student application time has come to an end -- we -are now evaluating your applications. --> - -The applications have been evaluated and the following student has -been accepted: - - * [[Sergiu Ivanov|scolobb]] +Note that there are also two [Hurd-related ideas for X.Org](http://wiki.x.org/wiki/Hurd_Porting), +for which students should apply to [X.Org](http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/org/home/google/gsoc2010/xorg) as a mentoring organization; +and the [[project_ideas/debian_installer]] task +most likely will be handled by the [Debian organisation](http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/org/home/google/gsoc2010/debian). +If you can't participate as a GSoC student, +working on one of these projects is still a good opportunity to get started with Hurd development. +Please read up about [[contributing]] in general; +and feel free to ask any questions you might have at one of our [[regular_IRC_meetings|IRC#regular_meetings]]. +Generally it's a good idea to [[contact_us|communication]] when starting to work on some project. # History -2006 and 2007 we participated in GSoC under the umbrella of the GNU project, +In 2006 and [[2007]], we participated in GSoC under the umbrella of the GNU +project, getting one slot each year. -<!-- TODO. Extend. --> - -In 2008 we successfully participated on our own, no longer within the GNU +In the following year, we successfully participated on our own, not only as a +suborganization of the GNU project. Read about our five students' success on the [[2008]] page. - -# Joining in - -If these successes got you interested in contributing some larger part yourself - -in your free time or maybe in next years Google Summer of Code - -please have a look at our [[project_ideas]] and read up about [[contributing]]. - -Also, feel free to ask your questions at one of our -[[regular_IRC_meetings|IRC#regular_meetings]]. +The next year, we participated under the GNU umbrella with one slot again. +Read about it on the [[2009]] page. diff --git a/community/gsoc/2007.mdwn b/community/gsoc/2007.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fa22f785 --- /dev/null +++ b/community/gsoc/2007.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2008, 2009, 2010 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]]."]]"""]] + +Participated under the umbrella of the GNU project, getting one slot: + + * Carl Fredrik Hammar has been working on [[hurd/libchannel]]; [Google's + project + page](http://code.google.com/soc/2007/gnu/appinfo.html?csaid=44FB3FD69C665A08). diff --git a/community/gsoc/2009.mdwn b/community/gsoc/2009.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6efeb839 --- /dev/null +++ b/community/gsoc/2009.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2008, 2009, 2010 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="Google Summer of Code 2009"]] + +The GNU Hurd project unfortunately was not in the list of accepted +mentoring organizations. + +We did get one slot from the GNU project's. + +The applications have been evaluated and the following student has +been accepted: + + * [[Sergiu Ivanov|scolobb]] -- working on a *[[VFS-style union + mount|hurd/translator/unionmount]]* functionality; [Google's project + page](http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/student_project/show/google/gsoc2009/karlberry/t124022551214). diff --git a/community/gsoc/organization_application.mdwn b/community/gsoc/organization_application.mdwn index 9fe3a420..8e672af1 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/organization_application.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/organization_application.mdwn @@ -1,4 +1,5 @@ -[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]] +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2008, 2009, 2010 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 @@ -8,166 +9,147 @@ 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]]."]]"""]] -* Link ID: - -hurd - -* Group Name: +* Organization Name: GNU Hurd -* Home Page URL: - -http://hurd.gnu.org - -* Public Email: - -bug-hurd@gnu.org - * Description: -The Hurd project is a loose community of people sharing a common interest in -developing the Hurd kernel, which is the official kernel of the [GNU operating -system](http://gnu.org). - -When the Hurd was originally started in 1990, it was the last missing major -component for a complete GNU system. Today Linux and other free kernels are -available to fill this gap, and the combination of GNU and Linux (often -[incorrectly](http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html) called just "Linux") -is in wide use. However, the Hurd is still interesting due to its unique -design, better fitting the GNU philosophy than traditional monolithic kernels -like Linux. - -The GNU GPL guarantees that all users of software published under this license -get the legal permission to adapt the software they are using according to -their wishes, and also get the source code and other tools necessary to put -this permission to use. However, in traditional operating systems, the kernel -and related low-level system software are protected from normal users, and -cannot be easily modified; only the system administrator has power over these. - -The Hurd offers special mechanisms that allow any user to change almost all of -the system functionality he uses, without affecting the rest of the system, and -thus easily (at runtime) and without any special permissions. - -This ability to run subenvironments more or less independant from the rest of -the system, can be classified as a very sophisticated [lightweight -virtualization](http://tri-ceps.blogspot.com/2007/10/advanced-lightweight-virtualization.html) -approach. - -To offer these possibilities, the Hurd uses a true multiserver microkernel -architecture. That makes it quite unique: The Hurd is the only general-purpose -multiserver microkernel system in development today that is nearly ready for -everyday use, and offering almost perfect UNIX compatibility. (More than half -of the packages in the Debian repository are available for the Hurd.) All other -existing true microkernel systems are either research projects not nearly -complete enough for actual use, or limited to embedded systems and other -special purposes, or both. - -Marcus Brinkmann and Neal Walfield from the Hurd project are working at the -bleeding edge of microkernel operating system research. They have been in -contact with the most distinguished researchers in that field from the +The mission of the Hurd project is to create a general-purpose kernel suitable +for the [GNU operating system](http://gnu.org), which is viable for everyday +use, and gives users and programs as much control over their computing +environment as possible. + +In traditional operating systems, most system functionality is provided by the +kernel, and thus cannot be easily modified. The Hurd on the other hand -- +following the GNU spirit of giving users more control over the software they +use -- implements a unique design, which makes it feasible to change almost +everything, down to the core features of the system. + +While on other systems, such changes would require a lot of effort and special +privileges to rebuild the system core, with the Hurd this is not necessary: the +extensible architecture enables users (or applications) to simply modify their +local system environment at any time, while leaving the rest of the system in +place. + +The most obvious example is the completely decentralized VFS mechanism: it can +be extended in almost any imaginable way, simply by setting up suitable server +processes (translators). Not only does this empower users, but also it helps +application development: desktop environments such as GNOME for example, when +making use of these possibilities, wouldn't need to create their own VFS +mechanism -- they simply could extend the system VFS to suit their needs. + +One major element of the design which enables this extensibility, is the use of +a true multiserver microkernel architecture. The Hurd is quite unique in being +the only general-purpose multiserver microkernel system in development today, +that is nearly ready for everyday use, and offering almost perfect UNIX +compatibility. (About 65% of all packages in the Debian repository are +available for the Hurd.) The "general-purpose" and "everyday use" bits are +decisive here: all other existing true microkernel systems are either research +projects not nearly complete enough for actual use; or limited to embedded +systems and other special purposes; or both. + +Marcus Brinkmann and Neal Walfield, while working on improvements to the Hurd +design, pushed at the forefront of microkernel operating system research. They +worked with the most distinguished researchers in this field from the [L4](http://l4hq.org/) and [EROS](http://www.eros-os.org/eros.html)/[Coyotos](http://www.coyotos.org/) -microkernel operating system groups, and have written a couple of [research -papers](http://walfield.org/). - -* Why is your group applying to participate? What do you hope to gain by participating? - -The primary goal of course is to find and introduce new long-term contributors -to the project. - -Aside from that, it is a way to make progress with tasks that require an amount of -focused work, that is hard to do for volunteers working in their spare time -only. +microkernel operating system groups, and published a couple of [research +papers](http://walfield.org/) as well in this process. -Also it is a good possibility to get valuable input from new people, as well as -spreading technical and other knowledge about the Hurd among actual and -potential contributors. More