Re: Microkernel architecture?

[Galen Sampson <galen_sampson@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all,

   I have also been interested in the exokernel mentioned here.  It seems like
a very interesting concept, but doesn't seem to have many coorelations with the
dragonfly kernel.  One thing that I would like to see in the dragonfly kernel
is the ability to hot restart portions of the kernel.  Chorus (a microkernel)
can restart the memory manager and scheduler without restarting I believe. 
This would be neat to see in dragonfly.  If such a thing were possible you
could easily do binary upgrades of the kernel by hotrestarting the pieces that
contain bugs.  Take for instance todays security advisory for procf:  All
processes enter a paused state, the kernel unloads procfs and loads the new
binary into the kernel (this could be versioned), processes are allowed to
enter the run queue again.  Probably not possible, but heres to wishing :).

regards,
Galen

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
http://shopping.yahoo.com