kernel/.wiki/Kernel-documentation.md

# Kernel Documentation
The kernel is booted using the limine boot protocol.

## Directory structure
  - **boot** - all stuff related to booting / jumping into the kernel
  - **drivers** - everything from the graphics driver, to the FS drivers
  - **mm** - memory management stuff like page frames and page maps
  - **platform** - universal API to the platform specific code in the subdirs
  - **proc** - all the process/thread related stuff like the scheduler
  - **utils** - utilities like type definitions, math functions, high-level memory management

---

# General concepts
## kernel initialization
The single parts of the kernel are initialized in the following order:
  - **Global Descriptor Table**
  - **Page Frame Manager**
  - **Interrupt Descriptor Table**

## interrupt handling
OSDev Wiki: [Interrupts](https://wiki.osdev.org/Interrupts)

Unfortunatly the x86 architecture doesn't provide a method to get the ID of the current interrupt.
To solve this problem, there is a simple assembly function for every interrupt used by NoxOS.
This function pushes its ID on the stack.
After that it calls a common Interrupt handler, this handler will generate the current `cpu_state_T` and call the C interrupt handler implementation.
The C implementation returns a `cpu_state_T` that will then be loaded.

## paging
OSDev Wiki: [Paging](https://wiki.osdev.org/Paging)

There is a difference between `Virtual Memory Spaces` and the `Physical Memory Space`.
The Physical memory space is how the data lies directly in the RAM.

Virtual memory spaces are a bit more tricky.
To understand them, we have to understand first, that the physical memory space is divided into so-called **pages** / **page frames**.
These pages have a size of 4KB.

A virtual memory space is a table of page mappings.
Per default there are no pages mapped to such a table.
When the OS maps a page to a **page table**, it says:
"This page is now accessible from this virtual space, at this address".
When the Computer is in paging mode, only mapped pages are accessible.
Now every Process gets its own page table and tada: we have successfully isolated the processes from each other,
because every process can only access the data that it needs to access.

---

**DISCLAIMER:** Only the headers are documented, because documenting the whole code itself would be very time intensive and the headers as 'public' API are the most important to document.

## boot

### boot_info.h
The goal of this file is to provide a universal struct of information needed by the kernel at start time.
At the moment this information is very limine specific, but the goal is to make it easy to add support for other boot protocols.

#### `boot_info_T` - struct
  - **framebuffer** - struct with information about the graphics buffer
  - **terminal** - bootloader terminal / log
  - **memory_map** - information about the memory layout / regions
  - **rsdp** - pointer to RSDP

### limine.h
This header provides the API to "communicate" with the limine bootloader.
More information can be found on the limine project's [GitHub](https://github.com/limine-bootloader/limine/blob/trunk/PROTOCOL.md).


## mm

### page_frame.h
This header provides the functions for basic interactions with pages (in the physical memory space).

#### `pframe_manager_init()` - function (void)
Initializes the page frame manager, needs to be called once at kernel init.

#### `pframe_reserve(address)` - function (void) [Thread Safe]
Blocks a page, so it can't be requested or anything else.
If the page is already blocked by anything else, e.g. by a request, it won't be reserved.

#### `pframe_reserve_multi(address, n)` - function (void) [Thread Safe]
Reserves the page at the given address, plus *n* pages after that page.

#### `pframe_unreserve(address)` - function (void) [Thread Safe]
Unreserves a reserved page and makes it accessible again.

#### `pframe_unreserve_multi(address, n)` - function (void) [Thread Safe]
Unreserves the page at the given address, plus *n* pages after that page.

#### `pframe_request()` - function (void*) [Thread Safe]
Returns the physical address of a page.
This is kind of the low level version of malloc.

#### `pframe_free(address)` - function (void) [Thread Safe]
Needs a valid page address produced by `pframe_request()` as argument.
Invalidates the address and frees it, so it can be requested again.
This is kind of the low level version of free.

#### `pframe_free_multi(address, n)` - function (void) [Thread Safe]
Frees the page at the given address, plus *n* pages after that page.