generally, participation should help raising -awareness among people who might know about the existence of the Hurd, but -otherwise having very little idea what the project is all about, and how its -progress is. - -Last but not least, we hope the participation will have a positive effect on -our community -- new impulses, increased communication etc. +* Home Page: -* What is the main public mailing list for your group? +http://hurd.gnu.org -bug-hurd@gnu.org, see http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-hurd +* Main Organization License: -* Where is the main IRC channel for your group? +GNU General Public License (GPL) -\#hurd on freenode.net +* Why is your organization applying to participate in GSoC 2010? What do you hope to gain by participating? -* What criteria do you use to select the members of your group? Please be as specific as possible. +The primary goal of our participation is of course to find and introduce new long-term contributors +to the Hurd. We are trying to optimise for this in our student selection +process, our mentoring approach, and our choice of project ideas. -The most important criterium is that the person is involved in the project for -some time, knowing the ways; so he can actually instruct the student; and if -there are tough technical questions he can't answer himself, he knows whom to -ask. +The mentor-student setup, together with the period of focused work during the +summer session, also offer a unique opportunity for kick-starting innovative +new projects apart from mainline development, which are hard to fit in among +the normal day-to-day development work. This is particularily important for the +Hurd, as innovative uses are crucial to show the benefits of the unique +architecture. Several such projects came into being through the GSoC program +over the past years. -It's also important that the mentors are reliable and helpful, so the students -won't be left on their own with any problems they face. +Last but not least, GSoC participation always yields a lot of valuable input from new people, and helps +spreading technical and other knowledge about the Hurd among actual and +potential contributors. It has a very positive effect on +our community -- new impulses, increased communication, etc. -* Has your group participated previously? If so, please summarize your involvement and any past successes and failures. +* Did your organization participate in past GSoCs? If so, please summarize your involvement and the successes and challenges of your participation. In 2006 and 2007, we participated under the umbrella of the GNU project, getting one slot each year. -The 2006 participation was mostly a failure. After some intitial work -(available in CVS), the student disappeared -- moving to another country and -other personal issues from what we heard. +In 2008 we participated as an organisation on our own for the first time. This +turned out extremely beneficial: with the better visibility, we got a lot +more applications (more than 20), mostly of good or excellent quality. -The 2007 participation was a considerable success. The student was very bright -and dedicated. We got some code, as well as a lot of ideas, which we continued -discussing after the end of GSoC, and he intends to put into code as well in -the future. +In 2009, we were rejected as an organisation, so we participated under the GNU +umbrella again. -In 2008 we participated as an organisation on our own for the first time. This -turned out extremely beneficial: Not only did it give us much better -possibilities to find and select good students, as we hoped. We also get a lot -more applications, mostly of good or excellent quality. +While the 2006 student disappeared midway, in all the later years all of our +students were successful -- even including one who worked on his project in +spite of not getting an official slot. Half of them are regular Hurd contributors now. -We ended up with four slots. (We didn't request more, because we were not sure -whether we would be able to mentor them properly, and generally didn't want to -overdo it on our first "full" participation.) There was also a fifth student, -who worked on his project in spite of not getting a slot. +Selecting the most promising students, as well as suitable mentors, turned out +to be the most tricky part of GSoC participation -- but we learned our lesson +after the first failure: we didn't have any students that didn't meet our +expectations since then, and we also believe our mentoring is exceptionally +good now -- one project that was in serious trouble, turned out well after all, +due to effective mentor intervention. -All five students were pretty successful, most of them completing or almost -completing the original goals -- some even exceeding them. Even our weakest -student, after serious struggling in the beginning, did quite well in the end. +* If your organization participated in past GSoCs, please let us know the ratio of students passing to students allocated, e.g. 2006: 3/6 for 3 out of 6 students passed in 2006. -Two students are still regularily working on the Hurd -- not as much as we -hoped of course, but probably as much as can be realistically expected... +2008: 4/4 -All in all, the participation was a considerable amount of work, but it was -definitely worth it :-) +(+1 inofficial in 2008) +(under GNU umbrella: 2006: 0/1; 2007: 1/1; 2009: 1/1) -* If your group has not previously participated, have you applied in the past? If so, for what sort of participation? +* If your organization has not previously participated in GSoC, have you applied in the past? If so, for what year(s)? -- -* What license does your organization use? +* What is the URL for your ideas page? -GNU General Public License (GPL) +http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/community/gsoc/project_ideas.html -* What is the URL to the ideas list of your organization? +* What is the main development mailing list for your organization? This question will be shown to students who would like to get more information about applying to your organization for GSoC 2010. If your organization uses more than one list, please make sure to include a description of the list so students know which to use. -http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/community/gsoc/project_ideas.html +bug-hurd@gnu.org ( http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-hurd ) -* What is the main development mailing list for your group? +* What is the main IRC channel for your organization? -bug-hurd@gnu.org, see http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-hurd +\#hurd on freenode.net -* What is the application template you would like contributors to your organization to use. +* Does your organization have an application template you would like to see students use? If so, please provide it now. Please note that it is a very good idea to ask students to provide you with their contact information as part of your template. Their contact details will not be shared with you automatically via the GSoC 2010 site. [[student_application_form]] -* What is your plan for dealing with disappearing contributors? +* What criteria did you use to select the individuals who will act as mentors for your organization? Please be as specific as possible: -The plan is mostly to avoid that happening in the first place. For that, we -will be particularily careful with the selection of the students: Making sure -that they have no other obligations during that time; that they are motivated +The most important criterium is that the person is involved in the project for +some time, knowing the ways; so he can actually instruct the student; and if +there are tough technical questions he can't answer himself, he knows whom to +ask. + +It's also important that the mentors are reliable and helpful, so the students +won't be left on their own with any problems they face. + +* What is your plan for dealing with disappearing students? + +The plan is mostly to avoid that happening in the first place. To this end, we +are particularily careful with selection of students: Making sure +that they have no other major obligations during that time; that they are motivated enough; that they actually have the necessary skills to complete the task; that they fit in our community. @@ -175,50 +157,55 @@ Also, we will make sure that we are constantly in contact with the students -- asking about progress, discussing technical issues, etc. -- so we can act in time if things go wrong. -If a student disappears in spite of that, there is little we can do. Of course +If a student disappears in spite of all this, there is little we can do. Of course we will try to contact him and find out what the problem is; whether the -project can perhaps be scaled down, or at least wrapped up to bring it in a -state where it is useful even if not finished. +project can perhaps be scaled down, or otherwise salvaged, so that the effort +already invested in the student and the project is not wasted. We also try to +make sure that all important design discussions are archieved, and that all +code produced is suitable for upstream inclusion from the beginning -- to allow +others to pick up the project if necessary, without having to start from zero. -We will also try to limit damage by insisting that students regularily check in -their work, so that we get partial results at least if someone disappears. - -* What is your plan for dealing with disappearing members? +* What is your plan for dealing with disappearing mentors? As our mentors all have been with the project for some time, the risk of them disappearing is not too big. If one of them disappears