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+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
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+Approved: info-gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
+To: info-gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu
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+
+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.  
+