From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from smtp1.linuxfoundation.org (smtp1.linux-foundation.org [172.17.192.35]) by mail.linuxfoundation.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 3616431E7 for ; Thu, 30 May 2019 06:01:14 +0000 (UTC) Received: from outgoing.mit.edu (outgoing-auth-1.mit.edu [18.9.28.11]) by smtp1.linuxfoundation.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id B5DAD875 for ; Thu, 30 May 2019 06:01:13 +0000 (UTC) Date: Thu, 30 May 2019 02:01:11 -0400 From: "Theodore Ts'o" To: ksummit-discuss@lists.linuxfoundation.org Message-ID: <20190530060111.GA30403@mit.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Subject: [Ksummit-discuss] [TECH TOPIC] UniLinux -- Unikernelized Linux Exploration List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , From: Tiejun Chen [ Note: The following abstract was submitted via the Linsux Plumbers Conference website. Per the instructions that were posted for the Maintainer's / Kernel Summit Call for Proposals[1], the proposal should also be posted on the ksummit-discuss list, so that people can comment on the proposal, and perhaps start a discussion before the summit. [1] https://lwn.net/Articles/788378/ Please note that topic proposals for both the Kernel Summit and the Maintainer's Summit are still welcome, and the deadline has been extended to June 3rd. -- Ted ] Unikernel is relatively a novel software technology that links an application with OS in the form of a library and packages them into a specialized image that facilitates direct deployment on a hypervisor. And the reality is that no matter what we are talking the cloud infrastructure, or IoT edge systems, etc, we really need this across a variety of areas, buy those existing unikernels have yet to gain large popularity. So what if we can convert Linux to Unikernel or Unikernel-like? Here I'll talk what challenges Unikernels are facing, and discuss my proposal of if-how we could convert Linux as Unikernel like to make all kernel and user stuff working only kernel mode, how to manage interrupt, how to further reduce memory size and footprint, how to improve IO performance with light weight network stack, should we support multiple processes in some light weight ways, etc. These problem could be addressed but also need to further discuss during LPC. In terms of UniLinux, IoT and Serverless could be a valuable candidate to make Unikernel succeed. Meantime, it should be a potential vessel by replacing container, because compared to traditional container, Unikernel is small, fast and more secure as a lightweight VM. So it is really worthy fitting Unilinux into a variety of areas like IoT, Serverless and so on.