diff options
author | Samuel Thibault <samuel.thibault@ens-lyon.org> | 2011-04-04 00:56:24 +0200 |
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committer | Samuel Thibault <samuel.thibault@ens-lyon.org> | 2011-04-04 00:56:24 +0200 |
commit | 2de01fbb8f3aba6ac5d85b62d8c224220df01842 (patch) | |
tree | 678fe25ddf169972e1c4a273855d8017123b7ff4 /faq | |
parent | 271c3a402f9c9db2b38989829e60bc30ed6a7ec4 (diff) | |
parent | 636b547be5a607e353c3445ebabcbd780dad9de9 (diff) |
Merge branch 'master' of flubber:~hurd-web/hurd-web
Diffstat (limited to 'faq')
-rw-r--r-- | faq/how_many_developers.mdwn | 4 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | faq/posix_compatibility.mdwn | 19 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | faq/posix_compatibility/discussion.mdwn | 25 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | faq/which_microkernel.mdwn | 44 |
4 files changed, 70 insertions, 22 deletions
diff --git a/faq/how_many_developers.mdwn b/faq/how_many_developers.mdwn index a553df21..3c430ca4 100644 --- a/faq/how_many_developers.mdwn +++ b/faq/how_many_developers.mdwn @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]] +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2010, 2011 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 @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ License|/fdl]]."]]"""]] Not many. One handful work on it in their free time, and another two handful do help with [[Debian GNU/Hurd|hurd/running/debian]] and [[hurd/running/Arch_Hurd]] packaging. Also, an additional handful of -former developers are still availble for answering technical questions, +former developers are still available for answering technical questions, but are not really participating in the current development anymore. For reaching out to new developers, we're participating in [[Google's diff --git a/faq/posix_compatibility.mdwn b/faq/posix_compatibility.mdwn index a54822c5..4490b7cb 100644 --- a/faq/posix_compatibility.mdwn +++ b/faq/posix_compatibility.mdwn @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]] +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2010, 2011 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 @@ -30,20 +30,3 @@ striving for total POSIX compliance -- and the high-level programs (that is, their users) may not even notice this, but we would avoid a lot of overhead that comes with wrapping the [[Hurd interfaces|hurd/interface]] to be POSIX compliant. - - -\#hurd IRC channel on Freenode, 2010-12-21: - - <antrik> tschwinge: the writeup ignores the fact that POSIX compatibility - is not only for applications, but also for users familiar with the UNIX - environment - <antrik> also, I still don't buy the fact that most software is not written - for POSIX. even if assuming that GNOME programs don't use POSIX (which is - only half true), there is a lot of other software in a system that is - just as important, though less visible - <antrik> (server software, startup system, device management, automation, - ...) - <antrik> tschwinge: BTW, I meant to (and partially did) write a blog - article on this topic -- but I didn't get around to finish it... - -[[!tag open_issue_documentation]] diff --git a/faq/posix_compatibility/discussion.mdwn b/faq/posix_compatibility/discussion.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0d722c9e --- /dev/null +++ b/faq/posix_compatibility/discussion.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2010, 2011 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]]."]]"""]] + +[[!tag open_issue_documentation]] + +\#hurd IRC channel on Freenode, 2010-12-21: + + <antrik> tschwinge: the writeup ignores the fact that POSIX compatibility + is not only for applications, but also for users familiar with the UNIX + environment + <antrik> also, I still don't buy the fact that most software is not written + for POSIX. even if assuming that GNOME programs don't use POSIX (which is + only half true), there is a lot of other software in a system that is + just as important, though less visible + <antrik> (server software, startup system, device management, automation, + ...) + <antrik> tschwinge: BTW, I meant to (and partially did) write a blog + article on this topic -- but I didn't get around to finish it... diff --git a/faq/which_microkernel.mdwn b/faq/which_microkernel.mdwn index 608e6b3f..0852cf09 100644 --- a/faq/which_microkernel.mdwn +++ b/faq/which_microkernel.mdwn @@ -8,8 +8,48 @@ 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 happened with the ports to the L4 / Coyotos / Viengoos +[[!meta title="What happened with the Hurd ports to the L4 / Coyotos / Viengoos microkernels?"]] -This story is told on the page about the +<!-- This page shares some text with history/port_to_another_microkernel. --> + +It is a frequently asked question, which microkernel the Hurd should be based +upon assuming that [[microkernel/Mach]] is no longer considered state of the +art, and it is well known that there has been a lot of discussion about this +topic, and also some code produced, but then, years later, the Hurd is still +based on [[GNU Mach|microkernel/mach/gnumach]]. + +Around the turn of the millenium, some of the Hurd developers began +experimenting with using other [[microkernel]]s for the Hurd, as they have been +encountering a number of fundamental design issues with the [[Mach +microkernel|microkernel/mach]], mostly with respect to +[[open_issues/resource_management_problems]]. + +At that time, L4 (Pistachio) was the prime candidate. A reimplementation of +the Hurd on this microkernel looked promising, and got pretty far (running some +simple POSIX programs, such as `banner`). However, over time some lingering +design issues turned out to be fundamental problems: the original L4 is not +suitable for building object-capability systems like the Hurd. Thus +development was aborted in 2005. + +During that process, Neal Walfield and Marcus Brinkmann started on a period of +research on other microkernels, getting in deeper contact with other +researchers. There was a lot of discussion, and a lot of good ideas produced, +but a straight-forward port of the Hurd to such a modern microkernel (Coyotos, +or the new L4 variants, for example) didn't seem feasible to them anymore: they +found microkernel design and system design to be interconnected in very +intricate ways, and this demanded design changes in the Hurd's core itself. + +Based on this experience, the next step was to write an own microkernel +instead, which Neal Walfield began doing with his experimental +[[microkernel/Viengoos]] project, for his research on resource management. +Currently he works in another research area though, and thus Viengoos is on +hold. + +Note that while none of the microkernel research work is active now, the +previous experiments already yielded a lot of experience, which will be very +useful in the further development / improvement of the mainline (Mach-based) +Hurd implementation. + +For more detauls about this topic, please see our history page about the [[history/port_to_another_microkernel]]. |