Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 27 Jan 1999 01:21:31 +0100 | From | Marcin Dalecki <> | Subject | Finally the 2.2.0 is out of sight :-). |
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Hello!
Since the "stable" developement kernel seems to be already out of sight maybe I would like to suggest some developement which may be of real interrest.
For me personally it appears that the linux kernel is currently already reaching an complexity, where some serious tought should be put into the developement tools at use. There seems already to be some support for kernel profiling and live debuggin. And second there seems to be already an quite well done abstraction between the architecture dependant parts and the non dependant. Third on some archs there is already a way to run the kernel as a kind of user process inside of a VM.
Maybe all of them could be put together, by creating an "architecure" port which would be in fact itself compleatly independant from the actual hardware.
What I'm thinking about is porting the kernel to run as a *compleatly* *normal* user level process. Something along those lines had been already imeplemnted by prof. Switzer at Univeristy of Goettingen. What he had done was in fact a pseudo micro kernel implemented as a UNIX programm running on a file containing his file system. It was called TUNIX. (ftp to ftp.gwdg.de will show where to find it.)
Obviously this wasn't very usefull for any other purposes then educational. (Even those it served in a really bad manner, due to the numerous bugs in it and due to many many inaccuracies in the accomplying book.) However turning a *real* kernel in an compleatly arch independant way, by doing *just* another port into something like this, would be undoubtly of real value.
Just imagine....
1. Detecting dead code by using plain nice well known user land coverage tools. (hint: egcs)
2. No hardware crashing (and therefore havoc with it) during testing of changes for example in the VM/swap and therlike stuff.
3. No more Andrea asking about "interactive feelings" on this list...
4. Just using nice fine gprof for profiling instead of the ugly in kernel PC grabbers...
5. No more loops decryption just call: gdb vmlinux core and whatch it all in from of yours eyes (To be short: post mortem debuggin...)
6. Writing out of nice coloured GIF's showing the memmory fragmentation/allocation/aging state of the memmory in use thus finally killing any guesses of allocator performance...
...
And anybody could play with this, not only those who can afford a processor/system capable of virtual machines....
Any comments? Would this be really appreciated? Should one start to toy with imeplementing it?
Marcin
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