We
hope
to
show
the
operating
system
Plan
9
from
Bell
Labs
at
the
NLUUG
spring
conference
2005.
We
intend
to
give
an
impression
of
what
Plan
9
is,
and
what
(in
our
opinion)
its
strong
points
(and
maybe
also
its
less
strong
points)
are.
In
accordance
with
the
theme
of
the
spring
conference,
we
hope
to
be
able
to
give
an
overview
of
how
Plan
9
``does''
email,
but
we
do
not
intend
to
limit
ourselves
to
that.
:-)
We
will
bring
some
machines
for
demo,
and
some
papers
to
browse,
and
maybe
some
demo/install
cd's
for
those
interested
enough
to
give
it
a
try.
Those
interested
enough
to
give
it
a
``test
drive''
may
do
so
by
firing
up
a
``live
cd''
(image
downloadable
from
the
Plan
9
page,
link
below),
or
by
requesting
an
account
on
one
or
more
of
the
public
access
Plan
9
installations,
and
downloading
the
Plan
9
remote
desktop
tool
``drawterm(8)''
for
graphical
access.
Developed
by
the
people
who
devised
UNIX
and
C
at
Bell
Labs,
Plan
9
takes
OS
development
back
into
the
realm
of
research.
While
UNIX
can
be
said
to
be
a
research
tool
the
OS
principles
remain
largely
the
same
throughout
all
developments.
Plan
9
is
an
attempt
to
work
on
the
operating
system
concepts
from
the
ground
up,
reworking
the
whole
idea
using
modern
technology.
It
is
difficult
to
say
in
only
a
few
words
what
Plan
9
offers
over
Unix.
For
me,
the
main
feature
is
_integration_,
on
many
levels,
giving
us
an
integrated,
distributed
system,
potentially
on
heterogeneous
hardware,
in
which
we
have
unified
and
transparent
access
to
the
resources
available
on
the
machines
in
the
system.
For
example
(in
more
or
less
random
order):
Integration
of
maintenance.
-
All
files
live
on
a
central
file
server;
an
authentication
server
takes
care
of
checking
a
user's
credentials;
disk-less
cpu-servers
provide
processing
power;
disk-less
terminals
(simple
machines
with
graphical
screen,
keyboard
and
mouse)
provide
user
access
to
the
system,
but
contain
no
``state''
--
all
``state''
(all
that
may
need
to
be
updated,
maintained)
is
kept
on
the
file-server
(data)
and
on
the
authentication
server
(user
administration).
That
said,
it
is
very
well
possible
to
run
Plan
9
on
a
single
machine,
even
though
running
a
multi-machine
set-up
is
more
interesting.
Integrated
access
to
the
past.
-
The
usual
file
servers
for
data
storage
have
integrated
backup
facilities
that
allow
transparent
access
to
the
files
as
they
were
yesterday,
or
one
year
ago,
or...
Apart
from
the
direct
use
--
oops,
edited
this
file
and
now
it's
worse
than
yesterday's
version,
let's
retry
using
that
one,
we
can
easily
get
at
it
using
a
command
well-name
yesterday(1)
--
it
also
provides
historical
information,
for
example
The
nightly
snapshots
of
the
Plan
9
kernel
from
February
27,
1990
to
March
25,
2003
give
an
interesting
view
into
the
Plan
9
development
process.
Integrated/unified
access
to
resources,
both
local
and
remote.
-
All
resources
are
uniformly
(even
more
than
in
Unix)
acessable
via
the
file
system
interface
(open,
read,
write,
close,
etc.
--
no
ioctl,
if
necessary,
the
interface
to
a
resources
is
provided
via
multiple
files,
e.g.
one
for
data,
another
to
read/write
control
messages).
A
network
file
protocol,
9P,
offers
remote
access
to
resources
(the
absence
of
ioctl
makes
this
really
transparent).
This
allows
Plan
9
to
have
commands
that
are
similar
in
nature
to
ssh
and
NFS
but
provide
better
integration
between
the
local
and
remote
system
and
work
more
transparently.
To
provide
access
to
a
new
resource,
it
is
sufficient
to
write
a
file
server
for
it,
that
dynamically
serves
the
interface
files
that
provide
access
to
the
resource,
like
/proc
in
Unix.
Such
file
servers
typically
run
in
user
space.
-
A
particular
remote
resource
is
the
sources
file
server
at
bell
labs
on
which
the
``current''
version
of
Plan
9
is
always
available
(together
with
its
past).
The
usual
procedure
to
update
one's
Plan
9
installation
--
replica(1)
--
simply
mounts
the
sources
and
copies
over
the
files
that
have
been
added
or
changed
since
the
last
update.
To
see
what
has
changed
one
can
simply
run
diff
to
compare
local
files
with
those
on
the
sources
file
server.
Integration
of
heterogenous
hardware.
-
Each
Plan
9
system
has
cross
compilers
for
all
supported
architectures.
Doing
cross-compilation
is
as
simple
as
setting
an
environment
variable
to
indicate
the
target
architecture
before
starting
a
build.
A
simple
naming
scheme
allows
object
files,
executables
and
libraries
for
multiple
architectures
to
live
together
on
a
single
system.
Per-process
namespaces
and
union-mount
and
bind
allow
for
a
uniform
view
of
the
system:
/bin/ls
always
is
the
program
to
list
files,
indepent
from
the
architecture
on
which
it
is
run.
Integrated
single-signon.
-
The
program
``factotum(4)''
acts
as
the
authentication
agent
and
key
manager
for
a
user.
In
combination
with
the
``secure
(file)
storage''
server
for
persistent,
secure,
storage
of
keys
(also
accessed
via
``secstore(1)'')
this
gives
one
single-signon
for
the
authentication
protocols
supported
by
factotum.
More
information
can
be
found
at:
-
The
Plan
9
page:
distribution
(freely
available
under
lucent
public
license),
papers,
documentation,
etc.
-
Plan
9
Wiki:
information
pertinent
to
installing,
configuring,
and
using
plan
9,
but
also
what
people
do
like
about
plan
9.
Plan
9
ideas
are
being
brought
to
Unix
variants
(Solaris,
*BSD,
Linux,
...)
for
example
in
the
following
projects:
-
v9fs:
9P
clients,
servers
and
tools
for
Linux
and
*BSD.
-
Plan
9
from
User
Space
(aka
plan9port):
A
port
of
the
bulk
of
the
Plan
9
software
to
Unix,
including
libraries
and
tools.
Inferno
is
a
spin-off
project
that
provides
a
compact
operating
system
designed
for
building
distributed
and
networked
systems
on
a
wide
variety
of
devices
and
platforms
based
on
the
same
concepts
and
technologies
as
Plan
9.
Inferno
can
be
run
``hosted''
on
top
of
Windows
and
many
Unix
variants,
or
even
as
plug-in
in
some
webbrowser,
or
``natively''
on
the
bare
hardware.
One
application
of
the
Plan
9
ideas
worth
mentioning
here
is
the
9grid
where
one
uses
the
distributed
nature
of
Plan
9
to
do
grid
computing
without
needing
specific
grid
toolkits
-
the
basic
features
already
present
in
Plan
9
suffice.
This
page
is
linked
from
the
NLUUG
Voorjaarsconferentie
2005
page.
