Kerla is an experimental operating system kernel written in Rust with a Linux-compatible syscall interface. It aims to run Linux binaries in user space without relying on a traditional Linux kernel. Kerla combines the safety guarantees of Rust with a familiar POSIX-like programming model, making it a unique exploration into safe systems programming. Though early in development, it supports basic userspace execution and is a promising proof-of-concept for running Linux userland programs in a fully Rust-based kernel.

Features

  • Rust-written kernel for memory safety and modern design
  • Linux-compatible syscall interface for user programs
  • Capable of running statically linked Linux ELF binaries
  • x86_64 architecture support with basic multitasking
  • In-memory ext2 filesystem with file I/O support
  • Virtual memory management and paging system
  • Basic console output via VGA text mode
  • Minimal bootloader and kernel image for bare-metal testing
  • Focused on research and education in OS development

Project Samples

Project Activity

See All Activity >

License

Apache License V2.0

Follow Kerla

Kerla Web Site

Other Useful Business Software
Forever Free Full-Stack Observability | Grafana Cloud Icon
Forever Free Full-Stack Observability | Grafana Cloud

Our generous forever free tier includes the full platform, including the AI Assistant, for 3 users with 10k metrics, 50GB logs, and 50GB traces.

Built on open standards like Prometheus and OpenTelemetry, Grafana Cloud includes Kubernetes Monitoring, Application Observability, Incident Response, plus the AI-powered Grafana Assistant. Get started with our generous free tier today.
Create free account
Rate This Project
Login To Rate This Project

User Reviews

Be the first to post a review of Kerla!

Additional Project Details

Operating Systems

Linux, Mac, Windows

Programming Language

Rust

Related Categories

Rust Operating Systems

Registered

2025-03-28