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diff --git a/faq/old/old_hurd_faq.txt b/faq/old/old_hurd_faq.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 70c93c61..00000000 --- a/faq/old/old_hurd_faq.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,83 +0,0 @@ -[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 1999, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013 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]]."]]"""]] - -The Unofficial (and no longer maintained) GNU Hurd FAQ, Version 0.13 - -Contributions by: - -Michael I. Bushnell <mib@gnu.org> -Len Tower <tower@gnu.org> -Trent Fisher <trent@gnurd.uu.pdx.edu> -jlr@usoft.spb.su -Remy Card <Remy.Card@masi.ibp.fr> -Louis-Dominique Dubeau <hallu@info.polymtl.ca> - -Original Document by: Derek Upham <upham@cs.ubc.ca> - - -Mach is a micro-kernel, written at Carnegie Mellon -University. A more descriptive term might be a greatest-common-factor -kernel, since it provides facilities common to all ``real'' operating -systems, such as memory management, inter-process communication, -processes, and a bunch of other stuff. Unfortunately, the system -calls used to access these facilities are only vaguely related to the -familiar and cherished Unix system calls. There are no "fork", -"wait", or "sleep" system-calls, no SIGHUPs, nothing like that. All -this makes it rather difficult to, say, port GNU Emacs to a Mach box. - -The trick is, of course, to write an emulation library. Unix programs -can then use (what they think are) POSIX system calls and facilities -while they are really using Mach system calls and facilities. - -The simplest way of going about this is to take an ordinary Unix -kernel, open it up, and rip out all the machine-specific guts; any -time the Unix kernel talks to the machine, replace the code with calls -to the Mach micro-kernel. Run this fake kernel on a Mach machine and -you end up with something that looks and acts just like Unix (even to -GNU Emacs). Note that the Unix kernel we have implemented is just one -Really Big Mach program (called a single-server). - -The Hurd, on the other hand, breaks the giant Unix kernel down into -various Mach programs running as daemons. Working in concert with -facilities placed in the C library, these daemons provide all of the -POSIX system-calls and features; from the outside they look just like -a standard Unix kernel. This means that, for practical purposes, -anything that you can port to Linux will also port to the Hurd. - -Of course, if a user wishes to run his own daemons, he can do that as -well.... - -Mach 4.0 is an enhanced version of Mach 3.0, put out by the people at -the University of Utah. They are working on another free operating -system, and part of it includes an enhanced, more flexible version of -Mach. The Hurd has moved to Mach 4.0, which is good, because it is a -lot easier to build than 3.0 was. - -You can find more information on Mach by browsing the Hurd pages given -in the next answer, or by looking at the Project Mach and Flux -homepages at: - -Carnegie Mellon University (for Mach versions before 4.0): - - http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/mach/public/www/mach.html - -the University of Utah (for Mach 4.0): - - http://www.cs.utah.edu/projects/flux/mach4/html/ - - - -============================== - -Footnotes: - -[[1]] Yes, I know that ``micro-kernel'' is about as apt a description -as ``Reduced Instruction Set Chip'', but we're stuck with it. |