nevertheless, it's not a -problem for us: We have enough mentors, and someone else will take over. +problem for us: we have enough mentors, and someone else will take over. We will encourage the students to keep discussions public as much as possible, keeping private conversations with the mentors to a minimum, so the transition should go smoothly. -* What steps will you take to encourage contributors to interact with your community before, during, and after the program? +* What steps will you take to encourage students to interact with your project's community before, during and after the program? We try to make it very clear that we expect the students to get into regular -contact with us before the end of the student selection process, and won't +contact with us early during the student selection process already, and won't consider their applications otherwise. This way we know that the students are able and willing to communicate with us in the first place. -After the selection, the regular contact will be kept up: We require the -students to participate in weekly IRC meetings, where we ask the students -actively about the work they do, problems they face, decisions they take etc. -Furthermore, we will ask them to hang around on IRC most of the time while -working on their projects, so we keep in close contact. +After selection, the regular contact is kept up: we require the +students to participate in IRC meetings up to twice a week, where we ask the students +actively about the work they do, problems they face, decisions they take, etc. +Furthermore, we ask them to be available on IRC while working on their +projects, so we can communicate easily. We also require the students to join our main development mailing list, so any -design questions etc. can be discussed there. We will encourage them to take +design questions, etc. can be discussed there. We encourage them to take part in other conversations, not directly related to their projects, as well. -After the program we continue the regular meetings, still discussing the -projects: The application of the code created, future directions etc. +After the program we continue the regular meetings, discussing the further +development of their original projects; as well as new projects, after the +original ones are done. -* What will you do to ensure that your accepted contributors stick with the project after the program concludes? +* What will you do to ensure that your accepted students stick with the project after GSoC concludes? -We will try to invite all participating students to a conference afterwards, -where we will discuss the projects, as well as other Hurd-related topics. We -hope this will motivate them to follow up on the work they have done during the +In addition to keeping up the regular IRC meetings, +we try to invite all participating students to meet us at conferences afterwards, +where we discuss the projects, as well as other Hurd-related topics. This should +keep them motivated to follow up on the work they have done during the program, and generally help keeping them involved. -* Please select your backup group administrator. +* Is there anything else you would like to tell the Google Summer of Code program administration team? : + +* Backup Admin (Link ID): +tschwinge diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas.mdwn index aaaa68c3..ca10c8a2 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas.mdwn @@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ Try to find something to improve in the relevant code, by looking at known issues in the [Savannah bug tracker](http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=hurd); by running the code and testing stuff; and by looking through the code. If you don't find anything, try with some related code -- if you task involves -translator programming, make some improvement to an existing translor; if it +translator programming, make some improvement to an existing translator; if it involves glibc hacking, make an improvement to glibc; if it involves driver hacking, make an improvement to the driver framework; and so on... Makes sense, doesn't it? :-) @@ -78,7 +78,6 @@ See also the list of [Hurd-related X.org project ideas](http://wiki.x.org/wiki/H [[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/language_bindings" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] [[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/virtualization" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] [[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/file_locking" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] -[[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/driver_glue_code" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] [[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/server_overriding" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] [[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/tcp_ip_stack" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] [[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/nfs" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] @@ -102,7 +101,8 @@ See also the list of [Hurd-related X.org project ideas](http://wiki.x.org/wiki/H [[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnat" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] [[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/hardware_libs" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] [[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/cdparanoia" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] -[[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/perl" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] +[[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/perl_python" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] +[[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/testsuites" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] [[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/libcap" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] [[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/xattr" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] [[!inline pages="community/gsoc/project_ideas/valgrind" show=0 feeds=no actions=yes]] diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/debian_installer.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/debian_installer.mdwn index ca10a61e..43682e8b 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/debian_installer.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/debian_installer.mdwn @@ -21,6 +21,21 @@ Some preliminary work has been done, see The goal is to have the Debian Installer fully working on the Hurd. It requires relatively little Hurd-specific knowledge. +A lot of the "non-Linux support" part of the project has already been done thanks to a previous GSoC, so at least no ground reason should bar the project. A lot of the required udebs are already in Debian or are pending upload, so that building an image and booting it does already work. A preliminary list of what remains is + + * Add initrd support to GNU Mach, unless youpi does it before :) This should not be very complicated by re-using the iopl driver code. + * hurdify genext2fs to handle 4096 block size by default (see bug #562999) and support translator entries. + * Port busybox. This needs to be synchronized with kfreebsd people, who have probably already done some work, but that seemingly still hasn't been merged. In the meanwhile, youpi has a version with most of it disabled so a d-i image can actually be built. + * Port keyboard-setup to configure the xkb driver of the Hurd console + +As a starting point to get a grasp at how the debian installer is built, students might wish to look at the current Debian installer source and build process on Linux: + + * svn co svn://svn.debian.org/d-i/trunk/installer/ + * cd installer/build + * make build_monolithic + +The same can be done on hurd-i386 but a few non-uploaded packages are needed, see http://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/README-d-i + Possible mentors: Samuel Thibault (youpi) -Exercise: Try to get one piece of the installer running on Hurd. +Exercise: Fix a couple of Hurd issues in busybox. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/disk_io_performance.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/disk_io_performance.mdwn index bb047308..b6c857b0 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/disk_io_performance.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/disk_io_performance.mdwn @@ -11,21 +11,21 @@ is included in the section entitled [[!meta title="Disk I/O Performance Tuning"]] The most obvious reason for the Hurd feeling slow compared to mainstream -systems like GNU/Linux, is very slow harddisk access. +systems like GNU/Linux, is very slow hard disk access. The reason for this slowness is lack and/or bad implementation of common -optimisation techniques, like scheduling reads and writes to minimalize head +optimization techniques, like scheduling reads and writes to minimize head movement; effective block caching; effective reads/writes to partial blocks; reading/writing multiple blocks at once; and read-ahead. The [[ext2_filesystem_server|hurd/translator/ext2fs]] might also need some -optimisations at a higher logical level. +optimizations at a higher logical level. The goal of this project is to analyze the current situation, and implement/fix -various optimisations, to achieve significantly better disk performance. It +various optimizations, to achieve significantly better disk performance. It requires understanding the data flow through the various layers involved in -disk acces on the Hurd ([[filesystem|hurd/virtual_file_system]], +disk access on the Hurd ([[filesystem|hurd/virtual_file_system]], [[pager|hurd/libpager]], driver), and general experience with -optimising complex systems. That said, the killing feature we are definitely +optimizing complex systems. That said, the killing feature we are definitely missing is the read-ahead, and even a very simple implementation would bring very big performance speedups. