GNU Hurd
 
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Table of Contents

• Introductory material, papers and other informational documents
• Frequently asked questions
• Wiki
• Reference manuals

Introductory material, papers and other informational documents

• Towards a New Strategy of OS Design, an architectural overview by Thomas Bushnell, BSG.
• The Hurd, a presentation by Marcus Brinkmann.
• GNU/Hurd User's Guide, an introduction to the important concepts and software of the GNU system, written for new users, AKA "GNUbies."

  Available Formats:

  • HTML version for browsing online.
  • PostScript version [477kB, 67 pages] for download.
  • ASCII text version [154kB].
  • Texinfo source [155kB].
• The Hurd Hacking Guide, an introduction to GNU Hurd and Mach programming by Wolfgang Jährling.

  Available Formats:

  • HTML version for browsing online.
  • PostScript version [187kB, 37 pages] for download.
  • ASCII text version [59kB].
  • Texinfo source [60kB].
• The Unofficial GNU Mach IPC beginner's guide, an easy introduction to Inter Process Comunication in the Mach microkernel by Manuel Pavón Valderrama.
• The Authentication Server, the transcript of a talk about the details of the authentication mechanisms in the Hurd by Wolfgang Jährling.
• The Mach Paging Interface as Used by the Hurd, a text by Neal Walfield.
• A Critique of the GNU Hurd Multi-server Operating System, an analysis of the GNU Hurd on GNU Mach system, written by Neal Walfield and Marcus Brinkmann.
• Position paper Improving Usability via Access Decomposition and Policy Refinement: Neal Walfield and Marcus Brinkmann give an overview about how a future, subsequent system may be architected.

Frequently asked questions

Please check out the Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Hurd (33k characters) and their answers, which cover most issues a new user will be confronted with.

This document is available in several languages:

• English
• français
• deutsch
• Japanese
• español
• italiano

Wiki

A wiki is available for collecting ideas and reciepes. Fell free to contribute!

Some topics:

• The future direction of the GNU Hurd.

Reference manuals

• The GNU Mach Reference Manual documents the architecture, the usage and the programming of the GNU Mach microkernel. At the moment, the manual documents the interface completely, but is not very useful as a tutorial or introduction into the Mach architecture.

  Available Formats:

  • HTML version for browsing online;
  • PostScript version [around 900KiB];
  • gzipped PostScript version [around 300KiB];
  • PDF version [around 700KiB].

  If you want to work on the manual, you're advised to make a checkout of the source tree. Be sure to get the GNU Mach 1 branch when you intend to work on the manual. You can then find the manual's sources in the doc/ directory. Please submit any modifications to <bug-hurd@gnu.org> (if possible in unidiff format, as produced by diff -u).

• The GNU Hurd Reference Manual documents the architecture, the usage and the programming of the GNU Hurd. At the moment, the manual is quite incomplete.

  Available Formats:

  • HTML version for browsing online.
  • PostScript version [1020kB, 91 pages] for download.

  If you want to work on the manual, you're advised to make a checkout of the source tree. You can then find the manual's sources in the doc/ directory. Please submit any modifications to <bug-hurd@gnu.org> (if possible in unidiff format, as produced by diff -u).