Re: Hurd questions

[Richard Braun]

On Tue, Oct 10, 2006 at 09:16:18PM +1300, Shams wrote:
> Hi,

Hello,

> I have a few questions about GNU Hurd and Mach.
> 
> 1. What is the current development status of Hurd?

In slow progress...

> 2. What is the difference between Debian Hurd and just the "Hurd".
> - Are they maintained separate cvs branches, totally different code base 
> etc?
> - Does this mean that Debian is releasing their own version of Hurd?

The Hurd is a collection of system servers on top of the Mach microkernel.

Debian GNU/Hurd is just a distribution including the GNU Mach microkernel,
the Hurd servers, the GNU C library, and lots of GNU and non-GNU tools.
The source code comes, as usual with Debian, from the official CVS
repository.

> 3. Is Mach the "final" microkernel for Hurd and is Hurd using Mach 4 or Mach 
> 1?
> - Has the microkernel been decided?
> - What about L4, is this a candidate?

Mach is the final microkernel for the Hurd as it is now. Hurd-NG will be
using another microkernel, but will also certainly be much different from
what the Hurd currently is, i.e. the current Hurd will not be compatible
with the new microkernel, it will have to include fundamental changes.

The new microkernel is still unknown (L4 seems unsuitable, there were
discussions about Coyotos but it hasn't been choosed either). The
kernel will not be chosen until the design goals and general
implementation have been decided. You can read a draft about Hurd-NG
there : http://csuead.uwcs.co.uk/stuff/hurd-ng.pdf

GNU Mach 1.x is derived from Mach 4.

> 4. What is the overall status of the entire project?
> - Is it going to be released soon?
> - Is there much contribution from the community being made?

Not soon, and not many contributions, mainly because main developers
are busy, and contributors are few (and the system stability problems
make the task more difficult for contributors).

> 5. I would like to install and develop/for Mach and Hurd
> - Is there any documentation somewhere on how to set it up?

Well sure.

http://www.nl.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install.en.html
http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/users-guide/using_gnuhurd.html
http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hacking-guide/hhg.html

I hope it helps ;-).

-- 
Richard Braun

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