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Updated README.

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The Sortix Operating System The Sortix Operating System
=========================== ===========================
Sortix is a hobby operating system. It was originally created as a tool to learn Sortix is a hobby operating system. It was originally created as a tool to learn
more about kernel and operating system design and implementation. Today is more about kernel and operating system design and implementation. Today it is
transforming into a real operating system. The standard library and kernel is gradually transforming into a real operating system. The standard library and
rich enough that some third party software can and has been ported to Sortix. kernel is rich enough that some third party software can and has been ported to
However, the system remains quite limited as of this writing. Many features are Sortix. While the system remains limited, there have been added support for
missing such as proper filesystem support, bitmap graphics, and networking. bitmap graphics and proper filesystem support being worked on. Unfortunately
Proper filesystem support is currently being added. there is no support for networking yet. The current release ships with various
test programs, utility programs and a few games and has support for rendering
the console in graphics mode.
The system aims to be an Unix-clone and is heavily based on POSIX. However, I've The system aims to be an Unix-clone and is heavily based on POSIX. However, I've
drawn much inspiration from systems such as Plan 9, GNU/Hurd and MINIX. Indeed, drawn much inspiration from systems such as Plan 9, GNU/Hurd and MINIX. While
I plan to construct a micro-kernel with user-space filesystems, per-process the system doesn't strive to be a microkernel (and today isn't), the plan is to
namespaces, replacing many system calls with filesystem nodes, and other have user-space filesystems, per-process namespaces, subusers, and generally
exciting features. This design will make it safe to let normal users perform give regular users more power that traditional Unix systems. If you are
operations such as mounting and create their own "sub-operating-system" interested, you can read about my design decisions at http://maxsi.org/blog/.
environment where they are the root.
System Requirements System Requirements
------------------- -------------------
Sortix has very low system requirements. It also works well under virtual Sortix has very low system requirements. It also works well under virtual
machines such as VirtualBox and Qemu. machines such as VirtualBox and Qemu.
* A 32-bit x86 or 64-bit x86_64 CPU. * A 32-bit x86 (with SSE) or 64-bit x86_64 CPU.
* A dozen megabytes of RAM. * A dozen megabytes of RAM.
* A harddisk or cdrom drive or support for booting from USB. * A harddisk or cdrom drive or support for booting from USB.
* A multiboot compliant bootloader if booting from harddisk. * A multiboot compliant bootloader if booting from harddisk.
@ -35,55 +36,53 @@ protected environment with round-robin scheduling. A quick and dirty shell is
able to execute programs in foreground or background mode, handle IO redirection able to execute programs in foreground or background mode, handle IO redirection
and piping the standard output of a process into the standard input of another. and piping the standard output of a process into the standard input of another.
A real shell will be added as the system matures and I get around to finish the A real shell will be added as the system matures and I get around to finish the
work in progress shell. work-in-progress shell.
A number of standard utilities are present such as cat, head, tail, clear, cp, A number of standard utilities are present such as cat, head, tail, clear, cp,
column, kill, ls, rm, pwd, uname, echo, and uptime. There is even a number of column, kill, ls, rm, pwd, uname, echo, and uptime. There is even a number of
non-standard utilities such as calc, help, init, kernelinfo, memstat, and pager. non-standard utilities such as calc, help, init, kernelinfo, memstat, and pager.
This collection of utilities will continue to grow as it matures and third party This collection of utilities will continue to grow as it matures and third party
software is ported. I've currently had some luck partially porting binutils, software is ported. I've currently had some luck partially porting binutils,
ocaml, and gzip, but the system isn't fully ready for such software yet. freetype, ocaml, and gzip, but the system isn't fully ready for such software
yet.
A number of small games is present and uses the VGA textmode to render ASCII A number of small games is present and uses the VGA textmode to render ASCII
graphics. Notably you can play two-player Pong, or single-player Snake, or the graphics. Notably you can play two-player Pong, or single-player Snake, or the
nice and Turing-complete Conway's Game of Life. These are probably the main nice and Turing-complete Conway's Game of Life. There is also a small remake of
the asteroids game which uses 32-bit bitmap graphics. These are probably the main
attraction of the system for non-technical people. attraction of the system for non-technical people.