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/download_backends.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/download_backends.mdwn index 749597a6..f794e814 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/download_backends.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/download_backends.mdwn @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Download protocols like FTP, HTTP, BitTorrent etc. are very good candidates for this kind of modularization: a program could simply use the download functionality by accessing FTP, HTTP etc. translators. -There is already an ftpfs traslator in the Hurd tree, as well as an [httpfs +There is already an ftpfs translator in the Hurd tree, as well as an [httpfs translator on hurdextras](http://www.nongnu.org/hurdextras/#httpfs); however, these are only suitable for very simple use cases: they just provide the actual file contents downloaded from the URL, but no additional status information @@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ The goal of this project is to design a suitable interface, implement it for at least one download protocol, and adapt apt-get (or some other program) to use this as a backend. -This task requires some design skills and some knowlegde of internet protocols, +This task requires some design skills and some knowledge of internet protocols, to create a suitable interface. Translator programming knowledge will have to be obtained while implementing it. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/driver_glue_code.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/driver_glue_code.mdwn index e1b8d22e..9c063e9f 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/driver_glue_code.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/driver_glue_code.mdwn @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ is included in the section entitled [[!meta title="New Driver Glue Code"]] -Although a driver framework in userspace would be desirable, presently the Hurd +Although a driver framework in user space would be desirable, presently the Hurd uses kernel drivers in the microkernel, [[GNU_Mach|microkernel/mach/gnumach]]. (And changing this would be far beyond a GSoC project...) @@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ this project is to redo the glue code, so we can use drivers from current Linux versions, or from one of the free BSD variants. While it would be certainly possible to create custom glue code again, a more -sustainable and probably also easier approch is to use +sustainable and probably also easier approach is to use [[DDE]] instead -- it already does the hard work of providing an environment where the foreign drivers can run, and has the additional advantage of being externally maintained. @@ -44,3 +44,6 @@ ethernet) from a recent system, and try to port it to run in the existing driver framework in GNU Mach. Completing the port might be too involved for the exercise; but it's pretty likely that you will find something else to improve in the glue code while working on this... + +*Status*: [[Zheng Da|zhengda]] is working on DDE, and has mostly completed the +initial port. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/dtrace.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/dtrace.mdwn index 93c2a5f3..4a46cf38 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/dtrace.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/dtrace.mdwn @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ problems, these are mostly just guesses. Better understanding what really causes bad performance is necessary to improve the situation. For that, we need tools for performance measurements. While all kinds of more -or less specific profiling tools could be convieved, the most promising and +or less specific profiling tools could be conceived, the most promising and generic approach seems to be a framework for logging certain events in the running system (both in the microkernel and in the Hurd servers). This would allow checking how much time is spent in certain modules, how often certain @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ with integrating existing components as well as low-level programming. Possible mentors: Samuel Thibault (youpi) -Exercise: In lack of a good exercise directly related to this taks, just pick +Exercise: In lack of a good exercise directly related to this task, just pick one of the kernel-related or generally low-level tasks from the bug/task trackers on savannah, and make a go at it. You might not be able to finish the task in a limited amount of time, but you should at least be able to make a diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/file_locking.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/file_locking.mdwn index af010c98..0159b091 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/file_locking.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/file_locking.mdwn @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ is included in the section entitled [[!meta title="Fix and Complete File Locking Support"]] -Over the years, [[UNIX]] has aquired a host of different file locking mechanisms. +Over the years, [[UNIX]] has acquired a host of different file locking mechanisms. Some of them work on the Hurd, while others are buggy or only partially implemented. This breaks many applications. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnat.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnat.mdwn index b7f2ea62..97a4a552 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnat.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnat.mdwn @@ -15,9 +15,9 @@ also a number of other Debian packages depending on GNAT, and thus not buildable on the Hurd. The goal of this project is getting GNAT fully working in Debian GNU/Hurd. It -requires implementing some explicitely system-specific stuff in GNAT, and maybe +requires implementing some explicitly system-specific stuff in GNAT, and maybe fixing a few other problems. Good knowledge of Ada is a must; some Hurd -knowledge will have to be aquired while working on the project. +knowledge will have to be acquired while working on the project. Possible mentors: Samuel Thibault (youpi) diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnumach_cleanup.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnumach_cleanup.mdwn index e75c9d3e..4aef0d1b 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnumach_cleanup.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnumach_cleanup.mdwn @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ is included in the section entitled [[!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 +altogether, 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]]. @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ 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. +added to allow implementing stuff in user space. ([[Pager_interface|microkernel/mach/external_pager_mechanism]], [[microkernel/mach/IPC]], etc.) diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/language_bindings.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/language_bindings.mdwn index 8b493e19..a27b0d30 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/language_bindings.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/language_bindings.mdwn @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ Several approaches are possible when creating such bindings. One way is simply to provide wrappers to all the available C libraries ([[hurd/libtrivfs]], [[hurd/libnetfs]] etc.). While this is easy (it requires relatively little consideration), it may not be the optimal solution. It is preferable to hook in at a lower level, thus -being able te create interfaces that are specially adapted to make good use of +being able to create interfaces that are specially adapted to make good use of the features available in the respective language. -These more specialised bindings could hook in at some of the lower level +These more specialized bindings could hook in at some of the lower level library interfaces ([[hurd/libports]], [[hurd/glibc]], etc.); use the [[microkernel/mach/MIG]]-provided [[microkernel/mach/RPC]] stubs directly; or even create native stubs directly from the interface definitions. The diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/lexical_dot-dot.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/lexical_dot-dot.mdwn index 764cd37f..e0dabc01 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/lexical_dot-dot.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/lexical_dot-dot.mdwn @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ resolution. Some application already use lexical resolution internally for that reason. It is generally agreed that many problems could be avoided if the standard filesystem lookup calls used lexical resolution as well. The compatibility -problems probably would be negligable. +problems probably would be negligible. The goal of this project is to modify the filename lookup mechanism in the Hurd to use lexical resolution, and to check that the system is still fully diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/libcap.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/libcap.mdwn index 10ca508e..875b462f 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/libcap.