Lowering update time while I work on this

[ikiwiki.git] / index.mdwn

## Ongoing DragonFly News

### 2.2.1 released - 27 April 2009

The [[new 2.2 release|release22]] includes [[Hammer|hammer]], a filesystem that includes instant crash recovery, 
multi-volume file systems, data integrity checking, fine grained history retention, and the ability to 
mirror data to other volumes.  It has undergone extensive stress-testing and is considered production-ready!

### Summer of Code participation

DragonFly [has been accepted](http://socghop.appspot.com/org/home/google/gsoc2009/dragonflybsd) to Google's Summer of Code for 2009, after a successful [[2008 session|docs/developer/GoogleSoC2008]].  If you're a student, start planning for entering your proposal on the 23rd.  If you can mentor, please sign up at the [Google site](http://socghop.appspot.com/) and request a mentoring slot.  There is [[an initial page|gsoc2009]] listing potential projects; please read and add to it if you are interested.

Check the [DragonFly Digest](http://www.shiningsilence.com/dbsdlog/) for other current events.


## What is DragonFly BSD?

DragonFly belongs to the same class of operating system as BSD and Linux
and is based on the same UNIX ideals and APIs.  DragonFly gives the BSD
base an opportunity to grow in an entirely different direction from the one
taken in the FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD series.

From 2003 (when DragonFly first forked from FreeBSD), to early 2007,
the DragonFly project focused on rewriting most of the major kernel
subsystems to implement required abstractions and support mechanics
for the second phase of the project.  This involved a great deal of work
in nearly every subsystem, particularly the filsystem APIs and kernel core.
During all of this we have managed to keep the system updated with regards
to the third party applications and base system utilities needed to make
any system usable in production.  We have also adopted the PkgSrc system for
management of all non-base-system third-party applications in order to pool
our resources with other BSD projects using the system.

In the 2007-2008 time-frame a new filesystem called HAMMER was developed
for DragonFly.  HAMMER sees its first light of day in the July 2008
2.0 release.  This filesystem has been designed to solve numerous issues
and to add many new capabilities to DragonFly, such as fine-grained
snapshots, instant crash recovery, and near real-time mirroring.
The filesytem is also intended to serve as a basis for the clustering
work that makes up the second phase of the project.

The second phase of the project is now upon us.  The DragonFly project's
ultimate goal is to provide native clustering support in the kernel.
This involves the creation of a sophisticated cache management
framework for filesystem namespaces, file spaces, and VM spaces, which
allows heavily interactive programs to run across multiple machines with
cache coherency fully guaranteed in all respects.  This also involves being
able to chop up resources, including the cpu by way of a controlled VM
context, for safe assignment to unsecured third-party clusters over the
internet (though the security of such clusters itself might be in doubt,
the first and most important thing is for systems donating resources to not
be made vulnerable through their donation).

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