It came from kmalloc, which does not clear what it hands out; only the
ramdrive beside it was cleared. A VM's BLOCK on blocks 0 to 2047 read
whatever had been in the kernel's heap. The v4 path already cleared its
own.
Accepted on the v3 configuration: amd64, aarch64 and riscv64 reach the
zuse prompt, no UNKNOWN WORD, PARITY:M7.1a hash 0x08873e0f44b7cb2a on all
three, as before. logs/20261007-140609, -140735, -140946.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A block write the device refuses after the kernel has taken the node's
copy: the node was told "Storage refused" while the kernel's cache kept
the new data, to be read back and perhaps written later. The kernel now
puts its own copy back as it was. Tested with a device whose writes can
be made to fail; it failed first.
POST's runner: a case whose starting state could not be set says so, with
what the node said, where it showed nothing; and a case that ends with
QUIT fails, as it did when the cases were a capsule, where the runner had
taken it for a completed line. Both tests failed first.
The v4 boot says "Artemis: virtio-blk attached" only when the attach
worked.
make -C v4 test, sanitize and hosted-check pass; amd64, aarch64 and
riscv64 boot, POST 538 of 538, dict_hash 0x5f0a949a6fc8ef2b on all six:
logs/20261007-135741, -140004, -140329.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A block request with fewer than two values on the stack is refused; it
had acted on whatever the stack ring held and stopped the node.
Bare metal: when the kernel's chain takes the place of POST's block RAM
the node's two buffers are emptied, so it no longer holds POST's copy of
a block; and the chain's fast RAM is cleared, so a node cannot read what
was in the kernel's heap.
blocks.c is built with each test under that test's own warnings and
sanitizers; it had been left out of both. The hosted link cleans its
object directory first: it had linked the withdrawn store_v3.o left there
from the day before.
node.h and DECOMPOSITION.md D-19 no longer describe the message device or
the four registers as current. MESH.md 8.5 records two findings for
ruling: a node's own copy of a block, and a block read over a node's code.
From a clean build: make -C v4 test, sanitize and hosted-check pass;
amd64, aarch64 and riscv64 boot, POST 538 of 538, same hashes, blocks 1
and 2047 clean at the prompt: logs/20261007-085017, -085254, -085636.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A block is a kernel request, as ENGINE.md 3.3 has it: the node puts the
block's number and the address of 256 cells on its stack and writes the
request to port 0, and the kernel leaves the status there. The requests
are -1, read, and -2, write, the same for every node. v4/system/blocks.c
serves them from the kernel's block subsystem, which is v3's. The four
storage registers are gone from the engine.
The device that spoke block messages (4a505a15) is withdrawn with its
test and its message types: Captain Bob ruled on 2026-10-07 that it, a
node's own drive, and nodes with no storage had left the OS as designed
(docs/v4.0.0/MESH.md 8.5).
Hera no longer sends POST to the nodes she births: POST is the kernel's,
once. Every node has its kernel on port 0; it serves a node's blocks and,
for Hera alone, her requests for nodes and capsules.
Bare metal: the node boots and is POSTed against POST's own block RAM,
and the kernel's chain -- fast RAM, the ramdrive, the virtio disk -- is
set up after POST and before the prompt, as on the v3 path. The disk is
read and not written: nothing in v4 yet gives the owner's word that it
may be formatted. A hosted program has the chain's fast RAM, as hosted
v3 has with no disk. Error 17 is Storage refused.
make -C v4 test and sanitize pass at both widths; hosted-check passes on
three ISAs; amd64, aarch64 and riscv64 boot, POST 538 of 538, with the
typed session: logs/20261007-081603, -081839, -082226. The hashes are
the same on all six.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The global state becomes struct blk_chain, reached through a current
pointer: blk_chain_default, blk_chain_new, blk_chain_select. Nothing
that uses the one chain changes. blk_subsys_init loses its VM argument,
which was stored and never used. docs/v4.0.0/MESH.md 8.4.
