The Composite Component-Based OS

This is the source code for the Composite component-based OS. Even low-level system policies such as scheduling, memory mapping, and synchronization are defined as discrete user-level components. Each component exports an interface used to harness its functionality, and components are composed together to form an executable system.

Please see http://composite.seas.gwu.edu for publications and more information.

Research features of Composite

See a summary of the research directions of Composite at http://composite.seas.gwu.edu.

Where to start -- a tour of the source code

• Please read the doc/ directory for more information on how the code is organized

• Join the compositeos@googlegroups.com mailing list

• To run Composite, you start by reading the installation and usage summary in docs/installation_usage_summary.md.

Composite system support

• x86-32
• booting using Linux 2.6.33 or 2.6.36 (see Hijack support for booting information)
• networking using Linux drivers and a modified tun/tap driver to communicate with Composite

Important note

The code is pre-alpha quality. Some parts are quite solid, many others are absolutely not. Please consult with us to determine if it is right for your use-case.

Licensing

This code is licensed under the GPL version 2.0:

The Composite Component-Based OS
Copyright (C) 2009 Gabriel Parmer

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.

This license is not set in stone, and we would be willing to negotiate on a case-by-case basis for more business-friendly terms. The license should not prevent you from using this OS, as alternatives can be arranged. It should prevent you from stealing the work and claiming it as your own.

Support

We'd like to sincerely thank our sponsors. The Composite Component-Based OS development effort has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under awards CNS 1137973, CNS 1149675, and CNS 1117243.