5 ms·

Good question. I don't know about other microkernels, but NetBSD is a small kernel that supports ZFS. The support has been there since the 4.0.5 and 5.3[0], pos

Good question. I don't know about other microkernels, but NetBSD is a small kernel that supports ZFS. The support has been there since the 4.0.5 and 5.3[0], possibly earlier too. I'm not adept at navigating the mailing lists here, but I imagine a good place to learn about the challenges of porting ZFS to a smaller kernel would be the NetBSD and ZFS lists from that era (2008-2009). What NetBSD does today is use a 'zfs' modlue that depends on a 'solaris' kernel modile. The dependency of Solaris primitives is probably one of the major challenges with porting ZFS to any kernel. FWIW, somehow a ZFS port for the "hybrid" kernel in Windows also exists[1]. [0] https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2022/03/25/zfs-compatibility/ https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2022/03/25/zfs-compatibility/ [1] https://github.com/openzfsonwindows/openzfs https://github.com/openzfsonwindows/openzfs

adastra22 1y ago
NetBSD isn’t a microkernel.
- bdhcuidbebe 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - adastra22 1y ago
    “I don’t know about other microkernels” implies that NetBSD is also a microkernel. It is not. Microkernel is not a size distinction. NetBSD kernel may even be smaller in terms of LOC or binary size than some microkernels. Idk. But that is beside the point. Microkernel is an *architecture*. It is a name for a specific type of kernel design, which NetBSD is not.
    - bdhcuidbebe 1y ago
      [flagged]
      - dang 1y ago
        Can you please edit out personal swipes from your HN comments? You did it repeatedly, and the site guidelines ask you not to: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. It's great, of course, to provide correct information. But please do it without putdowns; you don't need them, and they acidify discussion.
        jibal 1y ago
        They also didn't provide any correct information.
        dang 1y ago
        That may be so. Generally speaking, it's not against HN's rules to be wrong. How could it be? We're all wrong about nearly everything. But it is against HN's rules to post disrespectfully, put others down, etc. - for the obvious reason that it poisons community discussion, plus is unnecessary. It's especially important to follow those rules when one is right about something, because when a post contains both correctness and poison, the poison has has the side effect of discrediting the truth. That is bad for all of us (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=truth%20discredit%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...).
        bdhcuidbebe 1y ago
        Not even sure what you are asking here. What is personal? adastra attacked the discussion by twisting their parents words.
        dang 1y ago
        "Maybe you should read it more careful, instead adding nothing to the discussion" is crossing into personal attack. So is "Read more, comment less." from your other post in this thread. Your account has a pattern of posting personal swipes like this. Two other cases are https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45328774 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45328774 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45210601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45210601. If you would please stop this, we'd appreciate it. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - pests 1y ago
      Ah, these were dead so I didn’t see this confusion before my comment above. I read it as: “I don’t know about other microkernels [that support ZFS], but NetBSD is a small kernel [that supports ZFS]”
- pests 1y ago
  Who is calling it a microkernel? The post youre replying to calls it a “small kernel” - that does not imply it’s a microkernel tho, right? I didn’t think size has anything to do with it.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - Dylan16807 1y ago
    I'm not sure if it originally said small kernel, though I know for sure the italics weren't originally there. The wording is unclear in a couple ways.
    - pests 1y ago
      I came back to maybe delete my comments as I felt I might have came off harsh, esp before I saw the dead comment chain. No ill will, was confused as well I think.

adastra22 1y ago

NetBSD isn’t a microkernel.

bdhcuidbebe 1y ago
[flagged]
- adastra22 1y ago
  “I don’t know about other microkernels” implies that NetBSD is also a microkernel. It is not. Microkernel is not a size distinction. NetBSD kernel may even be smaller in terms of LOC or binary size than some microkernels. Idk. But that is beside the point. Microkernel is an *architecture*. It is a name for a specific type of kernel design, which NetBSD is not.
  - bdhcuidbebe 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - dang 1y ago
      Can you please edit out personal swipes from your HN comments? You did it repeatedly, and the site guidelines ask you not to: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. It's great, of course, to provide correct information. But please do it without putdowns; you don't need them, and they acidify discussion.
      - jibal 1y ago
        They also didn't provide any correct information.
        dang 1y ago
        That may be so. Generally speaking, it's not against HN's rules to be wrong. How could it be? We're all wrong about nearly everything. But it is against HN's rules to post disrespectfully, put others down, etc. - for the obvious reason that it poisons community discussion, plus is unnecessary. It's especially important to follow those rules when one is right about something, because when a post contains both correctness and poison, the poison has has the side effect of discrediting the truth. That is bad for all of us (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=truth%20discredit%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...).
      - bdhcuidbebe 1y ago
        Not even sure what you are asking here. What is personal? adastra attacked the discussion by twisting their parents words.
        dang 1y ago
        "Maybe you should read it more careful, instead adding nothing to the discussion" is crossing into personal attack. So is "Read more, comment less." from your other post in this thread. Your account has a pattern of posting personal swipes like this. Two other cases are https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45328774 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45328774 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45210601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45210601. If you would please stop this, we'd appreciate it. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - pests 1y ago
    Ah, these were dead so I didn’t see this confusion before my comment above. I read it as: “I don’t know about other microkernels [that support ZFS], but NetBSD is a small kernel [that supports ZFS]”
pests 1y ago
Who is calling it a microkernel? The post youre replying to calls it a “small kernel” - that does not imply it’s a microkernel tho, right? I didn’t think size has anything to do with it.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- Dylan16807 1y ago
  I'm not sure if it originally said small kernel, though I know for sure the italics weren't originally there. The wording is unclear in a couple ways.
  - pests 1y ago
    I came back to maybe delete my comments as I felt I might have came off harsh, esp before I saw the dead comment chain. No ill will, was confused as well I think.