Robert Allan JamesandClaude Sonnet 5
f790d0995e
Third stage of the preemptive context-switching plan. The real save/restore switch mechanism now exists -- the first time anything has ever executed on a VM's own native stack (Stage 1 allocated them, unused). New sk_vm_switch_to() (switch.S, one per arch) is an ordinary function call, not an interrupt -- so unlike Stage 0's trap frame, the ABI already covers every caller-saved register; only the callee-saved set needs explicit save/restore (amd64: rbx/rbp/r12-r15, no FP at all since SysV has no callee-saved XMM; aarch64: x19-x28/x29/x30 + d8-d15; riscv64: s0-s11/ra + fs0-fs11, FS-gated like Stage 0 but read once and reused for both halves within one call, since FS is genuine global CPU state, not part of what's switched). A sibling sk_vm_switch_prime() in the same file builds the synthetic first-entry frame, kept in assembly so the layout can never drift out of sync with sk_vm_switch_to() itself. New switch.c/switch.h: sk_vm_context_switch(from, to) handles first-entry priming vs. resuming a parked context, and updates registry state (new VM_STATE_SWITCHED_OUT, distinct from VM_STATE_STOPPED -- STOPPED means no live frame, this means the opposite). sk_vm_switch_entry() is the minimal permanent trampoline every freshly-entered VM lands in: no production behavior defined yet, so it just yields straight back to whoever switched to it, forever. Closes the confirmed unguarded-KILL UAF found during planning: capsule_vm_kill(), mama_word_kill(), and capsule_vm_kill_all_nonmama() all now refuse (or silently leak rather than free, on the cold-restart path where arch_cold_reset() wipes everything immediately after anyway) tearing down a switched-out VM. Side effect found, not built on purpose: the existing MSG-TICK idle-pump already filters on VM_STATE_LIVE, so it automatically stopped dispatching into a switched-out VM with zero changes needed there. Verified via a temporary SWITCH-TEST probe (boot-triggered, since nothing can type interactively into a foreground-only QEMU session) that round-tripped a sentinel through 5 real Hera<->Hermes switches on all 3 architectures: 5/5 rounds, 0 failures, clean continuation to ok>. Probe fully reverted after capture; kernel_main.c shows zero diff. Also: Makefile.starkernel's LOADER_EXTRA_SRCS/LOADER_ASM needed the new files added explicitly (this project's "loader" PE binary is the full running kernel, not a thin bootstrap stage), and aarch64's switch.S needed the same #ifndef _WIN32 guard around .hidden that isr.S already carries (aarch64's loader assembles via clang targeting a PE/COFF target with no .hidden equivalent) -- caught by a build failure, fixed. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_016UNhH1mhi52i6Qihh7ZV5S
capsules/
FORTH personality files loaded by the VM at boot. A capsule is an immutable, content-addressed payload; its XXHash64 hash is its identity. Any mutation changes the hash and the birth protocol rejects the image.
Key files
| File | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
init.4th |
(m) MAMA_INIT |
Default Mama VM personality — loaded at LBN 2048 |
ACL.4th |
user | Word-level ACL system; self-activating at boot |
zuse.4th |
user | Bootstrap superuser; loaded by ACL.4th |
doe.4th |
user | DoE workload words (EXEC-DOE) — opt-in |
workload-0.4th … workload-9.4th |
(p) |
Numbered personality variants |
init-l8-*.4th |
(p) |
L8 Jacquard mode variants (stable/volatile/diverse/temporal/transition/omni) |
hermes/init.4th |
(p) |
Hermes baby VM personality |
artemis/init.4th |
(p) |
Artemis baby VM personality |
Block namespace
Block ranges are shared across all loaded capsules — collisions cause silent word-definition overwrites.
| Range | Owner |
|---|---|
| 2048–2099 | init.4th |
| 2100–2199 | doe.4th |
| 3000–3999 | workload capsules |
| 4000+ | user-defined (ACL.4th, zuse.4th, …) |
Each block is limited to 1024 bytes. Verify with wc -c before committing.
See also
experiments/bare_metal/README.md— DoE protocols and block namespace rulesdocs/03-architecture/word-acl/DESIGN.md— ACL system designtools/mkcapsule.c— assembles capsules intocapsule_generated.c- Project root