Re: L4Hurd at Sourceforge

[Niels Möller]

Farid Hajji <address@hidden> writes:

> I don't expect a lot of changes in the beginning, because we must first
> try to put the foundations in place (like the pager, support libraries,
> IDL4/DICE/<whatever> IDL generator(s), device driver framework etc.,
> before we can start modifying the Hurd (and glibc!!!) sources themselves.

> Why not start along the TODO list, putting only additional (new)
> stuff to CVS, e.g. like this:
> 
>    vk-l4/             # virtual kernel, l4-backend
> 
>    vk-l4/oskit/       # mixins w.r.t. the _newest_ OSKit from Utah!
>    vk-l4/gcc/         # specs and other modifications to gcc, if needed.
>    vk-l4/private/include  # includes, idls and libs used internally
>    vk-l4/private/idl      # by the vk-l4 components
>    vk-l4/private/lib      # not exported to OS personalities.
> 
>    # Here only the public interfaces of vk-l4:
>    vk-l4/include/     # includes needed by vk-l4 users (OS personalities)
>    vk-l4/idl/         # IDL files (like our *.defs) used by OS personalities
>    vk-l4/lib/         # libraries used by vk-l4 based OS personalities
>
>    # Now for the guts of VK/L4:
>    vk-l4/pager/       # our new general purpose L4 pager, probably UVM based.
>    vk-l4/drivers/     # the driver framework Michael Hohmuth talked about
>    vk-l4/drivers/linux
>    vk-l4/drivers/linux/net
>    vk-l4/drivers/linux/block

I'd prefer cutting down a little on the number of directories and
subdirectories, but it seems good enough to me.

>    # Here come the OS personalities using VK/L4:
>    l4hurd/            # Changes for the Hurd multiserver w.r.t. savannah.
>    l4linux/           # Changes to L4Linux to adapt it to new vk-l4 framework
>    l4bsd/             # Anyone interested to port NetBSD to vk-l4? ;-)
>    l4<whatever>/      # some other OS personality using vk-l4

I wouldn't worry too much about any personality but Hurd now, at least
not when it comes to the organization of the repository. I'd expect
most stuff in this repository to be merged back into the proper places
(hurd, glibc, etc) before anybody starts porting netbsd to a new l4
framework.

Keeping the "vk"-thing in the back of your head is great for sorting
out what parts are intrinsically hurd specific, and which ones are
not, but I don't think a real general purpose vk is needed at this
point. Ok, we have argued about that before, but I just want to say:
Keep it simple. Drop infrastructure, framworks and features that
aren't needed immediately. Add it back later if and when it is needed.
Do the simplest thing that could possibly work ;-)

Happy hacking,
/Niels