Merge pull request #68 from rust-osdev/next

This Month in Rust OSDev (August 2021)

Author: phil-opp

content/this-month/2021-08/index.md

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+title = "This Month in Rust OSDev (August 2021)"
+date = 2021-09-08
+
+[extra]
+month = "August 2021"
+authors = [
+    "phil-opp",
+    "IsaacWoods",
+    # add yourself here
+]
++++
+
+Welcome to a new issue of _"This Month in Rust OSDev"_. In these posts, we give a regular overview of notable changes in the Rust operating system development ecosystem.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+This series is openly developed [on GitHub](https://github.com/rust-osdev/homepage/). Feel free to open pull requests there with content you would like to see in the next issue. If you find some issues on this page, please report them by [creating an issue](https://github.com/rust-osdev/homepage/issues/new) or using our [_comment form_](#comment-form) at the bottom of this page.
+
+<!--
+    This is a draft for the upcoming "This Month in Rust OSDev (August 2021)" post.
+    Feel free to create pull requests against the `next` branch to add your
+    content here.
+    Please take a look at the past posts on https://rust-osdev.com/ to see the
+    general structure of these posts.
+-->
+
+## Project Updates
+
+In this section, we give an overview of notable changes to the projects hosted under the [`rust-osdev`] organization.
+
+[`rust-osdev`]: https://github.com/rust-osdev/about
+
+### [`acpi`](https://github.com/rust-osdev/acpi)
+
+The `acpi` repository contains crates for parsing the ACPI tables – data structures that the firmware of modern computers use to relay information about the hardware to the OS.
+
+There was a fair amount of progress this month, including adding support for a major AML feature: buffer fields.
+These are objects that represent bit-level slices of buffer objects, allowing a section of a buffer to be read and
+written. This requires us to support multiple namespace objects operating on the same underlying data -
+currently this is handled simply with spinlocks, but we're looking to improve this situation in the future.
+With this, we grew support for the `DefCreateBitField`, `DefCreateByteField`, `DefCreateWordField`,
+`DefCreateDWordField`, `DefCreateQWordField`, and `DefCreateField` opcodes, as well as logic for reading and
+writing `Integer`s and `Buffer`s out of them. <span class="gray">(published as `aml v0.16.0`)</span>
+
+The `acpi` crate also saw improvement, and unfortunately some more breakage. We now support X2APIC entries
+appearing in the MADT, and so have changed the representation of Processor UIDs and Local APIC IDs in
+`acpi::platform::Processor` to `u32`, to support the wider IDs that X2APIC uses to support more processors. On
+older platforms that only support APIC, the upper bits will simply always be zeroed, and so these values can be
+cast down to `u8` when needed. Note that for complex legacy reasons, you cannot rely upon ACPI for detecting
+whether a platform has X2APIC support or not, and so whether the MADT actually contained X2APIC entries is not exposed
+by this interface - this is by design. <span class="gray">(published as `acpi v4.0.0`)</span>
+
+Other changes were:
+- [`aml`: the contents of the `namespace` module were made public](https://github.com/rust-osdev/acpi/pull/107).
+  Thanks to [@Andy-Python-Programmer](https://github.com/Andy-Python-Programmer) for this contribution!
+- [`aml`: store locals and method arguments in arrays](https://github.com/rust-osdev/acpi/commit/c1597aba3d39344834292637fb81e2f2971d6c04). If you're manually calling AML methods
+  that take arguments, you will need to update how you create them.
+- [`aml`: support the `DefFatal` opcode](https://github.com/rust-osdev/acpi/commit/514e55df07acbca93dfd4eb2db3cdd6fdea5aaf5). `DefFatal` will cause a panic by default, but this behaviour can be overridden by implementing `Handler::handle_fatal_error`.
