GNU Hurd Task List - GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation (FSF)

GNU Hurd Task List (Text Version Only)

GNU Hurd Task List Version 1.18.  Last updated 21 August 1997.

If you would like to work on one of these, please contact
thomas@gnu.ai.mit.edu.  It's important that you let me know what's being
worked on, because someone else might also be interested, and you
should coordinate work.

Items that we want done with more priority are marked with !!!.



General system work

  * Compile all the free programs you can find to help us fix bugs in
  the system, and to submit necessary ports to the maintainers of
  those programs.

  * See how much of X compiles.

  * Do whatever magic is necessary for Perl to take advantage of all
  the nifty Hurd features that Unix doesn't have.



Mach 3.0 Work

We now have our own distribution of the microkernel.  Please discuss
proposed microkernel work there as well as with thomas@gnu.ai.mit.edu.

!!!
  * Mach 3.0 needs many new device drivers for popular PC devices.
  Shantanu Goel is doing work in this area; coordinate with him.

!!!
  * A replacement for MiG that understands C .h files.

!!!
  * Mach 3.0 needs to provide support for task virtual timers similar
  in functionality to the Unix ITIMER_PROF and ITIMER_VIRTUAL timers.

!!!
  * Mach 3.0 needs to make switches from MEMORY_OBJECT_COPY_DELAY to
  MEMORY_OBJECT_COPY_NONE have the effect of immediately completing any
  delayed copies.

  * Mach 3.0 needs a facility to automatically send task and thread
  status on task/thread exit to a port that can only be changed by
  a privileged user; this would be used to implement process
  accounting.

  * Mach 3.0 needs a facility to find out what task is the parent of
  a given task.

  * Mach 3.0 needs a facility to find out which pages of a task's
  address space are in core to implement Unix's mincore call.

  * Mach 3.0 needs a facility to do msync.

  * Utah Mach needs the OSF vm_remap call.

  * Mach 3.0 needs a replacement for MEMORY_OBJECT_COPY_CALL that
  works at least for the cases needed in ordinary files.  (Write
  thomas if you want to know what the problem is and some ideas about
  how to solve it.)

!!!
  * Mach 3.0 needs proxy memory objects.  (thomas can tell you what
  these are and why they are important.)

  * Mach 3.0 needs a way to do per-task resource counters that are
  accessible to servers called by the task.

  * Mach 3.0 needs facilities to implement resource limits of various sorts.

  * Mach 3.0 needs a way to have a thread's CPU time statistics
  include time spent by servers on its behalf.  [This has been done
  for the migrating-threads version of Mach; talk to thomas before starting
  work on it.]

  * Of course, free ports are always necessary to machines that don't
  already have free ports.

  * Much work can be done doing research in how to improve Mach VM
  performance and timesharing scheduling policy.

  * Mach 3.0 needs facilities to get a list of all the devices which
  can be device_open'd, as well as to get the type of a device.

  * A way to have the kernel send a message on some designated port
  everytime a new task is started.

  * OSF has enhanced the exception_raise protocol to include thread_state
    information.  This code should be merged into the kernel; OSF people
    have said their could could be released to the public (but it has not
    appeared).

  * Implement TASK_EVENTS_INFO.

  * Add a timestamp for task and thread creation to the relevant info
  structures (and make sure it works for the kernel task and threads).

  * Add an anonymous swap allocation statistic to the task info structure.


Hurd work (these are brief descriptions; thomas can give more information):

!!!
  * An RPC trace program to aid debugging.  Ask roland for more info.

  * Programs that use utmp need to be changed to use /utmp and utmp.defs.

  * We need some standard translators for /utmp nodes; most importantly
  one for ordinary terminals (set up by login) and one for X displays
  (set up by xdm).

!!!
  * We need some existing shell programs changed to do Hurd things:
  like id, su, ls, tar, cpio, etc.

  * Handy shell programs to send msgport msgs, and change default init
    ports and ints.

  * Shadow directory translators.

  * A system for write, send, talkd and so forth to bleep users;
  this should be integrated with the utmp replacement above.

  * X.  (Porting XFree86 should not be hard.)

  * A filesystem for /tmp that uses virtual memory instead of disk.
  (Roland has some ideas about this.)

  * Filesystem implementations (using libdiskfs) for other popular
  formats.  Importantly, MSDOS FAT format.
  
  * Transparent FTP translator.

  * A fancy terminal driver that uses readline and supports detach/attach.

  * A notepad program to hold and keep track of ports for shell scripts.



C library work.  See roland@gnu.ai.mit.edu if you are interested in working
on anything in the C library.

  * Useful response to SIGINFO.

  * Better integration with cthreads.
Return to GNU's home page.
FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to gnu@gnu.org. Other ways to contact the FSF.
Comments on these web pages to webmasters@www.gnu.org, send other questions to gnu@gnu.org.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.