Re: System architecture view

[olafBuddenhagen]

Hi,

On Sat, Dec 08, 2007 at 01:48:36AM +0530, Shakthi Kannan wrote:

> ----- On Dec 8, 2007 12:32 AM, Shakthi Kannan <shakshurd@gmail.com>
> wrote: | I would like get a big picture on how servers, ports, message
> queues, | libraries, system calls, IPC, gnumach, drivers, hardware et.
> al. are | layered.
> 
> Is this something close?
> http://shakthimaan.com/downloads/hurd/gnu-hurd-mach-system-architecture.png

The Mach part looks about right, though I'm not sure the choice of
components is optimal.

The userspace part is totally wrong.

For one, (almost?) all Hurd servers *are* translators. A translator is
basically any process that can be contacted through the file system.

Hurd libraries are used by translators to talk to Mach as well as to
other translators. Note that communication with other translators always
goes through Mach ports. (Well, theroretically communication is also
possible using shared memory, where Mach is needed for the setup but not
the actual communication, but this is used only in very special cases.)

Also, glibc is a crucial component that is totally missing in your
picture. It is used both by normal application and translators, when
talking to the system servers.

-antrik-