The OSLib Manual

Luca Abeni - Gerardo Lamastra

Abstract:

This is the manual of OSLib, a collection of low level functions aimed to help programmers in developing system software, ranging from small programs for embedded systems to complex Operating System kernels. Using OSLib, the system programmer can focus on the software itself, without caring about the interaction with the hardware. In this sense, OSLib is similar to the Flux OS Toolkit.

From another point of view, OSLib provides an ``easy'' access to the hardware, without introducing any useless abstraction, and can be seen as a generic support layer for any operating system service. In this sense, it is similar to the MIT ExoKernel . Note that OSLib does not force to use any particular OS structure, but can support any conventional or innovative structure, such as the monolithic one, the microkernel-based one, or the vertical structured one.