andreaorru / zen

Experimental operating system written in Zig

Zen

Experimental operating system written in Zig.

Build and test

To build the kernel, simply type:

zig build

You can run and debug the kernel straight away with Qemu:

# Run the kernel inside the emulator.
zig build qemu

# Wait for a GDB connection first (for debugging).
zig build qemu-debug
gdb

You can also generate a bootable ISO and try it on Bochs (or on real hardware if you feel like it):

./iso.sh    # Generate run/zen.iso
./bochs.sh

zen's Issues

integrate with zig's debug info framework

so that you get stack traces and error return traces in the kernel

Preallocate fixed-sized queues of Messages

Update comments to use the standard Zig style

Ensure GDT is aligned accordingly

Get rid of most catch unreachable

Define @panic function

Plans for the OS

Is there a roadmap of features/ design goals for Zen? I see that there's a fork that appears to be working on getting it to compile against the latest Zig, I'd love to try to do some work adding some more basic features.

blog post series?

I've been following along with this project sort of commit by commit, and it's been a fantastic way of digging into Zig, as well as reenforcing things I've learned doing other small kernel experiments.

I was wondering if you'd be alright with me basing a series of blog posts on following along with this repo, sort of in the vein of Writing an OS in Rust by Philipp Oppermann (though almost guaranteed not as popular ;)).

I don't want to jump on the work you've done without asking your blessing, so let me know if you have concerns!

Thanks!

• Jon

Pass parameters to processes

argc, argv

Zen does not build with Zig 0.6

Here is the build log:

./build.zig:23:27: error: array literal requires address-of operator to coerce to slice type '[][]const u8'
    const common_params = [][]const u8 {
                          ^
./build.zig:24:9: note: referenced here
        "qemu-system-i386",
        ^
./build.zig:48:11: error: no member named 'setOutputPath' in struct 'std.build.LibExeObjStep'
    kernel.setOutputPath("zen");
          ^
./build.zig:66:11: error: no member named 'setOutputPath' in struct 'std.build.LibExeObjStep'
    server.setOutputPath("servers/" ++ name ++ "/" ++ name);
          ^
./build.zig:11:33: note: called from here
    const terminal = buildServer(b, "terminal");
                                ^
./build.zig:6:32: note: called from here
pub fn build(b: *Builder) void {
                               ^
./build.zig:66:11: error: no member named 'setOutputPath' in struct 'std.build.LibExeObjStep'
    server.setOutputPath("servers/" ++ name ++ "/" ++ name);
          ^
./build.zig:12:33: note: called from here
    const keyboard = buildServer(b, "keyboard");
                                ^
./build.zig:6:32: note: called from here
pub fn build(b: *Builder) void {
                               ^
./build.zig:66:11: error: no member named 'setOutputPath' in struct 'std.build.LibExeObjStep'
    server.setOutputPath("servers/" ++ name ++ "/" ++ name);
          ^
./build.zig:14:33: note: called from here
    const shell    = buildServer(b, "shell");
                                ^
./build.zig:6:32: note: called from here
pub fn build(b: *Builder) void {

Document all functions.

Write a real allocator.

Panic with GRUB + bochs

Enable blinking cursor

Setup GDB debugging

Move common code to zen lib package

• Remove duplicated code in tty.zig and terminal.zig
• Consolidate common message types into an enum

Can't Build

I got the following error when I tried to build the source.

build.zig:23:40: error: expected token 'Symbol', found '{'
    const common_params = [][]const u8.{
                                       ^

Anyone know what the problem could be?
Running Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, i3 7100T

Organize the project in directories.

Use ArrayList for Mailbox and Thread

• Mailboxes
• Threads

Get rid of magic constants in assembly files.

Support MailboxId.This and MailboxId.Thread

Move critical assembly parts out of Zig code.

Print more state info on exceptions

Ability to send messages to port without owners

Fork the Zig standard library to add support for Zen.

Use intrusive linked lists

Add assertions all around

Returning a value from a syscall that switches thread doesn't work