xv6

xv6 is a modern reimplementation of Sixth Edition Unix in ANSI C for multiprocessor x86 systems. It is used for pedagogical purposes in MIT's Operating Systems Engineering (6.828) course.

Purpose

Unlike Linux or BSD, xv6 is simple enough to cover in a semester, yet still contains the important concepts and organization of Unix.^[1] Rather than study the original V6 code, the course uses xv6 since PDP-11 machines are not widely available and the original operating system was written in archaic pre-ANSI C.^[1]

Self-documentation

One intriguing feature of the Makefile for xv6 is the option to produce a PDF of the entire source code listing in a readable format. The entire printout is only 97 pages, including cross references.^[2] This is reminiscent of the original V6 source code, which was published in a similar form in Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code.

Educational use

xv6 has also been used in operating systems courses at University of Illinois at Chicago,^[3] Rutgers University,^[4] Northeastern University,^[5] Yale University,^[6] Columbia University,^[7] Ben-Gurion University,^[8] Johns Hopkins University,^[9] Tsinghua University,^[10] the University of Wisconsin-Madison,^[11] the University of Utah,^[12] ,^[13] IIT Madras in India and the Linnaeus University^[14] in Sweden.

Production Use

• TrustKernel's T6^[15] secure kernel is an Xv6 ARM ported OS and has been deployed into many secure phones in China.

References

External links

• xv6 Home page
• git://pdos.csail.mit.edu/xv6/xv6.git Source code for xv6
• Printable version of the xv6 source code, rev8.
• xv6: a simple, Unix-like teaching operating system., xv6 book rev8.
• Operating Systems Engineering (6.828)
• xv6 armv7 porting
• T6, xv6 based secure OS using ARM TrustZone.