Code Wrangling at its Best
In Chapter 28, we cleaned up the user-program build system: now automatically builds: But our user programs still duplicate small helper functions: Both demo.c and counter.c contain nearly the same code. This chapter adds the first tiny Toyix userland support library: This is not a real libc yet, but it is the beginning of one.
In Chapter 27, we added a second user program: That proved the program registry can handle more than one embedded ELF. But the Makefile now has duplicated build rules: That will not scale. This chapter cleans up the user-program build system so adding a new user program is mostly: and then adding: The build system
Continue Reading “Chapter 28 — Pattern-Based User Program Build System”
In Chapter 26, we added: That gave us a real background process path. But our only user program, demo, waits for terminal input: That makes it awkward for runbg, because a background process can compete with the monitor for keyboard input. This chapter adds a second embedded user program: counter does not read from stdin.
Continue Reading “Chapter 27 — A Second User Program for Safe Background Execution”
In Chapter 25, the monitor gained an embedded program registry and a foreground run command: That gave us an exec-like path, but only in foreground mode: This chapter adds the next process-management layer: After this chapter, the monitor will support: The kernel still does not have job control, signals, or a filesystem, but it now
Continue Reading “Chapter 26 — Process Table, ps, runbg, and wait PID”
In Chapter 23, we crossed another major boundary: But the user program still started like this: That is not how we want user programs to look long-term. This chapter adds a real initial user stack with: Then crt0.S will pass those arguments to: This moves us closer to a normal process startup model. ELF process
Continue Reading “Chapter 24 — User argc / argv and a Real Initial Stack”
In Chapter 22, the kernel gained a first ELF32 loader. That was a big step, but our test ELF was still built by hand inside process.c: This chapter removes that artificial piece. We will add a tiny userland build pipeline: GNU objcopy is specifically designed to copy and transform object files between formats; we will
Continue Reading “Chapter 23 — Building a Real User C Program and Embedding Its ELF”
In Chapter 21, we completed the process lifecycle: Now we can replace the temporary TOYEXE format with the first real executable-loader milestone: ELF32. ELF is the Executable and Linkable Format used by many Unix-like systems. The ELF specification defines the file header, program header table, and how loadable segments describe a process image; the generic
Continue Reading “Chapter 22 — First ELF32 Loader Milestone”
In Chapter 20, we added the TOYEXE loader: But there is still a lifecycle problem. The process can exit, but we are not yet reclaiming everything it owns. Right now this leaks: This chapter closes that loop. After this chapter, the process lifecycle becomes: The milestone output will look like: 1. What this chapter adds
Continue Reading “Chapter 21 — Process Teardown and Address-Space Cleanup”
In Chapter 19, we gave each process its own address space: That was a major architectural milestone. But our user program is still not really “loaded.” We are still building a TOYEXE image inside process.c and handing it to the loader. This chapter adds a small executable format before jumping to ELF. We will call
Continue Reading “Chapter 20 — A Tiny Executable Format and User Program Loader”
In Chapter 18, user programs gained a much more realistic syscall interface: But all user processes still shared the same page directory. That means every process saw the same user mappings: This chapter gives each process its own address space. The new model becomes: When the scheduler switches between processes, it will also switch CR3.
Continue Reading “Chapter 19 — Per-Process Address Spaces and CR3 Switching”
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