Where can I find good Mach core kernel exchange documentation

Question

I am looking for something comprehensive to read about

1) Mach messaging (function mach_msg and friends)

2) Mig system (function and friends mig_get_reply_port)

I found the following things:

a) Various open source (as an example http://opensource.apple.com/source/Libc/Libc-167/threads.subproj/mig_support.c )

b) This article, which provides only a brief overview of http://hurdextras.nongnu.org/ipc_guide/mach_ipc_basic_concepts.html

c) MacOS X Internals Book ( http://www.amazon.com/Mac-OS-Internals-Systems-Approach/dp/0321278542 ). I am thinking of buying it, but all I need is literally 10 pages describing the exchange of Mach, so I'm trying to find alternative sources of information.

Answer 1

Firstly, there is Apple developer documentation. Start with a review of Mach and the following sections in the Kernel Programming Guide (the link may not stay good for long, Apple will usually reorganize frequently, and you may also prefer to search in Xcode instead of online). From here you can also find links to help documentation.

There is also a lot of documentation on Mach from academic sources. Start with the CMU Mach training site and the HURD archives , but also try to find a couple of articles called "Programmer's Guide for Mach", which I could find in two different FTP archives in .ps format. In addition, I assume that you saw that the HURD document with which you are associated is part of a larger guide (click on the "General TOC" link to get there), but it is still not that detailed.

There are also some interesting examples from sources such as Phrack (e.g. MacOS X kernel routine development ) or Uninformed (e.g. Abusing Mach on Mac OS X), but keep in mind that most of the people who write them prefer to learn everything by reverse engineering, even if public documents are available, which means they have some kind of weird terminology and some weird gaps in their knowledge. (Not to mention that they don't care if they need to do something X or do X, while X is something they can use ...)