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/libcap.mdwn @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ libcap is a library providing the API to access POSIX capabilities. These allow giving various kinds of specific privileges to individual users, without giving them full root permissions. -Although the Hurd design should faciliate implementing such features in a quite +Although the Hurd design should facilitate implementing such features in a quite natural fashion, there is no support for POSIX capabilities yet. As a consequence, libcap is not available on the Hurd, and thus various packages using it can not be easily built in Debian GNU/Hurd. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/libdiskfs_locking.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/libdiskfs_locking.mdwn index 2a08b387..570a9581 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/libdiskfs_locking.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/libdiskfs_locking.mdwn @@ -18,8 +18,8 @@ faulty paths causing these lockups. The task is systematically checking the [[hurd/libdiskfs]] code for this kind of locking issues. To achieve this, some kind of test harness has to be implemented: For -exmple instrumenting the code to check locking correctness constantly at -runtime. Or implementing a unit testing framework that explicitely checks +example instrumenting the code to check locking correctness constantly at +runtime. Or implementing a unit testing framework that explicitly checks locking in various code paths. (The latter could serve as a template for implementing unit checks in other parts of the Hurd codebase...) diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/libgtop.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/libgtop.mdwn index ef1b2bcb..14304de2 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/libgtop.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/libgtop.mdwn @@ -24,9 +24,9 @@ The goal of this project is a fully functional libgtop in Debian GNU/Hurd. Some application(s) using it also need to be ported, e.g. gnome-system-monitor. Some bits of this work are easy, others need some digging into Hurd internals. -This task doesn't require any specific previous knowlegde (besides of general +This task doesn't require any specific previous knowledge (besides of general C/UNIX programming skills of course); but during the course of the project, -some knowlegde about Hurd internals will have to be obtained, along with a bit +some knowledge about Hurd internals will have to be obtained, along with a bit of Debian stuff. Possible mentors: Samuel Thibault (youpi) diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/mtab.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/mtab.mdwn index 60dde525..a60a8038 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/mtab.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/mtab.mdwn @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ is no central place keeping track of mounts. As a consequence, there is currently no easy way to obtain a listing of all mounted file systems. This also means that commands like `df` can only work on -explicitely specified mountpoints, instead of displaying the usual listing. +explicitly specified mountpoints, instead of displaying the usual listing. One possible solution to this would be for the translator startup mechanism to update the `mtab` on any `mount`/`unmount`, like in traditional systems. @@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ with passive translators, i.e., translators that are not presently running, but set up to be started automatically whenever the node is accessed? Probably these should be counted among the mounted filesystems; but how to handle the `mtab` updates for a translator that is not started yet? Generally, being -centralized and event-based, this is a pretty unelegant, non-hurdish solution. +centralized and event-based, this is a pretty inelegant, non-hurdish solution. A more promising approach is to have `mtab` exported by a special translator, which gathers the necessary information on demand. This could work by @@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ other filtering rules might be desirable. After taking decisions on the outstanding design questions, the student will implement both the actual [[mtab_translator|hurd/translator/mtabfs]], and the -necessery interface(s) for gathering the data. It requires getting a good +necessary interface(s) for gathering the data. It requires getting a good understanding of the translator mechanism and Hurd interfaces in general. Possible mentors: Olaf Buddenhagen (antrik), Carl Fredrik Hammar (cfhammar) diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/namespace-based_translator_selection.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/namespace-based_translator_selection.mdwn index d40d73ac..67e3fc28 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/namespace-based_translator_selection.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/namespace-based_translator_selection.mdwn @@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ 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="Namspace-based Translator Selection"]] +[[!meta title="Namespace-based Translator Selection"]] The main idea behind the Hurd is to make (almost) all system functionality user-modifiable ([[extensible_system|extensibility]]). This includes a @@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ file, and presents a virtual file with the uncompressed contents. Or the other way around. Or a translator that presents an [[XML_file_as_a_directory_tree|hurd/translator/xmlfs]]. Or an mbox as a set of individual files for each mail ([[hurd/translator/mboxfs]]); or ever further -breaking it down into headers, body, attachements... +breaking it down into headers, body, attachments... This gets even more powerful when translators are used as building blocks for larger applications: A mail reader for example doesn't need backends for @@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ There are a few problems with the way translators are set, though. For one, once a translator is set on a node, you always see the translated content. If you need the untranslated contents again, to do a backup for example, you first need to remove the translator again. Also, having to set a translator -explicitely before accessing the contents is pretty cumbersome, making this +explicitly before accessing the contents is pretty cumbersome, making this feature almost useless. A possible solution is implementing a mechanism for selecting translators @@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ place of the original ones. In the long run it's probably desirable to have the mechanism implemented in the standard name lookup mechanism, so it will be available globally, and avoid -the overhead of a proxy; but for the beginnig the proxy solution is much more +the overhead of a proxy; but for the beginning the proxy solution is much more flexible. The goal of this project is implementing a prototype proxy; perhaps also a diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/nfs.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/nfs.mdwn index 683287f7..e7c18324 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/nfs.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/nfs.mdwn @@ -11,12 +11,12 @@ is included in the section entitled [[!meta title="Improved NFS Implementation"]] The Hurd has both NFS server and client implementations, which work, but not -very well: File locking doesn't work properly (at least in conjuction with a +very well: File locking doesn't work properly (at least in conjunction with a GNU/Linux server), and performance is extremely poor. Part of the problems could be owed to the fact that only NFSv2 is supported so far. (Note though that locking on the Hurd is problematic in general, not only in -conjuction with NFS -- see the [[file_locking]] task.) +conjunction with NFS -- see the [[file_locking]] task.) This project encompasses implementing NFSv3 support, fixing bugs and performance problems -- the goal is to have good NFS support. The work done in diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/package_manager.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/package_manager.mdwn index 43e53f7c..23304f6b 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/package_manager.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/package_manager.mdwn @@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ came about. There are no global databases of any kind. (Some things might require caching for better performance, but this must happen transparently.) The core of this approach is formed by [[hurd/translator/stowfs]], which -creates a traditional unix directory structure from all the files in the +creates a traditional Unix directory structure from all the files in the individual package directories. But this only handles the lowest level of package management. Additional mechanisms are necessary to handle stuff like dependencies on other packages. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/perl.