## platform

### cpu.h
This header contains stuff directly related to the CPU.

OSDev Wiki: [x86 CPU Registers](https://wiki.osdev.org/CPU_Registers_x86)

#### `cpu_state_T` - struct
  - **cr3** - Control register 3, holds the current page table
  - **rax** - General purpose register
  - **rbx** - General purpose register
  - **rcx** - General purpose register
  - **rdx** - General purpose register
  - **rsi** - General purpose register
  - **rdi** - General purpose register
  - **rbp** - The Bottom of the current stack frame
  - **interrupt_id** - The ID of the interrupt, that captured the cpu state
  - **error_code** - Some exceptions such as the Page fault push more detailed information into here
  - **rip** - The current instruction address
  - **crs** - Segment selector of the associated IDT descriptor
  - **flags** - The CPU's FLAGS register, a status bitmap
  - **rsp** - The Top of the current stack frame
  - **ss** - Not totally sure, what this does, but it has to do with security rings

This struct defines a *complete* CPU state, that can be saved and restored.
It is saved when the CPU fires an interrupt and restored by the interrupt handler when it's finished.
This allows multithreading and exception analysis.

#### `cpu_flags_E` - enum
  - **CPU_FLAG_CARRY**
  - **CPU_FLAG_PARITY**
  - **CPU_FLAG_AUXILIARY**
  - **CPU_FLAG_ZERO**
  - **CPU_FLAG_SIGN**
  - **CPU_FLAG_TRAP**
  - **CPU_FLAG_INTERRUPT_ENABLE**
  - **CPU_FLAG_DIRECTION**
  - **CPU_FLAG_OVERFLOW**
  - **CPU_FLAG_IO_PRIVILEGE_0**
  - **CPU_FLAG_IO_PRIVILEGE_1**
  - **CPU_FLAG_NESTED_TASK**
  - **CPU_FLAG_RESUME**
  - **CPU_FLAG_VIRTUAL_8086**
  - **CPU_FLAG_ALIGNMENT_CHECK**
  - **CPU_FLAG_VIRTUAL_INTERRUPT**
  - **CPU_FLAG_VIRTUAL_INTERRUPT_PENDING**
  - **CPU_FLAG_CPUID**

### exceptions.h
OSDev Wiki: [Exceptions](https://wiki.osdev.org/Exceptions)

#### `exception_type_E` - enum
These are just the definitions of the CPU-exception interrupt IDs.

#### `g_exception_type_strings` - global variable
This array of strings defines the names of the Exceptions.

#### `exception_handle(cpu_state)` - function (cpu_state_T*)
If an interrupt is an exception, the interrupt handler will call this function to handle the exception.
At the moment it will just panic, but in far future this could get expanded for page swapping, etc.

### gdt.h
OSDev Wiki: [Global Descriptor Table](https://wiki.osdev.org/GDT)

#### `gdt_selector_E` - enum
- **Null**
- **Kernel Code**
- **Kernel Data**
- **User Null**
- **User Code**
- **User Data**

#### `gdt_descriptor_T` - struct [packed]
**Well documented on the osdev wiki.**

#### `gdt_entry_T` - struct [packed]
**Well documented on the osdev wiki.**

#### `gdt_T` - struct [packed / page aligned]
A template that holds a `gdt_entry_T` for every selector

#### `g_default_gdt` - global variable
The default GDT configuration loaded when the GDT gets initialized.

#### `gdt_init()` - function (void)
Loads a descriptor of `g_default_gdt` as the system GDT.

### interrupts.h
This header contains all the stuff, needed to init and handle Interrupts.

#### `idt_register_T` - struct [packed]
This struct is very similar to the GDT descriptor.
It holds the size and address of the Table, where the interrupt handlers are looked up.

#### `idt_descriptor_entry_T` - struct
This struct stores information about one interrupt handler.
The osdev wiki explains this more detailed.

#### `g_idt_register` - global variable
The default IDT configuration loaded when the IDT gets initialized.

#### `idt_init()` - function (void)
This function fills all the interrupt gates (handlers) into the IDT and loads it.


## utils

### bitmap.h
Provides functionalities to create, destruct and work with bitmaps.

#### `bitmap_T` - struct
This struct holds a buffer for a bitmap and its size.
The size is the size of the buffer in bytes, to get the amount of storable bits multiply size with 8.

#### `bitmap_init_from_buffer(buffer, size)` - function (bitmap_T)
Creates a bitmap object from a given buffer and size

#### `bitmap_init(size)` - function (bitmap_T) [NOT IMPLEMENTED YET]
Allocates memory to hold a bitmap in the given size and returns a `bitmap_T` with that buffer and size.

#### `bitmap_destruct(bitmap*)` - function (void) [NOT IMPLEMENTED YET]
Frees the memory of the given bitmap created with `bitmap_init`.

#### `bitmap_set(bitmap*, index, value)` - function (bool)
Sets the bit at the given index in the given bitmap to the given boolean value.
Returns **false**, if the index is out of the bitmaps size bounds.
Returns **true**, if the operation was successful.