Accepted on the v3 configuration: amd64, aarch64 and riscv64 reach the
zuse prompt, no UNKNOWN WORD, PARITY:M7.1a hash 0x08873e0f44b7cb2a on
all three, as on 2026-10-03. logs/20261006-202918, -203036, -203230.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
MESH.md step 3. The ports are the transport; the message is what is
transported: to, from, type, heat and TTL, ACL tag, sequence, length, then
text four characters to a word.
- quit.v4: a node with nothing to do is blocked reading "any port"; text
for it is interpreted; (FINISH) sends what it printed and then how the
text ended, and it waits again
- core.v4: EMIT keeps what is printed, (FLUSH-OUT) and (HDR) send it to the
sender on the port the message came on. EMIT still needs one free data
cell and no more; it works on the return stack and in A and B
- message.h/.c: the same format for whatever is on a port and is not a node
- boot.c: the boot is the node's console on port 1 and its kernel on port 0
- the prompt tests are a console that speaks messages
- gone: v4_line_begin, v4_line_done, v4_line_status; writing a node's input
buffer and setting its P from outside; any use of CONSOLE-TX
Verified: make -C v4 test (test_host_quit.c 1283 checks, the full-stack
figures unchanged) and make -C v4 sanitize pass; hosted-check passes on
three ISAs with POST 550 of 550; clean qemu with STARFORTH_V4=1 passes POST
and answers lines typed at each prompt on amd64, aarch64 and riscv64
(logs/20261006-110551, -111621, -111341). -110837 is an aarch64 run ended
by the test wrapper's limit while still in UEFI firmware; it shows nothing
about v4.
Not done: KEY, EXPECT and QUERY still read the console's input registers;
a message not for this node is let go (step 4).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
ENGINE.md step 2, the carrier. Ruled 2026-10-05 (V3-PARITY.md 1i), on
DECOMPOSITION.md section 6: a write to a port blocks until the neighbour
reads.
- node: v4_node_port_attach, v4_node_port_served; a store to the port keeps
the value as the request and blocks the node
- exec: a blocked node executes nothing; served, it goes on from the opcode
after the store, in the same instruction word; a fault meanwhile abandons
the rest of the word
- compile.v4: n KERNEL-WORD name makes a word whose body writes n to the
port; its arguments and results are on the data stack
- boot: the kernel's words are made by handing the node text, and requests
are served between the node's opcodes; one no one serves is error 12
- BYE, the first kernel word: hosted it leaves the program, as hosted v3;
on the lone node it is v3's cold restart
- ENGINE.md 3a: multiuser, multitasking, preemptive and cooperative, and
what that asks of the engine
Verified: make -C v4 test passes at both widths, with tests/test_port.c;
hosted-check passes on three ISAs; clean qemu with STARFORTH_V4=1 on amd64,
aarch64 and riscv64 passes POST with the same hashes as hosted, and a
kernel word no one serves and BYE typed at each prompt are answered
(logs/20261005-185506, -185734, -190101; -185234 is an amd64 run in which
those two lines were not typed).
Not done: v3's own C functions serving a node.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
A v4 node no longer reads its own command line or prints a prompt. Its
host puts a line of text in the node's input buffer and starts it at
(LINE); the node interprets it and stops at (IDLE), leaving in
(LINE-STATUS) how it ended: completed, an error, or QUIT. The host says
" ok" or " ERROR" and prompts, as the kernel's REPL does for a v3 VM. A
line may be 1024 characters, a block, as v3's. Ruled 2026-10-05
(V3-PARITY.md 1b); design ENGINE.md 3.1.
