Darwin

The OS X kernel is an Open Source project. The kernel, along with other core parts of OS X are collectively referred to as Darwin. Darwin is a complete operating system based on many of the same technologies that underlie OS X. However, Darwin does not include Apple’s proprietary graphics or applications layers, such as Quartz, QuickTime, Cocoa, Carbon, or OpenGL.

Figure 3-2 shows the relationship between Darwin and OS X. Both build upon the same kernel, but OS X adds Core Services, Application Services and QuickTime, as well as the Classic, Carbon, Cocoa, and Java (JDK) application environments. Both Darwin and OS X include the BSD command-line application environment; however, in OS X, use of environment is not required, and thus it is hidden from the user unless they choose to access it.

Darwin technology is based on BSD, Mach 3.0, and Apple technologies. Best of all, Darwin technology is Open Source technology, which means that developers have full access to the source code. In effect, OS X third-party developers can be part of the Darwin core system software development team. Developers can also see how Apple is doing things in the core operating system and adopt (or adapt) code to use within their own products. Refer to the Apple Public Source License (APSL) for details.

Because the same software forms the core of both OS X and Darwin, developers can create low-level software that runs on both OS X and Darwin with few, if any, changes. The only difference is likely to be in the way the software interacts with the application environment.

Darwin is based on proven technology from many sources. A large portion of this technology is derived from FreeBSD, a version of 4.4BSD that offers advanced networking, performance, security, and compatibility features. Other parts of the system software, such as Mach, are based on technology previously used in Apple’s MkLinux project, in OS X Server, and in technology acquired from NeXT. Much of the code is platform-independent. All of the core operating-system code is available in source form.

The core technologies have been chosen for several reasons. Mach provides a clean set of abstractions for dealing with memory management, interprocess (and interprocessor) communication (IPC), and other low-level operating-system functions. In today’s rapidly changing hardware environment, this provides a useful layer of insulation between the operating system and the underlying hardware.

BSD is a carefully engineered, mature operating system with many capabilities. In fact, most of today’s commercial UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems contain a great deal of BSD code. BSD also provides a set of industry-standard APIs.

New technologies, such as the I/O Kit and Network Kernel Extensions (NKEs), have been designed and engineered by Apple to take advantage of advanced capabilities, such as those provided by an object-oriented programming model. OS X combines these new technologies with time-tested industry standards to create an operating system that is stable, reliable, flexible, and extensible.

Architecture

The foundation layer of Darwin and OS X is composed of several architectural components, as shown in Figure 3-3. Taken together, these components form the kernel environment.

“A kernel, in traditional operating-system terminology, is a small nucleus of software that provides only the minimal facilities necessary for implementing additional operating-system services.” — from The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System, McKusick, Bostic, Karels, and Quarterman, 1996.

Similarly, in traditional Mach-based operating systems, the kernel refers to the Mach microkernel and ignores additional low-level code without which Mach does very little.

In OS X, however, the kernel environment contains much more than the Mach kernel itself. The OS X kernel environment includes the Mach kernel, BSD, the I/O Kit, file systems, and networking components. These are often referred to collectively as the kernel. Each of these components is described briefly in the following sections. For further details, refer to the specific component chapters or to the reference material listed in the bibliography.

Because OS X contains three basic components (Mach, BSD, and the I/O Kit), there are also frequently as many as three APIs for certain key operations. In general, the API chosen should match the part of the kernel where it is being used, which in turn is dictated by what your code is attempting to do. The remainder of this chapter describes Mach, BSD, and the I/O Kit and outlines the functionality that is provided by those components.

Kernel Extensions

OS X provides a kernel extension mechanism as a means of allowing dynamic loading of pieces of code into kernel space, without the need to recompile. These pieces of code are known generically as plug-ins or, in the OS X kernel environment, as kernel extensions or KEXTs.

Because KEXTs provide both modularity and dynamic loadability, they are a natural choice for any relatively self-contained service that requires access to interfaces that are not exported to user space. Many of the components of the kernel environment support this extension mechanism, though they do so in different ways.

For example, some of the new networking features involve the use of network kernel extensions (NKEs). These are discussed in the chapter Network Architecture.

The ability to dynamically add a new file-system implementation is based on VFS KEXTs. Device drivers and device families in the I/O Kit are implemented using KEXTs. KEXTs make development much easier for developers writing drivers or those writing code to support a new volume format or networking protocol. KEXTs are discussed in more detail in the chapter Kernel Extension Overview.