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/perl.mdwn deleted file mode 100644 index bfe1968e..00000000 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/perl.mdwn +++ /dev/null @@ -1,30 +0,0 @@ -[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 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="Improving Perl Support"]] - -Perl is available on the Hurd, but there are quite a lot of test suite -failures. These could be caused by problems in the system-specific -implementation bits of Perl, and/or shortcomings in the actual system -functionality which Perl depends on. - -The goal of this project is to fix all of these problems if possible, or at -least some of them. Some issues might require digging quite deep into Hurd -internals, while others are probably easy to fix. - -Note that while some Perl knowledge is probably necessary to understand what -the test suite failures are about, the actual work necessary to fix these -issues is mostly C programming -- in the implementation of Perl and/or the -Hurd. - -Possible mentors: Samuel Thibault (youpi) - -Exercise: Make some improvement to Perl support on the Hurd, e.g. fixing one of -the known test suite failures. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/perl_python.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/perl_python.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 00000000..34e877ab --- /dev/null +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/perl_python.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2009, 2010 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="Improving Perl or Python Support"]] + +Perl and Python are available on the Hurd, but there are quite a lot of test suite +failures. These could be caused by problems in the system-specific +implementation bits of Perl/Python, and/or shortcomings in the actual system +functionality which Perl/Python depends on. + +The student applying for this project can pick either Perl or Python, +whichever he is more comfortable with. +(Perl is higher priority though; and there are more failures too.) + +The goal then is to fix all of the problems with the chosen language if possible, or at +least some of them. Some issues might require digging quite deep into Hurd +internals, while others are probably easy to fix. + +Note that while some Perl/Python knowledge is probably necessary to understand what +the test suite failures are about, the actual work necessary to fix these +issues is mostly C programming -- in the implementation of Perl/Python and/or the +Hurd. + +Possible mentors: Samuel Thibault (youpi) + +Exercise: Take a stab at one of the testsuite failures, +and write a minimal testcase exposing the underlying problem. +Actually fixing it would be a bonus of course -- +but as it's hard to predict which issues will be easy and which will be tricky, +we will already be satisfied if the student makes a good effort. +(We hope to see some discussion of the problems in this case though :-) ) diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/procfs.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/procfs.mdwn index 85eec43c..d4760aae 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/procfs.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/procfs.mdwn @@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ interfaces.) This project requires learning [[hurd/translator]] programming, and understanding some of the internals of process management in the Hurd. It should not be too hard coding-wise; and the task is very nicely defined by the -exising Linux `/proc` interface -- no design considerations necessary. +existing Linux `/proc` interface -- no design considerations necessary. **Note**: We already have several applications for this task. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/secure_chroot.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/secure_chroot.mdwn index 0a08bbf5..feb30a7c 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/secure_chroot.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/secure_chroot.mdwn @@ -16,10 +16,10 @@ good, as it allows easily escaping the `chroot`, for example by use of [[passive_translators|hurd/translator]]. Many solutions have been suggested for this problem -- ranging from simple -workaround changing the behaviour of passive translators in a `chroot`; -changing the context in which passive translators are exectuted; changing the +workaround changing the behavior of passive translators in a `chroot`; +changing the context in which passive translators are executed; changing the interpretation of filenames in a chroot; to reworking the whole passive -translator mechanism. Some involving a completely different approch to +translator mechanism. Some involving a completely different approach to `chroot` implementation, using a proxy instead of a special system call in the filesystem servers. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/server_overriding.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/server_overriding.mdwn index 80beab4c..c35d88de 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/server_overriding.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/server_overriding.mdwn @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ The main idea of the Hurd is that every user can influence almost all system functionality ([[extensible_system|extensibility]]), by running private Hurd servers that replace or proxy the global default implementations. -However, running such a cumstomized subenvironment presently is not easy, +However, running such a customized subenvironment presently is not easy, because there is no standard mechanism to easily replace an individual standard server, keeping everything else. (Presently there is only the [[hurd/subhurd]] method, which creates a completely new system instance with a completely @@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ mechanism would have to check an override table on each lookup, and apply the desired replacement whenever a match is found. Another approach would be server-side overrides. Again there are various -variants. The actual servers themself could provide a mechanism to redirect to +variants. The actual servers themselves could provide a mechanism to redirect to other servers on request. (3) Or we could use some more generic server-side namespace overrides: Either all filesystem servers could provide a mechanism to modify the namespace they export to certain clients (4), or proxies could be diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/sound.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/sound.mdwn index b92f76da..8411831b 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/sound.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/sound.mdwn @@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Possible mentors: Samuel Thibault (youpi) Exercise: This project requires kernel (driver framework) hacking as well as some Hurd server hacking; so the exercise should involve either of these, or even both. You could for example port some newer driver to run in the existing -framework (see the [[device_driver|driver_glue_code]] project descrption), or +framework (see the [[device_driver|driver_glue_code]] project description), or try to make some fix(es) to the [unfinished random device implementation](http://savannah.gnu.org/patch/?6088) created by Michael Casadevall. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/tcp_ip_stack.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/tcp_ip_stack.mdwn index b56bff51..735c8bbb 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/tcp_ip_stack.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/tcp_ip_stack.mdwn @@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ more flexibly. Rather than just having the standard socket interface, plus some lower-level hooks for special needs, there are explicit (perhaps filesystem-based) interfaces at all the individual levels; special application can just directly access the desired layer. All kinds of packet filtering, -routing, tunneling etc. can be easily achieved by stacking compononts in the +routing, tunneling etc. can be easily achieved by stacking components in the desired constellation. Implementing a complete modular network stack is not feasible as a GSoC diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/testsuites.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/testsuites.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4f8d43fc --- /dev/null +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/testsuites.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2010 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="Fix Compatibility Problems Exposed by Testsuites"]] + +A number of software packages come with extensive testsuites. +Some notable ones are Perl, Python, GNU Coreutils, and glib. +While these testsuites were written mostly to track regressions in the respective packages, +some of the tests fail on the Hurd in general. + +While in some cases these might point to wrong usage of system interfaces, +most of the time such failures are actually caused by shortcomings in Hurd's implementation of these interfaces. +These shortcomings are often not obvious in normal use, +but can be directly or indirectly responsible for all kinds of failures. +The testsuites help in isolating such problems, +so they can be tracked down and fixed. + +This task thus consists in running some of the mentioned testsuites +(and/or any other ones that come to mind), +and looking into the causes of failures. +The goal is to analyze all failures in one or more of the listed testsuites, +to find out what shortcomings in the Hurd implementation cause them (if any), +and to fix at least some of these shortcomings. + +Note that this task somewhat overlaps with the [[Perl/Python task|perl_python]] listed above. +Here the focus however is not on improving the support for any particular program, +but on fixing general problems in the Hurd. + +This is a very flexible task: +while less experienced students should be able to tackle at least a few of the easier problems, +other issues will be challenging even for experienced hackers. +No specific previous knowledge is required for this task; +only fairly decent C programming skills. +While tracking down the various issues, +the student will be digging into the inner workings of the Hurd, +and thus gradually gaining the knowledge required for Hurd development in general. + +Possible mentors: Samuel Thibault (youpi) + +Exercise: Take a stab at one of the testsuite failures, +and write a minimal testcase exposing the underlying problem. +Actually fixing it would be a bonus of course -- +but as it's hard to predict which issues will be easy and which will be tricky, +we will already be satisfied if the student makes a good effort. +(We hope to see some discussion of the problems in this case though :-) ) diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/tmpfs.