The Sortix kernel has very basic filesystem support. The root filesystem / is The Sortix kernel has very basic filesystem support. The root filesystem / is
simply a single-directory RAM filesystem. The init ramdisk is mounted read-only simply a single-directory RAM filesystem. The init ramdisk is mounted read-only
on /bin and various devices are accessible through the /dev filesystem. Work is on /bin and various devices are accessible through the /dev filesystem. Work is
underway to create an ext2 filesystem server, but it won't be of much use until underway to create an ext2 filesystem server, but it won't be of much use until
the kernel virtual filesystem is completed in the 0.7dev development cycle. the kernel virtual filesystem is completed in the 0.8dev development cycle.
There currently is no concept of users in the system (only the root user exists There currently is no concept of users in the system (only the root user
I decided to delay making a multi-user system until the base system is in place. exists). I decided to delay making a multi-user system until the base system is
Note that there is only a single terminal - even though the system is a in place. Note that there is only a single terminal - even though the system is
multi-process system, there is only a single /dev/vga and there is no framework a multi-process system, there is only a single graphics framebuffer and there is
in place for sharing it. no framework for sharing it.
Improvements in Sortix 0.6 Improvements in Sortix 0.7
-------------------------- --------------------------
The 0.6 release improves greatly upon Sortix 0.5. The 0.7 release improves greatly upon Sortix 0.6.
* Implemented an ATA driver. * Multithreaded and fully preemptive kernel.
* User-space programs can now use dynamic allocation. * Support for Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE).
* Standard Error support. * Support for bitmap graphics through new /dev/video/ framework.
* Added a new terminal driver allowing standard input from keyboard. * Environmental variables.
* Shell understands pipes, IO redirection and background processes. * Rewritten and powerful initrd format.
* COM ports are available as /dev/comN. * Init restarts the shell if it crashes.
* ls now formats files nicely in columns. * Driver for doing BIOS calls.
* Added a paging program for displaying text-files page by page. * VBE graphics driver.
* Support for call-traces in the kernel. * BGA graphics driver.
* Fixes to avoid conflicts with GRUB. * Console rendering in graphics mode.
* Countless bug-fixes and small improvements. * Asteroids remake.
* Massive enhancements to the standard library. * Improved signal handling.
* VEOF support in terminal driver and shell.
The 0.6 release drops support for the javascript virtual machine used to power * Misc. shell improvements.
amazing things such as jslinux. This is largely because Sortix has outgrown it * Greatly improved and refactored kernel and standard library.
and needs a less limited environment, in particular the lack of a VGA and that
the keyboard events are truncated to that of serial connections is annoying and
make it possible to keep the games compatible without severe performance
penalties.
Known bugs Known bugs
---------- ----------
@ -92,51 +91,41 @@ the system being young and incomplete. They will gradually be fixed as the base
system improves. They are tolerated in the releases because they are not system improves. They are tolerated in the releases because they are not
critical and improvement situation from the last release. critical and improvement situation from the last release.
Job control and Unix signals is not fully or correctly implemented. This means
that sequences such as Ctrl-C (SIGINT) not always works correctly. This will
be implemented soon enough (depends partially on VFS; see above). Whenever you
hit Ctrl-C the kernel attempts to terminate the currently running process (even
if it isn't the foreground process). In addition, the kernel can only send
signals to running processes. This means that that programs that read a line of
input at a time from the terminal will not be terminated until you press enter.
This will be fixed when proper support for kernel threads is added.
The shell only looks at whitespace when parsing input lines. This means that The shell only looks at whitespace when parsing input lines. This means that
operators such as & ; and | must be surrounded by whitespace on both sides. operators such as & ; and | must be surrounded by whitespace on both sides.
Support for quotes and escape characters is also not implemented yet. The shell Support for quotes and escape characters is also not implemented yet. The shell
does not accept very long lines yet. does not accept very long lines yet.
Transferring large binary streams over pipes may cause instability in the kernel
due to a bug that wasn't fixed in time for the 0.6 release. In particular, the
command $ cat /bin/cat | cat seems to trigger the issue occasionally. This bug
will likely go away when I rewrite the kernel IO framework.
