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diff --git a/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd.mdwn b/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7a7f3d43 --- /dev/null +++ b/hurd/what_is_the_gnu_hurd.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, +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="What Is the GNU Hurd?"]] + +The Hurd is the GNU project's replacement for [[UNIX]], a popular operating +system [[kernel]]. + +The Hurd is firstly a collection of protocols formalizing how different +components may interact. The protocols are designed to reduce the mutual +[[trust]] requirements of the actors thereby permitting a more +[[extensible|extensibility]] system. These include interface definitions to +manipulate files and directories and to resolve path names. This allows any +process to implement a file system. The only requirement is that it have +access to its backing store and that the [[principal]] that started it own the +file system node to which it connects. + +The Hurd is also a set of [[servers|translator]] that implement these +protocols. They include file systems, network protocols and authentication. +The servers run on top of the [[microkernel/Mach]] [[microkernel]] and use +Mach's [[microkernel/mach/IPC]] mechanism to transfer information. + +The Hurd provides a compatibility layer such that compiling higher level +programs is essentially transparent; that is, by means of the [[glibc]], it +provides the same standard interfaces known from other [[UNIX]]-like systems. +Thus, for a typical user, the Hurd is intended to silently work in the +background providing the services and infrastructure which the [[microkernel]] +itself has no business implementing, but that are required for higher level +programs and libraries to operate. + +The Hurd supplies the last major software component needed for a complete +[[GNU_operating_system|running/gnu]] as originally conceived by Richard +M. Stallman (RMS) in 1983. The GNU vision directly drove the creation and has +guided the evolution of the [Free Software Foundation](http://fsf.org/), the +organization that is the home of the [GNU project](http://gnu.org/gnu/). + +The Hurd development effort is a somewhat separate project from the +[[Debian_GNU/Hurd|hurd/running/debian]] port. + + +Read about what the GNU Hurd is [[gramatically_speaking]]. + +Read about the [[origin_of_the_name]]. |