Mu: Portable Microkernel

Mu is a headless 9P-compatible kernel providing authentication, service registry, CPU server, and graphics devices. Mu serves as the substrate for distributed Plan 9 computing on modern systems.

Core Components

• 9P Server: Complete implementation of the 9P2000 protocol for filesystem operations
• Authentication: Support for dp9ik, p9any, p9sk1, and factotum protocols
• Service Registry: Dynamic service registration and discovery mechanism
• CPU Server: Plan 9 rcpu for remote execution and distributed computing
• Graphics: /dev/draw, /dev/screen, /dev/mouse, /dev/kbd device support
• System Devices: /dev/cons, /dev/fd, /proc, /env and more

Architecture

Mu provides a portable 9P2000 kernel that runs on Linux and other POSIX systems. It serves as the foundation for network-transparent Plan 9 computing, allowing clients like drawterm to connect from any operating system.

Quick Start

# Build and run Mu
$ mk
$ ./mu --port 17011

# Connect with drawterm
$ drawterm -h localhost -a tcp!localhost!17011

Service Registry

Mu includes a built-in service registry that allows dynamic registration and discovery of network services:

# Register a service
$ echo "register myservice display" | 9p write tcp!localhost!17011/svc/ctl

# List available services
$ 9p read tcp!localhost!17011/svc/discover

Links

GitHub Repository | Back to Projects