Some programs change the format of the terminal standard input delivered to Some programs change the format of the terminal standard input delivered to
them. For instance, the pong game needs to capture every keyboard event. However them. For instance, the pong game needs to capture every keyboard event. However
running such programs at the same time as programs that need proper line- running such programs at the same time as programs that need proper line-
buffered input (such as the shell) causes conflicts and neither program gets buffered input (such as the shell) causes conflicts and neither program gets
what it needs causing programs to exit or crash. Note that if the shell fails what it needs causing programs to exit or crash. Note that if the shell fails
to read in its expected format, it exits with an error code. When it does this to read in its expected format, it exits with an error code. This issue is
the init process does too, and the kernel panics. This issue is caused by the caused by the design of the terminal system and can't be fixed until it is
design of the terminal system and can't be fixed until it is rewritten. rewritten.
The editor can only run in 80x25 terminal resolutions. This is because it is
very hacky and was written before malloc worked. This will be fixed when the
editor is rewritten.
The filesystem is currently hacked together in the kernel. When things go wrong The filesystem is currently hacked together in the kernel. When things go wrong
you may experience the utilities returning the wrong error codes. This is you may experience the utilities returning the wrong error codes. This is
harmless but confusing. All the current kernel filesystem code will be replaced harmless but confusing. All the current kernel filesystem code will be replaced
a user-space filesystem framework and will be present in the next release. a user-space filesystem framework and will be present in the next release.
Improvements scheduled for Sortix 0.7 Improvements scheduled for Sortix 0.8
------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
* Proper kernel threads. * New build system based on cross compilation and package management.
* Kernel virtual filesystem. * Kernel virtual filesystem.
* User-space filesystem framework. * User-space filesystem framework.
* User-space ext2 filesystem driver. * User-space ext2 filesystem driver.
* Refactor and extend the standard library. * Refactor and extend the standard library.
* Mount-points. * Mount-points.
* Environmental variables.
* Improved terminal framework. * Improved terminal framework.
* New and improved shell. * New and improved shell.
* Copy-on-write in fork(2) and mmap(2). * Copy-on-write in fork(2) and mmap(2).
* And various misc. improvements.
Technical details Technical details
---------------- ----------------
@ -172,29 +161,34 @@ Links
----- -----
You can visit the official website at http://www.maxsi.org/software/sortix/ for You can visit the official website at http://www.maxsi.org/software/sortix/ for
more information and news. You can also download the newest release and cutting more information and news. You can also download the newest release and cutting
edge nightly builds. edge nightly builds from https://cs.au.dk/~sortie/sortix/release/.
You can retrieve the current git master from our gitorious project page from You can retrieve the current git master from our gitorious project page from
https://gitorious.org/sortix/. https://gitorious.org/sortix/.
You can read my blog where I discuss various design decisions in Sortix at
http://maxsi.org/blog/.
License License
------- -------
Copyright(C) Jonas 'Sortie' Termansen <sortie@maxsi.org> and contributors 2011, Copyright(C) Jonas 'Sortie' Termansen <sortie@maxsi.org> and contributors 2011,
2012. 2012.
The Sortix kernel, the filesystem servers, the initrd tools, the utilities, the
games, and the benchmark programs are licensed under the GNU General Public
License, either version 3 or (at your option) any later version.
The libmaxsi standard library is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public
License, either version 3 or (at your option) any later version.
Any experimental repositories and branches on Gitorious related to Sortix but
which contains no copyright statements are also released under the GNU General
Public License, either version 3 or (at your option) any later version. These
things are so experimental that I didn't add copyright statements yet.
Sortix is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY Sortix is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the gpl.html and lgpl.html files for more information. PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the gpl.html and lgpl.html files for more information.
See the individual files for copyright terms. If a file does not contain a
license header, you can assume it is released under the GNU General Public
Licenser, either version 3 or (at your option) any later version. This includes
Sortix-related experimental branches and repositories found on Gitorious: these
things are so experimental that I didn't add copyright statements.
Unless the license header in the source code states otherwise, the Sortix
kernel, the filesystem servers, the initrd tools, the utilities, the games, and
the benchmark programs are licensed under the GNU General Public License, either
version 3 or (at your option) any later version.
Unless the license header in the source code states otherwise, the libmaxsi
standard library is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, either
version 3 or (at your option) any later version.