Porting Hurd to l4

[Michael Hohmuth]

Matthew Vernon <matthew at debian.org> writes:

> 	Is the l4 server interface descripted somewhere (as in, I need a
> little more help getting started than just RTFsource :) )?

I guess you mean the L4-kernel interface to be used by servers, don't
you?  This interface is documented in manpages at
<URL:http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/L4/l4man.html> (this is for Fiasco
and L4/x86; the L4/MIPS website has manpages for the MIPS version).
The L4 Reference Manual is the defining document for the L4 API (and
x86 ABI); it's available at
<URL:http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/L4/l4refx86.ps.gz>.

> I'm beginning to think the effort involved in porting the HURD
> servers to Mach may be worthwhile in the long run.
             ^^^^
             L4?

If the Hurd wouldn't be too Mach-dependent, and would instead use a
microkernel-independent object model (like "MOM", a framework Bryan
Form from Utah was thinking about at one point), it should be possible
to port it to L4.  In fact, if you look closely, there is even some
(unused and orphaned) early support for MOM in the Hurd source tree
(in the libmom directory).  Then, all you would need for a port to L4
would be an object framework (something like a server supporting a
slim version of Mach ports) and a set of device drivers.

Personally, I'd love to see a Hurd port to L4.

Michael
-- 
hohmuth at innocent.com, hohmuth at sax.de
http://www.sax.de/~hohmuth/