What kinds of things would you want in the GNU OS?

[Paul Fox]

I would like a system-call something like this:

	signal(SIGSCHED, my_scheduling_routine);

what this means is that every time a process is rescheduled, the
now running process would start at the same address. This function
'my_scheduling_routine' can then invoke its own private scheduler.
This is the core functionality required for 'threads'. If
this signal isnt setup, then a process simply resumes from where it
left off.

This means that the kernel maybe has a very simplistic scheduler which
schedules processes (preferably one like RSTS/E), and threads can
be scheduler by a piece of library code or rewritten as your heart desires.

It would sure be nice to have the PDP-10/TOPS-10 like concept of a gettab
table. Instead of having to look at symbol tables to work out where
things are in /dev/mem to see the status of the system it would
be nice to have a very fast and efficient mechanism to see whats going
on the kernel. Maybe map the kernel address space into user space in
read-only mode (a la VMS ?).

Definitely want process tracing a la SunOS 4 or better. Even better still
is some form of kernel tracing - eg watch all file system accesses which
fail with EPERM, etc. This gives us the ability to build our own
security access monitors.

Probably more things as I think about them....

Oh yeah and finally...orthogonality. I dont want a million and one
different configuration files which try to maintain compatability with
SysV or BSD just for the hell of it. Make everything look the same - that
way I can understand what a file is for or how to modify it without RTFM.



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