os-tutorial README

The project's README from github.com/cfenollosa/os-tutorial. As one markdown file: README.md.

os-tutorial

⚠️ Hey! This is an old, abandoned project, with both technical and design issues listed here. Please have fun with this tutorial but do look for more modern and authoritative sources if you want to learn about OS design. ⚠️

How to create an OS from scratch!

I have always wanted to learn how to make an OS from scratch. In college I was taught how to implement advanced features (pagination, semaphores, memory management, etc) but:

Inspired by this document and the OSDev wiki, I'll try to make short step-by-step READMEs and code samples for anybody to follow. Honestly, this tutorial is basically the first document but split into smaller pieces and without the theory.

Updated: more sources: the little book about OS development, JamesM's kernel development tutorials

Features

How to use this tutorial

  1. Start with the first folder and go down in order. They build on previous code, so if you jump right to folder 05 and don't know why there is a mov ah, 0x0e, it's because you missed lecture 02. Really, just go in order. You can always skip stuff you already know.

  2. Open the README and read the first line, which details the concepts you should be familiar with before reading the code. Google concepts you are not familiar with. The second line states the goals for each lesson. Read them, because they explain why we do what we do. The "why" is as important as the "how".

  3. Read the rest of the README. It is very concise.

  4. (Optional) Try to write the code files by yourself after reading the README.

  5. Look at the code examples. They are extremely well commented.

  6. (Optional) Experiment with them and try to break things. The only way to make sure you understood something is trying to break it or replicate it with different commands.

TL;DR: First read the README on each folder, then the code files. If you're brave, try to code them yourself.

Strategy

We will want to do many things with our OS:

Probably we will go through them in that order, however it's soon to tell.

If we feel brave enough:

Contributing

This is a personal learning project, and even though it hasn't been updated for a long time, I still have hopes to get into it at some point.

I'm thankful to all those who have pointed out bugs and submitted pull requests. I will need some time to review everything and I cannot guarantee that at this moment.

Please feel free to fork this repo. If many of you are interested in continuing the project, let me know and I'll link the "main fork" from here.

os-tutorial (cfenollosa/os-tutorial)

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What is this?A step-by-step tutorial that walks you through building a small operating system from scratch, starting at the boot sector and moving up to a basic kernel.
Is this a finished OS or a series of lessons?It is a series of numbered lesson folders, each with its own short README and heavily commented code, building on the previous lesson.
How do I work through the tutorial?Start with the first folder and go in order: read the folder's README (prerequisites and goals), then study the commented code, then optionally try writing it yourself before looking at the example.
What do I need to know before starting?Each lesson's README states required prior concepts up front, and the author expects you to be comfortable with low-level programming and to look things up yourself rather than relying on built-in theory.
Is this still maintained and up to date?No, the author explicitly flags it as an old, abandoned project with known technical and design issues, and recommends more modern sources for actually learning OS design.
What has the tutorial actually built so far?According to the strategy list, it covers booting without GRUB, entering 32-bit mode, jumping from Assembly to C, interrupt handling, screen/keyboard I/O, and a tiny growing libc - all marked DONE.
What topics are planned but not finished?Memory management, a filesystem, a simple shell, user mode, and multiple processes/scheduling are listed as not-yet-done, with a BASIC interpreter, GUI, and networking as stretch goals.
Why is there so little theory in the lessons?The author deliberately skips most theory, arguing that excessive theory after college makes OS development seem harder than it is, and expects readers to Google unfamiliar concepts themselves.
Can I continue the project if the author is inactive?Yes, the author invites forks and says they will link a 'main fork' if enough people want to continue development.
Creator
cfenollosa
Size
0.1 MB
Stars
30.8K
Updated
CommitFeb 04
Age
12y
Commits · 90 Days