GNU Mach

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title: "GNU Mach" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["gnu-project-software", "mach-(kernel)", "microkernels"] description: "Operating system kernel" topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Mach" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Operating system kernel ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]

Field	Value
name	GNU Mach
title	GNU Mach
screenshot
developer	GNU Project
released
latest release version
latest release date
latest preview version
latest preview date
operating system	Unix-like
genre	Microkernel
license	GNU General Public License
website
::

| name = GNU Mach | title = GNU Mach | logo = | logo size = | screenshot = | caption = | collapsible = | author = | developer = GNU Project | released = | discontinued = | latest release version = | latest release date = | latest preview version = | latest preview date = | programming language = | operating system = Unix-like | platform = | size = | language = | status = | genre = Microkernel | license = GNU General Public License | website = GNU Mach is an implementation of the Mach microkernel. It is the default microkernel in the GNU Hurd. GNU Mach runs on IA-32 and x86-64 machines. GNU Mach is maintained by developers on the GNU project. It is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

History

Early versions of the Hurd were developed on top of CMU's Mach 3.0.

In 1994, CMU stopped working on Mach, and the GNU Project switched to the University of Utah's Mach 4. The kernel known as "GNU Mach" was derived from Mach 4 once Utah stopped development. The first ChangeLog entry by Thomas Bushnell (rather than by a Utah researcher) is from 16 December 1996.

In 2002, Roland McGrath branched the OSKit-Mach branch from GNU Mach 1.2, intending to replace all the device drivers and some of the hardware support with code from OSKit. After the release of GNU Mach 1.3, this branch was intended to become the GNU Mach 2.0 main line; however, as of 2006, OSKit-Mach is not being developed due to lack of activity in OSKit itself. Around 2006, an attempt to replace GNU Hurd's kernel with the Coyotos kernel also ended in failure.

GNU Mach 1.4 was released on 27 September 2013, eleven years after 1.3.

Version history

• Version 1.0 was released on 14 April 1997.
• Version 1.1.1 was released on 12 May 1997.
• Version 1.1.2 was released on 10 June 1997.
• Version 1.1.3 was released on 12 June 1997.
• Version 1.2 was released on 21 June 1999.
• Version 1.3 was released on 27 May 2002, and features advanced boot script support, support for disks larger than 10 gigabytes and an improved console.
• Version 1.4 was released on 27 September 2013.
• Version 1.5 was released on 10 April 2015.
• Version 1.6 was released on 31 October 2015.
• Version 1.7 was released on 18 May 2016.
• Version 1.8 was released on 18 December 2016.

References

References

1. [https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/history/hurd-announce Initial announcement of the Hurd], mentioning Mach 3.0
2. "GNU".
3. "Re: Which Mach is GNU Mach?".
4. "hurd/gnumach.git - GNU Mach".
5. "[hurd] Log of /gnumach/=announce-oskit-mach-1.2.90".
6. "GNUmach 1.3 released".
7. "Re: mach4 & gnumach/oskit...".
8. "What happened with the Hurd ports to the OSKit Mach / L4 / Coyotos / Viengoos microkernels?".
9. Schwinge, Thomas. (2013-09-27). "Happy 30th birthday, GNU! GNU Mach 1.4 released".

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