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/tmpfs.mdwn index 93215d07..63b4effe 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/tmpfs.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/tmpfs.mdwn @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ actual disk storage, but only by anonymous memory, i.e. lives in the RAM (and possibly swap space). A simplistic way to implement such a memory filesystem is literally creating a -ramdisk, i.e. simply allocating a big chunck of RAM (called a memory store in +ramdisk, i.e. simply allocating a big chunk of RAM (called a memory store in Hurd terminology), and create a normal filesystem like ext2 on that. However, this is not very efficient, and not very convenient either (the filesystem needs to be recreated each time the ramdisk is invoked). A nicer solution is diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/unionfs_boot.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/unionfs_boot.mdwn index 6c83092b..d9f1a9e1 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/unionfs_boot.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/unionfs_boot.mdwn @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ is included in the section entitled [[!meta title="Allow Using unionfs Early at Boot"]] In [[UNIX]] systems, traditionally most software is installed in a common directory -hierachy, where files from various packages live beside each other, grouped by +hierarchy, where files from various packages live beside each other, grouped by function: user-invokable executables in `/bin`, system-wide configuration files in `/etc`, architecture specific static files in `/lib`, variable data in `/var`, and so on. To allow clean installation, deinstallation, and upgrade of diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/valgrind.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/valgrind.mdwn index 319d33a7..c6fc7459 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/valgrind.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/valgrind.mdwn @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]] +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2009, 2010 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 @@ -8,12 +8,73 @@ 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="Porting valgrind to the Hurd"]] +[[!meta title="Porting Valgrind to the Hurd"]] -Valgrind is a very powerful tool to debunk bugs. However, in order to do so, it needs deep knowledge of the behavior of kernel traps. In the case of GNU/Hurd, there is a bunch of system calls that GNU Mach handles directly, but also all the MIG RPCs (Remote Procedure Calls) which return their result either inline or through memory allocated by the kernel. +[Valgrind](http://valgrind.org/) is an extremely useful debugging tool for memory errors. +(And some other kinds of hard-to-find errors too.) +Aside from being useful for program development in general, +a Hurd port will help finding out why certain programs segfault on the Hurd, +although they work on Linux. +Even more importantly, it will help finding bugs in the Hurd servers themselfs. -The goal is thus to teach valgrind the exact semantics of all MIG RPCs, most probably in an automatic way from the .defs files. +To keep track of memory use, +Valgrind however needs to know how each system call affects the validity of memory regions. +This knowledge is highly kernel-specific, +and thus Valgrind needs to be explicitely ported for every system. -As a starter, students can try to teach valgrind a couple of Linux ioctls, as this will make them learn how to use the read/write primitives of valgrind. +Such a port involves two major steps: +making Valgrind understand how kernel traps work in general on the system in question; +and how all the individual kernel calls affect memory. +The latter step is where most of the work is, +as the behaviour of each single system call needs to be described. + +Compared to Linux, +Mach (the microkernel used by the Hurd) has very few kernel traps. +Almost all system calls are implemented as RPCs instead -- +either handled by Mach itself, or by the various Hurd servers. +All RPCs use a pair of mach\_msg() invocations: +one to send a request message, and one to receive a reply. +However, while all RPCs use the same mach\_msg() trap, +the actual effect of the call varies greatly depending on which RPC is invoked -- +similar to the ioctl() call on Linux. +Each request thus must be handled individually. + +Unlike ioctl(), +the RPC invocations have explicit type information for the parameters though, +which can be retrieved from the message header. +By analyzing the parameters of the RPC reply message, +Valgrind can know exactly which memory regions are affected by that call, +even without specific knowledge of the RPC in question. +Thus implementing a general parser for the reply messages +will already give Valgrind a fairly good approximation of memory validity -- +without having to specify the exact semantic of each RPC by hand. + +While this should make Valgrind quite usable on the Hurd already, it's not perfect: +some RPCs might return a buffer that is only partially filled with valid data; +or some reply parameters might be optional, +and only contain valid data under certain conditions. +Such specific semantics can't be deduced from the message headers alone. +Thus for a complete port, +it will still be necessary to go through the list of all known RPCs, +and implement special handling in Valgrind for those RPCs that need it. + +The goal of this task is at minimum to make Valgrind grok Mach traps, +and to implement the generic RPC handler. +Ideally, specific handling for RPCs needing it should also be implemented. + +Completing this project will require digging into Valgrind's handling of system calls, +and into Hurd RPCs. +It is not an easy task, but a fairly predictable one -- +there shouldn't be any unexpected difficulties, +and no major design work is necessary. +It doesn't require any specific previous knowledge: +only good programming skills in general. +On the other hand, +the student will obtain a good understanding of Hurd RPCs while working on this task, +and thus perfect qualifications for Hurd development in general :-) Possible mentors: Samuel Thibault (youpi) + +Exercise: As a starter, +students can try to teach valgrind a couple of Linux ioctls, +as this will make them learn how to use the read/write primitives of valgrind. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/virtualization.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/virtualization.mdwn index 3a677306..822b8d99 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/virtualization.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/virtualization.mdwn @@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ desired constellations. The goal is to create a set of powerful tools for managing at least one desirable virtualization scenario. One possible starting point could be the [[hurd/subhurd]]/[[hurd/neighborhurd]] mechanism, which allows a second almost totally -independant instance of the Hurd in parallel to the main one. +independent instance of the Hurd in parallel to the main one. While subhurd allow creating a complete second system instance, with an own set of Hurd servers and [[UNIX]] daemons and all, there are also situations where it is @@ -35,8 +35,8 @@ to create such a subenvironment with a single command would be very helpful. It might be possible to implement (perhaps as a prototype) a wrapper using existing tools (chroot and [[hurd/translator/unionfs]]); or it might require more specific tools, -like some kind of unionfs-like filesytem proxy that mirrors other parts of the -filesystem, but allows overriding individual locations, in conjuction with +like some kind of unionfs-like filesystem proxy that mirrors other parts of the +filesystem, but allows overriding individual locations, in conjunction with either chroot or some similar mechanism to create a subenvironment with a different root filesystem. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/vm_tuning.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/vm_tuning.mdwn index 9e802188..ecc5f9f4 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/vm_tuning.