• Who Should Read This Document

• Road Map

• Other Apple Publications

• Mach API Reference

• Information on the Web

• Why You Should Avoid Programming in the Kernel

• Darwin

• Architecture

• Mach

• BSD

• Networking

• File Systems

• I/O Kit

• Kernel Extensions

• Security Implications of Paging

• Buffer Overflows and Invalid Input

• User Credentials

• Basic User Credentials

• Access Control Lists

• Remote Authentication

• One-Time Pads

• Time-based authentication

• Temporary Files

• /dev/mem and /dev/kmem

• Key-based Authentication and Encryption

• Public Key Weaknesses

• Trust Models

• Sensitivity to Patterns and Short Messages

• Using Public Keys for Message Exchange

• Using Public Keys for Identity Verification

• Using Public Keys for Data Integrity Checking

• Encryption Summary

• Console Debugging

• Code Passing

• Interrupt Latency

• Locking Bottlenecks

• Working With Highly Contended Locks

• Reducing Contention by Decreasing Granularity

• Code Profiling

• Using Counters for Code Profiling

• Lock Profiling

• C++ Naming Conventions

• Basic Conventions

• Additional Guidelines

• Standard C Naming Conventions

• Commonly Used Functions

• Performance and Stability Tips

• Performance and Stability Tips

• Stability Tips

• Style Summary

• Mach Kernel Abstractions

• Tasks and Threads

• Ports, Port Rights, Port Sets, and Port Namespaces

• Memory Management

• Interprocess Communication (IPC)

• IPC Transactions and Event Dispatching

• Message Queues

• Semaphores

• Notifications

• Locks

• Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Objects

• Time Management

• Mac OS X VM Overview

• Memory Maps Explained

• Named Entries

• Universal Page Lists (UPLs)

• Using Mach Memory Maps

• Other VM and VM-Related Subsystems

• Pagers

• Working Set Detection Subsystem

• VM Shared Memory Server Subsystem

• Address Spaces

• Background Info on PCI Address Translation

• IOMemoryDescriptor Changes

• VM System and pmap Changes:

• Kernel Dependency Changes

• Summary

• Allocating Memory in the Kernel

• Allocating Memory Using Mach Routines

• Allocating Memory From the I/O Kit

• Overview of Scheduling

• Why Did My Thread Priority Change?

• Using Mach Scheduling From User Applications

• Using the pthreads API to Influence Scheduling

• Using the Mach Thread API to Influence Scheduling

• Using the Mach Task API to Influence Scheduling

• Kernel Thread APIs

• Creating and Destroying Kernel Threads

• SPL and Friends

• Wait Queues and Wait Primitives

• How Contexts Affect Users

• How Contexts Affect Developers

• Redesigning the I/O Model

• I/O Kit Architecture

• Families

• Drivers

• Nubs

• Connection Example

• For More Information

• BSD Facilities

• Differences between Mac OS X and BSD

• For Further Reading

• Working With the File System

• VFS Transition

• Security Considerations

• Choosing a Boundary Crossing Method

• Kernel Subsystems

• Bandwidth and Latency

• Mach Messaging and Mach Interprocess Communication (IPC)

• Using Well-Defined Ports

• Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)

• Calling RPC From User Applications

• BSD syscall API

• BSD ioctl API

• BSD sysctl API

• General Information on Adding a sysctl

• Adding a sysctl Procedure Call

• Registering a New Top Level sysctl

• Adding a Simple sysctl

• Calling a sysctl From User Space

• The sysctlbyname System Call

• The sysctl System Call

• Memory Mapping and Block Copying

• Summary

• Semaphores

• Condition Variables

• Locks

• Spinlocks

• Mutexes

• Read-Write Locks

• Spin/Sleep Locks

• Using Lock Functions

• Using Kernel Time Abstractions

• Obtaining Time Information

• Event and Timer Waits

• Using IODelay and IOSleep

• Using Mach Absolute Time Functions

• Using msleep

• Handling Version Dependencies

• Boot Option Handling

• Queues

• Installing Shutdown Hooks

• Implementation of a Kernel Extension (KEXT)

• Kernel Extension Dependencies

• Building and Testing Your Extension

• Debugging Your KEXT

• Installed KEXTs

• Adding New Files or Modules

• Modifying the Configuration Files

• Adding the Files or Modules

• Enabling Module Options

• Modifying the Source Code Files

• Building Your First Kernel

• Building an Alternate Kernel Configuration

• When Things Go Wrong: Debugging the Kernel

• Setting Debug Flags in Open Firmware

• Avoiding Watchdog Timer Problems

• Choosing a Debugger

• Using gdb for Kernel Debugging

• Special gdb I/O Addressing Issues

• Using ddb for Kernel Debugging

• Commands and Syntax of ddb

• Apple Mac OS X Publications

• General UNIX and Open Source Resources

• BSD and UNIX Internals

• Mach

• Networking

• Operating Systems

• POSIX

• Programming

• Websites and Online Resources

• Security and Cryptography