Does Little kernel belong to monolithic or microkernel?

[shijun]

Does the little kernel (LK:https://github.com/littlekernel/lk) belong to the monolithic architecture or microkernel architecture?

[dchapiesky]

my own opinion is that it is a dynamic monolithic kernel....

additional features are added simply by linking in libraries which have markups in special constructor/destructor sections of the object file.

so "dynamic" in that you can pick and choose what features you want simply by linking them in...

monolithic because it all ends up being one big executable with function calls being the dispatch mechanism for services.

If you study Magenta OS from google - which is based on a modified Little Kernel - then you enter into a microkernel architecture.... the lk portion is fairly minimalistic and the features linked in include the Magenta message queue system and basic device drivers....

major services of the OS are implemented as services which communicate to & via the kernel using message queues....

[shijun]

Thanks! Your answer is very clear.