termOS/ROADMAP.md

termOS Roadmap

Legend

• ✅ Done: Implemented and working.
• 🚧 WIP: Currently under active development.
• 📅 Planned: Scheduled for future releases.
• 🤔 Vision: Long-term goals for v1.0.

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Current Status: v0.5.2 (Alpha)

Where we are now.

• Core: Ring 0 / Ring 3 isolation implemented.
• Mem: PMM (bitmap), VMM (PML4, HHDM).
• Exec: Custom HOT! executable format (static loader).
• FS: VFS + Initramfs (CPIO, read-only).
• User: Basic jump to userspace (hardcoded stack, no heap yet).

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📅 Phase 1

Goal: Transform the decorative userspace into a functional mechanism.

v0.5.3 (Immediate Priority)

Focus: Lifecycle & Memory

• Syscall: Memory Management
  • Implement sys_sbrk or sys_mem.
  • Allow userspace to dynamically allocate pages (User Heap).
• Syscall: Process Lifecycle
  • sys_spawn(path): Load .hot files via VFS, create new process structures.
  • sys_exit(code): Proper termination, ZOMBIE state, resource cleanup in scheduler.
• Userspace Lib (mini-libc)
  • Wrappers: malloc, free, exec, exit.
  • crt0.asm for proper main() entry.

v0.5.4 (The Shell Update)

Focus: Interactive Userspace

• Userspace Shell (ush)
  • Porting ksh logic into a standalone .hot binary.
  • Standard I/O abstraction (stdin/stdout) to pass keyboard input to active process.
• Basic Utils
  • ls, cat, echo, ver as standalone programs.
  • Remove built-in commands from the kernel.

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📅 Phase 2

Goal: Total independence from external libraries and architectural hygiene.

v0.6.0 (Architecture Overhaul)

• Bootloader Independence
  • Remove posix-uefi library.
  • Write custom UEFI entry point (pure PE).
  • Kernel itself becomes a valid .hot executable (or loaded by custom bootloader).
• HOT! Format Hardening
  • Fix segment alignment (Page Alignment) in elf2hot and kernel loader.
  • Add metadata headers (stack size, permissions).
• Concurrency Fixes
  • Implement spinlocks (spinlock).
  • Protect allocator and process lists from interrupt race conditions.

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📅 Phase 3

Goal: Prepare the environment for self-hosting. We cannot compile on a Read-Only FS.

v0.7.0 (Filesystem & Input)

• Write Support
  • Storage driver (NVMe/AHCI or Writable RAMDisk).
  • Writable Filesystem (FAT32 or custom simple FS).
• Input Subsystem
  • Input buffering, Pipe (|) support in shell.
  • Basic TTY/PTY abstraction.

v0.8.0 (The Editor)

• Text Editor
  • Write a simple editor (nano-like) in userspace.
  • Capabilities: Open, Edit, Save files.

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📅 Phase 4

Goal: Self-Hosting.

v0.9.0 (The Toolchain)

• Linker (hld)
  • Native linker capable of outputting .hot files (running inside termOS).
• Compiler Port
  • Port TCC (Tiny C Compiler) to termOS.
  • Adapt libc headers for the OS environment.

🤔 v1.0.0 (Self-Hosting)

• Bootstrapping
  • Compile the Dewar kernel inside termOS.
  • Boot from the newly compiled kernel.
  • Total victory.

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📜 History

Version	Date	Key Features
v0.5.2	2026-01-30	HOT! format, Ring 3 isolation, VFS, CPIO parsing.
v0.5.1	2026-01-29	Initial userspace jumps, syscall mechanics.
v0.5.0	2026-01-29	Kernel officially named "Dewar". Versioning standardized.
v0.4.x	2026-01-28	Basic VFS, Shell improvements, basic multitasking.
v0.3.x	2025-12-30	Scheduler, Composer, Heap manager.
v0.2.x	2025-12-28	ksh, Keyboard driver, HHDM, PMM/VMM.
v0.1.x	2025-12-21	First boot, GDT/IDT, Serial/Console, Panic handler.