User-mode Linux

User-mode Linux (http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net) is the port of the Linux kernel to its own userspace. It implements a virtual Linux machine running on Linux. It is an essentially complete system, running its own scheduler, memory management system, filesystems, network, and devices.

Currently, it is being used most heavily by kernel hackers, who are doing filesystem and memory management development and debugging under it, and by hardware developers, who are prototyping new types of devices in software. There is also strong interest from the security community and hosting industry, who want to use UML's isolation capabilities to create jails and honeypots, and virtual servers, respectively.

Future plans for UML development include creating virtual environments by mapping arbitrary external resources into a virtual machine as basic Linux objects such as files and processes, as well as creating a new type of cluster by running a single UML instance across multiple machines, giving the virtual machine access to the combined resources of its hosts.

My talk will discuss the internal design and implementation of UML, my future plans for its development, and current and future applications.