+- [`aml`: implement the `DefWhile` opcode](https://github.com/rust-osdev/acpi/commit/06409b360ef30b3b08b56865f3ee380315751f14)
+- [`aml`: implement the `DefBreak` opcode](https://github.com/rust-osdev/acpi/commit/da5f5cec8096d2ebd5697212e282abbeaed6edb7)
+- [`aml`: implement the `DefContinue` opcode](https://github.com/rust-osdev/acpi/commit/ed0400092e18598c73ca6048fb96b2522237808d)
+- [`aml`: implement the `DefIncrement` and `DefDecrement` opcodes](https://github.com/rust-osdev/acpi/commit/b854d5491e48e5a4f332ff259ce185cb357261d0)
+- [`aml`: implement the `ToInteger` opcode](https://github.com/rust-osdev/acpi/commit/00a61d8b7471dae725283296f4ee9c0c20013156)
+
+### [`uefi-rs`](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs)
+
+The `uefi` crate provides safe and performant wrappers for [UEFI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface), the successor to the BIOS.
+
+In August, [@nicholasbishop](https://github.com/nicholasbishop) joined as a co-maintainer of the crate. Welcome!
+
+Many improvements were merged this month:
+
+- [Add `BootServices::exit` method; Make `PointerMode`'s fields public for checking against support of a pointer device](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/261)
+- [Implement `PartialEq`+`Eq` for `DevicePath`](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/265)
+- [System table can get debug-formatted](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/248)
+- [loaded image: add set_image function](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/266)
+- [Better `CStr16` to `String` and `str` conversions](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/249)
+- [Add a minimal UEFI application template](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/268)
+- [Use the built-in `aarch64-unknown-uefi` target](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/269)
+- [Make `GraphicsOutput.query_mode(...)` public](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/270)
+- [Publish new versions of all the crates](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/276) <span class="gray">(published `uefi v0.12.0`, `uefi-macros v0.4.0`, and `uefi-services v0.9.0`)</span>
+- [Add newtype enum for variable vendors and add `IMAGE_SECURITY_DATABASE` to it](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/273)
+- [Fix doc link and make CI lints stricter](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/272)
+- [Add num_bytes method to `CStr16`](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/274)
+- [Add `CString16`](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/275)
+- [Enhance `Guid::from_values` and `Guid::fmt`](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/280)
+- [Handle panics by unwinding the stack and implement check_event method](https://github.com/rust-osdev/uefi-rs/pull/282)
+
+Thanks to [@HTG-YT](https://github.com/HTG-YT), [@phip1611](https://github.com/phip1611), [@Andy-Python-Programmer](https://github.com/Andy-Python-Programmer), and [@timrobertsdev](https://github.com/timrobertsdev) for their contributions!
+
+### [`x86_64`](https://github.com/rust-osdev/x86_64)
+
+The `x86_64` crate provides various abstractions for `x86_64` systems, including wrappers for CPU instructions, access to processor-specific registers, and abstraction types for architecture-specific structures such as page tables and descriptor tables.
+
+In August, we merged the following changes:
+
+- [Rename `XCr0` and `CR4` flags](https://github.com/rust-osdev/x86_64/pull/275)
+- [Fix CI tests on Windows](https://github.com/rust-osdev/x86_64/pull/297)
+- [Use `#[cfg(doc)]` instead of docs.rs-specific cfg flag](https://github.com/rust-osdev/x86_64/pull/287)
+- [Expose `MapperFlush::new` and `MapperFlushAll::new`](https://github.com/rust-osdev/x86_64/pull/296)
+- [docs: Update segment register references in `GDT::load*` method to non-deprecated methods](https://github.com/rust-osdev/x86_64/pull/301)
+- [docs(idt): remove a panic note](https://github.com/rust-osdev/x86_64/pull/300)
+- [Fix typo and doc links in GDT docs](https://github.com/rust-osdev/x86_64/pull/302)
+
+These changes were not published yet, but a pull request for a new version is open already: [Release version 0.14.5](https://github.com/rust-osdev/x86_64/pull/304).
+
+Thanks to [@toku-sa-n](https://github.com/toku-sa-n) and [@ncatelli](https://github.com/ncatelli) for their contributions!
+
+### [`bootloader`](https://github.com/rust-osdev/bootloader)
+
+The `bootloader` crate implements a custom Rust-based bootloader for easy loading of 64-bit ELF executables.
