Documentation
These pages describe Motor OS as it is today. The source of truth is the
repository, and most of what is here is
also in its docs/ directory and in the README files next to the code.
Getting started
What is Motor OS
The shape of the system and what works today.
Why Motor OS
The reasoning behind a new OS for virtual machines.
Building Motor OS
The one-script build, the toolchain it installs, make, and the test suites.
Running Motor OS
The four images, the VM scripts, the console, and SSH access.
System
Architecture
The kernel, sys-io, the services, and the per-process runtime.
Processes and roles
Capabilities, the three roles, spawning, and what replaces users.
Memory
Pages, stacks, and low-memory admission control.
Filesystem
Motor FS, the image layout, and per-role permissions.
Networking
Configuration, the stack's features, limits, and diagnostics.
DNS resolver
How names are resolved and validated.
Terminals
Terminal programs without a pty: size, Ctrl+C, and redirection.
Logs and diagnostics
The console, service logs, metrics, and stack dumps.
Userspace
Commands
Everything in /system/bin and /user/bin.
rush
The shell: what it supports and where it differs.
rmux
The terminal multiplexer and its keys.
Editors
red, a vi-like editor, and kibim.
Developer image
Lorry, Gears, mdbg, the test suites, and the native toolchain.
Developing for Motor OS
Toolchains
The cross-compiling toolchain on Linux, the native toolchain on the developer image, and the workflow for each.
Rust on Motor OS
The target, what std supports, ported crates, and porting notes.
C/C++ on Motor OS
A C library and native Clang/LLVM: what is supported, how to build, and Lua.
Lorry
A smaller, stricter Cargo replacement for security-sensitive builds: the same Cargo.toml and Cargo.lock and byte-identical binaries, but offline, with every dependency fetched once, checked, approved, and recorded before it is built.
Hello Motor OS
Compile a small web server and run it in a Motor OS VM.
Profiling
Flame graphs from a Motor OS binary with the tracing crate.