Asterinas is a secure, fast, and general-purpose OS kernel, written in Rust and providing Linux-compatible ABI.
Go to file
Shaowei Song a47eda413c Add extended attribute (xattr) syscalls: setxattr, getxattr, listxattr and removexattr 2025-03-28 15:08:59 +08:00
.github Support PE/COFF entry point 2025-03-27 09:13:41 +08:00
.vscode
docs Add extended attribute (xattr) syscalls: setxattr, getxattr, listxattr and removexattr 2025-03-28 15:08:59 +08:00
kernel Add extended attribute (xattr) syscalls: setxattr, getxattr, listxattr and removexattr 2025-03-28 15:08:59 +08:00
osdk Correct OSDK profiling tool's behavior 2025-03-23 22:40:45 +08:00
ostd Add a lint expectation 2025-03-27 18:51:41 +08:00
test Add sys_signalfd/sys_signalfd implementation 2025-03-21 16:10:55 +08:00
tools Install libnl in docker image 2025-03-26 17:45:49 +08:00
.code-workspace
.dockerignore
.gitignore
.licenserc.yaml
.typos.toml
CODEOWNERS
COPYRIGHT
Cargo.lock Bump the version to 0.14.1 2025-03-22 15:55:31 +08:00
Cargo.toml
Components.toml
DOCKER_IMAGE_VERSION Bump Docker image version to 0.14.1-20250326 2025-03-26 17:45:49 +08:00
LICENSE-MPL
Makefile Support PE/COFF entry point 2025-03-27 09:13:41 +08:00
OSDK.toml
README.md Update docker version ref to 0.14.1-20250326 2025-03-27 09:11:53 +08:00
README_CN.md Update docker version ref to 0.14.1-20250326 2025-03-27 09:11:53 +08:00
README_JP.md Update docker version ref to 0.14.1-20250326 2025-03-27 09:11:53 +08:00
VERSION Bump the version to 0.14.1 2025-03-22 15:55:31 +08:00
rust-toolchain.toml
rustfmt.toml
triagebot.toml

README.md

asterinas-logo
A secure, fast, and general-purpose OS kernel written in Rust and compatible with Linux
Test OSDK Test Asterinas Benchmark Asterinas

English | 中文版 | 日本語

Introducing Asterinas

Asterinas is a secure, fast, and general-purpose OS kernel that provides Linux-compatible ABI. It can serve as a seamless replacement for Linux while enhancing memory safety and developer friendliness.

  • Asterinas prioritizes memory safety by employing Rust as its sole programming language and limiting the use of unsafe Rust to a clearly defined and minimal Trusted Computing Base (TCB). This innovative approach, known as the framekernel architecture, establishes Asterinas as a more secure and dependable kernel option.

  • Asterinas surpasses Linux in terms of developer friendliness. It empowers kernel developers to (1) utilize the more productive Rust programming language, (2) leverage a purpose-built toolkit called OSDK to streamline their workflows, and (3) choose between releasing their kernel modules as open source or keeping them proprietary, thanks to the flexibility offered by MPL.

While the journey towards a production-grade OS kernel is challenging, we are steadfastly progressing towards this goal. Over the course of 2024, we significantly enhanced Asterinas's maturity, as detailed in our end-year report. In 2025, our primary goal is to make Asterinas production-ready on x86-64 virtual machines and attract real users!

Getting Started

Get yourself an x86-64 Linux machine with Docker installed. Follow the three simple steps below to get Asterinas up and running.

  1. Download the latest source code.
git clone https://github.com/asterinas/asterinas
  1. Run a Docker container as the development environment.
docker run -it --privileged --network=host --device=/dev/kvm -v $(pwd)/asterinas:/root/asterinas asterinas/asterinas:0.14.1-20250326
  1. Inside the container, go to the project folder to build and run Asterinas.
make build
make run

If everything goes well, Asterinas is now up and running inside a VM.

The Book

See The Asterinas Book to learn more about the project.

License

Asterinas's source code and documentation primarily use the Mozilla Public License (MPL), Version 2.0. Select components are under more permissive licenses, detailed here. For the rationales behind the choice of MPL, see here.