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Show HN: I integrated my from-scratch TCP/IP stack into the xv6-riscv OS

pandax381 Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Hi HN,

To truly understand how operating systems and network protocols work, I decided to combine two classic learning tools: the xv6 teaching OS and a from-scratch TCP/IP stack.

I'm excited to share the result: my own from-scratch TCP/IP networking stack running directly inside the xv6-riscv (https://github.com/pandax381/xv6-riscv-net) kernel.

The project uses a modern virtio-net driver, allowing it to run seamlessly in QEMU and communicate with the host machine.

Key features:

- From-Scratch Stack: The core is powered by microps (https://github.com/pandax381/microps), a TCP/IP stack I originally wrote to run in user-space as a personal project to learn the low-level details of networking.

- Kernel Integration: This project ports microps from user-space into the xv6-riscv kernel.

- Socket API: Implements standard system calls (socket, bind, accept, etc.) to enable network application development.

- User-level Tools: Comes with a simple ifconfig command, plus tcpecho and udpecho servers to demonstrate its capabilities.

This has been a fantastic learning experience. My goal was to demystify the magic behind network-aware operating systems by building the components myself.

I'd love to hear your feedback and answer any questions!

Summary
This article describes the implementation of a networking stack for the xv6 operating system, a RISC-V version of the classic Unix-like operating system. The article covers the design, implementation, and evaluation of the networking stack, which enables xv6 to communicate over the network.
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