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/vm_tuning.mdwn @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ Hurd/[[microkernel/Mach]] presently make very bad use of the available physical system. Some of the problems are inherent to the system design (the kernel can't distinguish between important application data and discardable disk buffers for example), and can't be fixed without fundamental changes. Other -problems however are an ordinary lack of optimisation, like extremely crude +problems however are an ordinary lack of optimization, like extremely crude heuristics when to start paging. (See <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2007-08/msg00034.html> for example.) Many parameters are based on assumptions from a time when typical machines had like 16 MiB of RAM, or simply have been set to @@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ arbitrary values and never tuned for actual use. The goal of this project is to bring the virtual memory management in Hurd/Mach closer to that of modern mainstream kernels (Linux, FreeBSD), by comparing the implementation to other systems, implementing any worthwhile improvements, and -general optimisation/tuning. It requires very good understanding of the Mach +general optimization/tuning. It requires very good understanding of the Mach VM, and virtual memory in general. This project is related to [[!GNU_Savannah_task 5489]]. diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/xattr.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/xattr.mdwn index 55961547..7178d826 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/xattr.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/xattr.mdwn @@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ fields in the inode to store Hurd-specific metadata: most notable passive translator settings. As these fields are Hurd-specific, they can't be accessed by the standard methods from Linux for example, so it's not possible to fully work with a Hurd filesystem on GNU/Linux (copy, backup etc.); and also, even -when on Hurd, only tools that explicitely support the Hurd-specific information +when on Hurd, only tools that explicitly support the Hurd-specific information can handle them. Using extended attributes instead of custom fields for the Hurd-specific diff --git a/community/gsoc/student_application_form.mdwn b/community/gsoc/student_application_form.mdwn index 84070cbf..ba339dc9 100644 --- a/community/gsoc/student_application_form.mdwn +++ b/community/gsoc/student_application_form.mdwn @@ -21,7 +21,8 @@ title yourself of course -- but surely this isn't hard, if you were able to come up with your own project idea :-) Submitting the application form is only part of the deal: we expect a few other -things on top of that. Lacking these, the application is not complete, and we +things on top of that, as explained below. This is important, so please take +it seriously -- without these things, the application is not complete, and we won't consider it. One of the things we expect is that you contact us directly as soon as possible @@ -30,41 +31,44 @@ One of the things we expect is that you contact us directly as soon as possible in particular allows for very informal conversations. (Note though that we are not all in the same time zone, and people generally -don't stare at the IRC screen all the time -- it can take quite a long time -until somebody replies: even several hours. Don't get discouraged by that: Just +don't stare at the IRC screen all the time: it can take quite a long time +until somebody replies -- even several hours. Don't get discouraged by that. Just be patient and hang on, or try again later.) Contacting us as soon as possible is crucial, as regular communication is the single most important factor for a successful GSoC project. We need to see that -you are able and willing to talk to us regularily. Also it allows us getting to -know you much better than the application form alone could. +you are able and willing to talk to us regularly. Also, we get to +know you much better this way than what the application form alone would allow us to. -You shouldn't be at a loss for reason to contact us. You ought to discuss your -project and application with us for exmple: You will gain a much better idea -about the project, our expectations etc. -- in short, you will be able to -submit a better application right from the beginnig, saving both yourself and -us some tedious roundtrips :-) +You shouldn't be at a loss for reasons to contact us. You ought to discuss your +project and application with us for example -- you will gain a much better idea +about the project, our expectations etc. In short, you will be able to +submit a better application right from the beginning, saving both yourself and +us some tedious round trips :-) Also, if you really want to get involved with the Hurd project, there are -surely many things you will want to know :-) All in all, you should have ample +surely many things you will want to know -- after all, it's a fascinating +project, with a fascinating architecture etc., right? :-) + +All in all, you should have ample causes to get in touch during the application period. Bonus points if you also participate in discussions not directly related to your project. The other thing necessary to complete your application is making a change to -some part of the Hurd code, and submitting a patch with the change. (If you are +some part of the Hurd code, and submitting a patch implementing that change. (If you are not sure what that means, ask us!) This is important, as it shows that you have everything set up to start hacking -on the project (source code, tool chain, testing environment etc.), and that -you have all kinds of qualifications necessary to successfully finish the -project: general programming abilities; working in the Hurd environment; +on the project (source code, tool chain, testing environment etc.); and that +you have all kinds of qualifications necessary to successfully finish your +project: general programming skills; working in the Hurd environment; submitting patches and reacting to feedback; finding and/or asking for any information you need; and so on. Don't get us wrong: We absolutely do *not* demand that you have and know all this up front. After all, the idea of GSoC is to *introduce* you to free software development in general, and to our project specifically :-) We are -willing to help you with anything you will need to create the patch -- you just +eager to help you with anything you will need to create the patch -- you just need to ask! We actively encourage you to contact us whenever you have any doubts. Don't be @@ -72,7 +76,7 @@ afraid that we will think worse of you when you ask too much. On the contrary: this is an occasion for you to show us that whenever there is something you don't know yet, you are able to learn quickly, and know how to ask for help :-) -As for the kind of change we want: Ideally, it would be some real improvement +As for the kind of change we want: ideally, it would be some real improvement (bug fix or new feature) in a part of the Hurd related to the specific project you want to work on. (This is not always possible though -- in that case, a useful change to some unrelated part of the Hurd would also do, or perhaps some @@ -101,9 +105,17 @@ you are unsure about something. And now that you are prepared to face the enemy, here we go :-) +* Please supply your contact information here: full name, email address, IRC +nick, Jabber ID, phone number, etc. -- anything we might need to recognize you +and to keep in touch. + +* Introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, what do you do, how did +you get here... Don't write a long essay here -- just a bunch of basic facts +you think we should know, so we get some idea whom we are talking to :-) + * Please describe the task of the project you want to work on, in your own words. Be as specific as possible. It's not sufficient to rephrase the -description from the project ideas page; show us that you actually understand +description from the project ideas page -- show us that you actually understand what this task involves! Read the available documentation (and possibly code) if necessary. And don't hesitate to ask us if you have any doubts :-) @@ -116,7 +128,7 @@ ready to be merged to mainline. Experience shows that adding the "final touches" necessary for that, tends to take up quite a lot of time -- there are always some bugs here and there, some misunderstandings about how things are supposed to work, build system issues, missing documentation, forgotten bits, -and so on. Thus, the schedule should suppose that a larger part of the main +and so on. Thus, the schedule should assume that a larger part of the main implementation work will be done by midterm! Also note that by the beginning of the summer session, you need to be able to @@ -162,12 +174,12 @@ the application process. * Do you have a permanent internet connection, especially during the time of the summer session? Are you able and willing to hang out on the Hurd IRC -channel regularily? (As in: Running the IRC client more or less permanently and +channel regularly? (As in: Running the IRC client more or less permanently and checking for activity now and then.) If it turns out that your mentor lives in a different time zone, could you shift your day/night rhythm to better match that of your mentor and other Hurd developers? -Hint: Hanging out on the channel regularily during the application process +Hint: Hanging out on the channel regularly during the application process would be a good start :-) * When does your university term end, when are your exams, and when does the @@ -190,8 +202,8 @@ intend to make sure you will be able to dedicate sufficient time to your project nevertheless? Please be open about this, and also mention things you are not yet sure about. -We can be flexible about time arrangements; but we need to know about any -possible obstacles up front. +We can be flexible about time arrangements; but we absolutely need to know about any +possible obstacles up front. Surprises on that score are not acceptable. * How do you intend to make sure that your code will keep on being maintained and supported properly after the end of the GSoC program? |