NeKernel (NeSystem) Primer

NeSystem Project Documentation

Author: Amlal El Mahrouss (amlal at nekernel dot org)

Citing The Work

@book{El_Mahrouss_NeKernel_org_Primer,
  author = {El Mahrouss, Amlal},
  year = 2026,
  title = {{Ne Project System Primer.}},
  url = {https://src.nekernel.org}
}

Resources

https://github.com/ne-foss-org/srchttps://github.com/ne-foss-org/ne_kernelhttps://github.com/ne-foss-org/nectar

Abstract

Designing and implementing Low-Level Systems is one of the most challenging tasks in Software Engineering. NeKernel was designed to give you a head start. Written in modern C++, it also makes use of a new programming language called "Nectar".

Requirements

You will need to install:

  • • NeBuild
  • • CoreUtils
  • • Git
  • • MinGW/Clang

What is a Microkernel?

Think of it as the layer who has the near-minimum needed in order to have what's considered an 'Operating System'.

These include, but not limited to:

  • → Inter Process Communication
  • → Process Scheduling
  • → Thread Management

Expanding the Microkernel — The 'Hello World' DDK

You will need to link against:

libDDK.dll

This first exercise will focus on implementing a simple DDK in C, which prints a simple 'Hello, World!' to NeKernel's console output.

Sources:

#include <DriverKit/DriverKit.h>

DDK_EXTERN void simple_kputc(const char ch) {
    char assembled[2] = {0};
    assembled[0]      = ch;
    assembled[1]      = 0;

    ke_call_dispatch("ke_put_string", 2, assembled, 2);
}

DDK_EXTERN void hello_ddk(void) {
    const char* message = "Hello, World!\n";
    
    while (*message != 0) {
        simple_kputc(*message);
        message++;
    }
}

One shall use NeBuild to compile the DDK as follows:

nebuild hello_ddk_manifest.{json, toml}

Where the manifest files contain the needed metadata to build the DDK driver, which links against libDDK.dll.

Adding a Kernel Subsystem — The 'GFXKit'

Adding a new subsystem is straightforward: add your directory 'GFXKit', include your headers, add the directory 'GFX' in 'kernel/src', then include the compilation of the GFX module in the makefiles.

[1] Note:

One should be careful to think about whether your subsystem could be part of an existing one — that would avoid reinventing the wheel.

[2] One can visualize a kernel subsystem as such:

Headers:

/GfxKit
    /GPU.h
    /FB.h
    /Packet.h

Sources:

/src/Gfx
    /GPUPacket.cpp
    /FBPacket.cpp

Next Steps

Practicing and experimenting with your distribution of the Ne System is what comes next after this primer. Please read the documentation available at https://docs.src.nekernel.org as well to learn more.

More pages like this will be made available online soon.