I don't know the details of the MPK. So I consider it as some kind of function that maps {process PID, DLL} => Set of UID. And by UID, I AM talking about the system level user ID. Remember that this feature is a processor level feature. So it has to be transparent to the OS (well at least, to the OS Scheduler). Hence the output of this feature should be understandable to the OS kernel. Or so I hope as the implementation details are vague till now.
MadhuGururajan
joined 2 years ago
which office are you? I am missing such fresh perspectives. Everybody wants someone with 10 years experience in 5 different stacks on 5 different languages/tools.
The company probably wanted a savant for monkey's pay.
The gist is that a system call is introduced to go into the PCB and change the Effective UID of a process. Security is ensured by a processor MPK which is a CPU provided guard so that a {Process, Library} has only a restricted set of Effective UIDs it can switch to. This operations is supposed to use 30 to 50 clock cycles. So entry + exit is supposed to be done in 100 cycles. This is considered low overhead context switch compared to the traditional context switch on Linux for slower IPCs. They don't do a comparison against iouring, or simply multi-threaded process.
well yes... that's what one expects when they go DIY.
or simply use a well designed programming language.
lol this whole article and this thread is a bunch of bikeshedding I haven't had the privilege of enduring in some weeks.
THAT is the message you took from all this? What you're going to root for the smug ignorant asshole?
probably for the labour it takes to do the OEM install and verify that everything is up to date and works.. like audio and multi-monitor.
I often compare vibe coding to lord of the rings. Saruman blocks the fellowship's path with difficult challenges. So too does solving hard problems in programming. So Gandalf decides they will take the mines of moria (vibe coding). He knows better but does so anyway. The rest of the fellowship naively follows him down (junior devs). Most of the path is just minor hiccups and the juniors fumbling around. But they get to a certain point and things start to get too heated. The hordes of goblins being the bugs introduced by the LLM as they keep changing the code via different prompts. Then they inevitably awaken the Balrog.. the monstrous Complexity Demon that was brewing behind the vibe coding sunshine and roses.
the arch maintainers are not terminally online like some of us.
oh nevermind.. carry on then (Tis a joke about not wanting to touch THAT mess, in case it's not clear)