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Diffstat (limited to 'community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnumach_cleanup.mdwn')
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diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnumach_cleanup.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnumach_cleanup.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 00000000..c11defe5 --- /dev/null +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/gnumach_cleanup.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]] + +[[meta license="""[[toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[toggleable +id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this +document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or +any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant +Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license +is included in the section entitled +[[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]] + +[[meta title="GNU Mach Code Cleanup"]] + +Although there are some attempts to move to a more modern microkernel +alltogether, the current Hurd implementation is based on +[[GNU_Mach|microkernel/mach/gnumach]], which is only a slightly modified +variant of the original CMU [[microkernel/Mach]]. + +Unfortunately, Mach was created about two decades ago, and is in turn based on +even older BSD code. Parts of the BSD kernel -- file systems, [[UNIX]] [[mechanism]]s +like processes and signals, etc. -- were ripped out (to be implemented in +[[userspace_servers|hurd/translator]] instead); while other mechanisms were +added to allow implementing stuff in userspace. +([[Pager_interface|microkernel/mach/external_pager_mechanism]], +[[microkernel/mach/IPC]], etc.) + +Also, Mach being a research project, many things were tried, adding lots of +optional features not really needed. + +The result of all this is that the current code base is in a pretty bad shape. +It's rather hard to make modifications -- to make better use of modern hardware +for example, or even to fix bugs. The goal of this project is to improve the +situation. + +The task starts out easy, with fixing compiler warnings. Later it moves on to +more tricky things: removing dead or unneeded code paths; restructuring code +for readability and maintainability. + +This task requires good knowledge of C, and experience with working on a large +existing code base. Previous kernel hacking experience is an advantage, but +not really necessary. + +Possible mentors: Samuel Thibault (youpi) + +Exercise: Create a few simple patches that fix some of the compiler warnings, +rework a piece of ugly code etc. |