#### `bitmap_get(bitmap*, index)` - function (bool)
Returns the boolean value stored at the given index in the given bitmap.
Always returns **false**, if the index is out of the bitmaps size bounds.

### core.h
All the utils, which I didn't know how to name.

#### `CORE_HALT_WHILE(a)` - macro
This halts until **_a_** is true.
Used when working with blocking variables in e.g. thread safe functions.

#### `CORE_HALT_FOREVER` - macro
This halts forever and warns about this in the log.

### io.h
Provides basic Input/Output functionalities.

#### `io_out_byte(port, data)` - function (void)
Writes one byte of **_data_** to **_port_**.
This is a wrapper around the assembly `outb` instruction.

#### `io_in_byte(port)` - function (uint8_t)
Reads one byte from **_port_** and returns it.
This is a wrapper around the assembly `inb` instruction.

### logger.h
Functionalities to write logs to QEMU's serial port.

#### `log_level_E` - enum
  - **Info** - General information, that could be useful
  - **Debug** - Should only be used to find bugs and removed (or commented out) after the bug is found
  - **Warning** - Used for warnings and not important errors
  - **Error** - Used for Fatal Errors / Will be printed to the screen (graphics driver is not Implemented yet)

#### `log(log_level, string)` - function (void)
Logs the given string to QEMU's log port, the string is prefixed with the log type.

### math.h
Mathematical functions, definitions, etc.

#### `MAX(a, b)` - macro
Returns the bigger one of the given values.

#### `MIN(a, b)` - macro
Returns the smaller one of the given values.

#### `CEIL_TO(a, b)` - macro
Aligns **_a_** upwards to **_b_**.
Example: `CEIL_TO(13, 8)` would return 16, because 16 is the next higher multiple of 8 after 13.

#### `FLOOR_TO(a, b)` - macro
Aligns **_a_** downwards to **_b_**.
Example: `FLOOR_TO(13, 8)` would return 8, because 8 is the next smaller multiple of 8 before 13.

#### `pow(base, exponent)` - function (uint64_t)
Returns the power of `base ^ exponent`.

### memory.h
Basic memory functionalities.

#### `memory_copy(source, destination, num)` - function (void)
Copies **_num_** bytes from **_source_** to **_destination_**.
On linux this function is called _memcpy_.

#### `memory_set(destination, data, num)` - function (void)
Sets **_num_** bytes at **_destination_** to **_data_**.
On linux this function is called _memset_.

#### `memory_compare(a, b, num)` - function (bool)
Compares the first **_num_** bytes at **_a_** and **_b_**.
Returns **false** if there is a different byte.
Returns **true** if the data is the same.
There is a similar function on linux called _memcmp_.

### panic.h
Ahhhhh - the kernel is burning!

#### `panic(state, message)` - function (void)
This prints out the error message, a stack backtrace (planned) and a register dump (planned).
After that, the kernel halts forever.
This function is called, when a fatal error occurs

### stdtypes.h
Standard type definitions, that are used almost everywhere.

#### `uint8_t` - typedef
8-bit wide unsigned int.

Range: `0` - `255`

#### `int8_t` - typedef
8-bit wide signed int.

Range: `-128` - `127`

#### `uint16_t` - typedef
16-bit wide unsigned int.

Range: `0` - `65536`

#### `int16_t` - typedef
16-bit wide signed int.

Range: `-32768` - `32767`

#### `uint32_t` - typedef
32-bit wide unsigned int.

Range: `0` - `4294967296`

#### `int32_t` - typedef
32-bit wide signed int.

Range: `-2147483648` - `2147483647`

#### `uint64_t` - typedef
64-bit wide unsigned int.

Range: `0` - `18446744073709551616`

#### `int64_t` - typedef
64-bit wide unsigned int.

Range: `-9223372036854775808` - `9223372036854775807`

#### `bool` - typedef
Boolean type, can hold a logical value **true** or **false**.

#### `true` - macro
Logical **true** value.

#### `false` - macro
Logical **false** value

#### `NULL` - macro
A pointer to nowhere.

### string.h

#### `string_t` - typedef
A null-terminated array of chars.

#### `string_length(string)` - function (uint32_t)
Returns the amount of chars a string has before it's null-terminator.

#### `string_compare(a, b)` - function (bool)
Returns **true** when the strings **_a_** and **_b_** are equal.
Returns **false** if they aren't equal.