nt-lite/readme.md

NT-Lite -- an x86-64 kernel

“UNIX has three operations: read, write, and lie through ioctl.”

what is it?

NT-Lite is a 64-bit operating system kernel written from scratch.

It boots into a shell, launches programs, runs Doom, talks TCP/IP, and occasionally reminds you that it is still a hobby kernel.

paths

You thought it would be easy, would you?

"apps/shell_native.exe"             -> current working directory
"/SystemRoot/apps/shell_native.exe" -> system volume, symlink to /Device/HarddiskVolumeN
"/Device/HarddiskVolume1/boot.ini"  -> system volume
"C:\apps\doom.exe"                  -> /SystemRoot/apps/doom.exe through win32.dll
"\apps\doom.exe"                    -> /SystemRoot/apps/doom.exe through win32.dll
"/apps/video.exe"                   -> /SystemRoot/apps/video.exe through posix.dll

networking

The socket syscalls are BSD-shaped, but not BSD-compatible. Same nouns (AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP), none of the baggage:
one fixed-size tagged address struct instead of the sockaddr_in/sockaddr_storage casting dance,
no htons/ntohl conversions, and DNS resolution is a syscall rather than a userspace library call.
That's right microkernel purists, cry some more. Ergonomics.
Async is first-class here too, same machinery as the filesystem. Except the DNS resolver. Ergonomics, am I right?

how to build

• get mtools
• open the VS x64 build tools
• change into this directory
• run build.bat
• use one of:
  • run.bat — IDE
  • rund.bat — IDE, debug
  • runa.bat — AHCI
  • runad.bat — AHCI, debug

how it looks when built

The ESP is just the boot anchor:

efi/boot/
  bootx64.efi
efi/ntlite/fs/
  ...
boot.ini

The configured system volume carries the OS:

system/
  colonel.exe
  hal.dll
  init.exe
  rssrv.exe
  syscall.dll
  win32.dll
  posix.dll
  settings.ini
drivers/
  drivers.ini
  ahci.sys
  ata.sys
  fat.sys
  hda.sys
  lwip.sys
  ntfs.sys
  ext4.sys
  pci.sys
  ps2.sys
  rtl816x.sys
  rtl8139.sys
  cereal.sys
  usb.sys
  vmwaresvga.sys
apps/
  shell_native.exe
  shell_win32.exe
  shell_posix.exe
  doom.exe
  video.exe
  edit.exe
  httpget.exe
  tcpserve.exe
  udp.exe
  resolve.exe
  ping.exe
  memtop.exe

screenshots

faq

Q: Is it secure? A: Don't connect to the internet with it.

Q: Who is this for? A: Me.

Q: What's next? A: Whatever I fixate on next.

Q: Does it run Doom?
A: doom.exe

Q: Can it play Crysis? A: Into the bucket list.

Q: Does USB work? A: It did for everything I threw at it.

Q: If I write a program now, will it run in the future? A: WE DO, in fact, BREAK USERSPACE.

Q: Can you read and write files?
A: As far as I'm aware.

Q: Does it have async I/O?
A: The best you'll get.

Q: Does the networking actually work? A: It didn't crash yet.

Q: Does it really have SMP? A: Watch out. It bites.

Q: Is the Win32 layer real?
A: API wise, yes. Binary compatibility wise, close but no.

Q: Are processes isolated?
A: No. But IPC is free. And you can't steal handles. Is this how a serious modern OS should isolate processes? No.
Are we a serious OS? No. Is it very convenient? Absolutely.

Q: How often does it crash?
A: It doesn't if you don't touch it.

Q: Can it recover from a crash?
A: Works on my machine.

Q: Is this finished?
A: Does it look finished?

Q: Will it corrupt my data?
A: It shouldn't.

Q: Why is the path syntax so weird?
A: It makes sense to me.

Q: Why are the logs so verbose?
A: Try debugging an interrupt path with vibes.

Q: What should I read first?
A: This document.

Q: How do I contribute? A: maksw@maksw.pl

Q: Can I use this in production?
A: Don't.

Project dedicated to the honorable, esteemed Professor Leszek Wójcik through whom I came to hate Unix.