+
+This month, we merged the following changes:
+
+- [[v0.9] Set `relocation-model: static` and `panic-strategy: abort` and fix `.intel_syntax` warnings](https://github.com/rust-osdev/bootloader/pull/185) <span class="gray">(published as `v0.9.19`)</span>
+- [Fix relocation-model field name in the target spec json](https://github.com/rust-osdev/bootloader/pull/186) <span class="gray">(published as `v0.10.7`)</span>
+- [Pad uefi fat file length](https://github.com/rust-osdev/bootloader/pull/180)
+- [Also check cfg gated target field for bootloader dependency](https://github.com/rust-osdev/bootloader/pull/182) <span class="gray">(published as `v0.10.8`)</span>
+- [Fix typo in link in changelog](https://github.com/rust-osdev/bootloader/pull/194)
+
+Thanks to [@vinc](https://github.com/vinc), [@bjorn3](https://github.com/bjorn3), [@Freax13](https://github.com/Freax13), [@yusdacra](https://github.com/yusdacra), and [@martica](https://github.com/martica) for their contributions!
+
+### [`multboot2`](https://github.com/rust-osdev/multiboot2)
+
+The `multiboot2` crate provides abstraction types for the boot information of multiboot2 bootloaders.
+
+The following changes were merged this month:
+
+- [Unpublic tags bugfix](https://github.com/rust-osdev/multiboot2/pull/89) <span class="gray">(published as `v0.12.1`)</span>
+- [Fix `ModuleTag` cmdline](https://github.com/rust-osdev/multiboot2/pull/91)
+- [Stricter typing + better split of modules + bugfix](https://github.com/rust-osdev/multiboot2/pull/90)
+
+### [`pic_8259`](https://github.com/rust-osdev/pic8259)
+
+The `pic_8259` crate provides abstractions for 8259 and 8259A Programmable Interrupt Controllers (PICs).
+
+In August, we added cargo features to make the crate buildable on stable:
+
+- [Add `nightly` and `stable` feature flags to enable compilation on stable Rust](https://github.com/rust-osdev/pic8259/pull/1) <span class="gray">(published as `v0.10.2`)</span>
+
+Thanks to [@toku-sa-n](https://github.com/toku-sa-n) for this contribution!
+
+## Call for Participation
+
+Want to contribute to a Rust OSDev project, but don't know where to start? Pick up one of these outstanding
+issues in one of our projects and get started!
+
+<!--
+Please use the following template for adding items:
+- [(`repo_name`) Issue Description](https://example.com/link-to-issue)
+-->
+
+<span class="gray">
+
+_No tasks were proposed for this section._
+
+</span>
+
+If you maintain a Rust OSDev project and are looking for contributors, especially for tasks suited to people
+getting started in this space, please [create a PR](https://github.com/rust-osdev/homepage/pulls) against the
+`next` branch with the tasks you want to include in the next issue.
+
+
+## Personal Projects
+
+In this section, we describe updates to personal projects that are not directly related to the `rust-osdev` organization. Feel free to [create a pull request](https://github.com/rust-osdev/homepage/pulls) with the updates of your OS project for the next post.
+
+### [`phil-opp/blog_os`](https://github.com/phil-opp/blog_os)
+
+<span class="gray">(Section written by [@phil-opp](https://github.com/phil-opp))</span>
+
+We merged the following improvements to the [_Writing an OS in Rust_](https://os.phil-opp.com) blog:
+
+- [Update crate versions across translations](https://github.com/phil-opp/blog_os/pull/1031)
+- [Replace MS doc link that linked to a German page](https://github.com/phil-opp/blog_os/pull/1034)
+- [Fix link: The const_fn unstable feature no longer exists](https://github.com/phil-opp/blog_os/commit/c1e6a66e356653c166426adbcdbb158792bc408c)
+- [Replace fathom analytics with goatcounter](https://github.com/phil-opp/blog_os/commit/27ab4518acbb132e327ed4f4f0508393e9d4d684)
+- [fix: typo](https://github.com/phil-opp/blog_os/pull/1040)
+- [Fix links in Russian translation](https://github.com/phil-opp/blog_os/pull/1046)
+
+Thanks to [@Foo-x](https://github.com/Foo-x), [@adi-g15](https://github.com/adi-g15), [@Kalbiq](https://github.com/Kalbiq), and [@non-descriptive](https://github.com/non-descriptive) for their contributions!
+
+## Join Us?
+
+Are you interested in Rust-based operating system development? Our `rust-osdev` organization is always open to new members and new projects. Just let us know if you want to join! A good way for getting in touch is our [gitter channel](https://gitter.im/rust-osdev/Lobby).