--Dear tech kernel team
My name is Henrique, a Computer Science student at UFSCAR, Brazil. I'm a member of a FOSS extension group at my university, and looking towards making my first contribution to open source.
I saw that NetBSD is a recurrent participant in the GSOC and although the applications period hasn’t started yet, I would like to start discussing the project to get some guidance and address any gaps in my knowledge.I have read the projects page and found the one about emulating missing syscalls very interesting, and I believe that I’m able to pull it off.
To start, I would like to know if you have a suggestion about how to approach the project, also if there are any known Linux Binaries that don’t work, or a group of important missing syscalls.
As I’m a beginner, I tried to answer most of the questions of the guideline.
My experience with NetBSD ecosystem:
Installed NetBSD as a VM and utilized the basics functionalities (sshd, pkgin).
Successfully rebuilt the kernel using build.sh.
Read the relevant source code in the compat/linux repository and manual page.
About the project:
My current understanding is that this is a kernel subsystem project focused on identifying missing syscalls and implementing their emulation, making Linux Binaries that previously not worked work as intended.
The work seems to be centered on the many syscalls.master files, creating new mappings of Linux Syscalls to NetBSD’s ones. I have a preference for amd64, but with some emulation I may be able to work on other archs too.
About me:
I have a good foundation on low level programming, with expertise in Rust, and good knowledge on C/C++ and basic understanding of CVS and SVN. I also have access to amd64/x86_64 hardware for testing.
Unfortunately, I'm new to syscall emulation, but I think I have the skills to work with it and get to understand as the project goes on.
I plan to refine my proposal, include the workflows and the schedules required soon.
Thank you for your time. I hope we talk again soon.
Henrique de BritoComputer Science StudentFederal University of São Carlos - UFSCar