- quit.v4: (REPL), the node's prompt loop, is gone; (LINE) (IDLE) (DONE)
- image.h/.c: v4_line_begin, v4_line_done, v4_line_status; the node is
idle at switch-on
- boot.c: v4_boot_line, the one loop the hosted binary, the kernel and the
capsule loader hand a line with; the code that took " ok" and the prompt
back out of the node's output is gone
- hosted.c, sk_v4.c: the prompt and the line editing are the host's
- test_host_quit.c: the tests are the node's host; two tests of the old
80-character prompt line now test a whole line, 1024 and 1025 characters
Verified: make -C v4 test passes at both widths; hosted-check passes on
three ISAs; clean qemu with STARFORTH_V4=1 on amd64, aarch64 and riscv64
passes POST (550 of 550) with the same hashes as hosted, and three lines
typed at each bare-metal prompt through the serial port are answered
correctly (logs/20261005-180922, -181152, -181541).
Still the lone node: kernel_main.c starts it before the fleet tables.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
One boot, v4/system/boot.c, for both products: it starts the nucleus image,
finds each capsule in the baked capsule directory, recomputes its hash,
checks its signature, gives its blocks to the node a line at a time, and
prints PARITY:V4_NUCLEUS, PARITY:V4_CAPSULE and PARITY:OK before the prompt.
A line the node does not accept ends the boot with the capsule, block and
line named. docs/v4.0.0/NUCLEUS.md.
- hosted Linux product for amd64, aarch64 and riscv64 (make -C v4 hosted);
make -C v4 hosted-check boots all three and requires identical output
- the kernel's v4 entry (STARFORTH_V4=1) calls the same boot
- capsules/v4/forth79.4th, block 6000: no definitions yet
- mkimage builds the nucleus only; no FORTH source is compiled at build time
- capsule_blocks.c: the Block-header parse, free of any VM, for every loader
Verified: make -C v4 test passes; hosted-check passes on the three ISAs with
the same hashes; the kernel compiles with STARFORTH_V4=1 on the three.
Not verified: no bare-metal boot of v4 has been run.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Source tree reorganization:
- Move StarForth v3 engine to v3/ (src/, include/, Makefile)
- Move kernel to kernel/ (src/, include/, linker/, Makefile)
- Create v4/ skeleton for F18-ISA golden model (DECOMPOSITION.md, JUSTIFICATION.md)
- Move FABRIC-0..4.md to docs/fabric/
- Move ONTOLOGY.md and ROADMAP.md to docs/
Board infrastructure:
- Add boards/ser5/, boards/raspi/, boards/milkv/, boards/zynq7020/
- Each board has board.mk (ISA, CPU flags, boot recipe) and README.md
- Root Makefile becomes thin dispatcher: boot_image, all, clean, docs take TARGET
- make boot_image TARGET=SER5|RASPI|MILKV builds one GPT/MBR image per board
- ZYNQ7020 target exists but stops with clear error (ARMv7 port not built yet)
- scripts/mkdiskimage.sh builds disk images for all boards
Docs pipeline:
- docs/book/ with LaTeX master (main.tex) and Makefile
- pandoc converts Markdown to LaTeX at build time
- Two Lua filters: table-widths.lua (wide tables wrap), code-breaks.lua (inline code breaks)
- make docs builds single PDF (754 pages, 0 missing characters)
- make docs TARGET=<board> adds board appendix
- build/docs/<book|board>/meta.tex stamps git commit into PDF
Bug fixes:
- 42 include paths that only worked by accident now use correct relative paths
- clang-18 hardcode replaced with configurable CC variable (fixed aarch64 build)
- Pi 5: kernel_2712.img linked at 0x80000, .bss zeroed, memory reserved
- Doxyfile, .clang-tidy, README.md, Kconfig paths updated
Verified:
- Hosted v3 build passes 1012 tests, 0 failures
- SER5 image boots in QEMU (OVMF), POST passes, K exact (65536 = Q48_ONE)
- Milk-V image boots in QEMU (OpenSBI + U-Boot + bootefi), POST passes
- make clean TARGET=<board> removes only that board and its ISA objects
- make all builds all boards, hosted v3, and docs in one run
Co-authored-by: Junie <junie@jetbrains.com>
