Re: Hurd development advice

[Richard Braun]

On Sun, Sep 29, 2013 at 11:52:24PM +0200, Tobias Andersen wrote:
> I would say I'm pretty good with the C programming language but I'm not at 
> all familiar with OS design.
> I am interested in networking in particular.

Then you'll be interested in the pfinet server of the Hurd, as well as
the netdde package in Debian GNU/Hurd that provides userspace network
drivers. If you ever want to start an actual project, you can look into
upgrading pfinet by importing a more recent networking stack (my
personal preference being the NetBSD one for its very low maintenance
cost due to their focus on portability).

> Hints to books or mentoring would be much appreciated.

The classics should do :
 - Modern Operating Systems (3rd Edition)
     for the main ideas

 - The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System
 - Linux Kernel Development
     for actual implmentations

 - Understand Linux Network Internals
     for an in-depth network-related description

Since the Hurd is quite exotic compared to classic Unix systems, it
might take you some time to understand its structure. Information
regarding that can be found on the wiki [1]. 

[1] http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/documentation.html

-- 
Richard Braun