Re: [TUHS] Abstractions

[Rich Morin <rdm@cfcl.com>]

> On Feb 15, 2021, at 11:56, Jon Steinhart <jon@fourwinds.com> wrote:
> 
> Was thinking about our recent discussion about system call bloat and such.
> Seemed to me that there was some argument that it was needed in order to
> support modern needs.  As I tried to say, I think that a good part of the
> bloat stemmed from we-need-to-add-this-to-support-that thinking instead
> of what's-the-best-way-to-extend-the-system-to-support-this-need thinking.
> 
> So if y'all are up for it, I'd like to have a discussion on what abstractions
> would be appropriate in order to meet modern needs.  Any takers?

The folks behind the Nerves Project (https://www.nerves-project.org) have done some serious thinking about this question, albeit mostly confined to the IoT space.  They have also written (and distribute) some nifty implementation code.

I won't try to cover all of their work here, but some high points include:

- automated build and cross-compilation of entire Linux-based systems
- automated distribution of (and fallbacks for) updated system code
- separation of code and data using read-only and read/write file systems
- support for multiple target platforms (e.g., processors, boards)

- Erlang-style supervision trees (via Elixir) for critical services, etc.
- extremely rapid boot times for the resulting (Linux-based) systems

For more information, check out their web site, watch some presentations,
and/or (gasp!) try out the code...

-r