Marshall Kirk McKusick
Encyclopedia
Marshall Kirk McKusick (born January 19, 1954 in Wilmington, Delaware
) is a computer scientist
, known for his extensive work on BSD, from the 1980s to FreeBSD
in the present day. He was president of the USENIX
Association from 1990 to 1992 and again from 2002 to 2004, and still serves on the board. He is also on the editorial board of ACM Queue Magazine. He is known to friends and colleagues as "Kirk".
McKusick received his B.S.
in electrical engineering
from Cornell University
, and 2 M.S.
degrees (in 1979 and 1980 respectively) and a Ph.D.
in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley
in 1984. http://cal.berkeley.edu
He lives in California with Eric Allman
, his domestic partner since graduate school. McKusick is an avid wine collector and the temperature and vital statistics of his house and wine cellar are available on the web from his homepage.
, who in essence spearheaded the beginnings of the BSD system.
Some of his largest contributions to BSD have been to the file system
. He helped design the original Berkeley Fast File System (FFS). More recently, he implemented soft updates
, an alternative approach to maintaining disk integrity after a crash or power outage, in FFS, and a revised version of UFS
known as "UFS2". The magic number
used in the UFS2 super block structure reflects McKusick's birth date: #define FS_UFS2_MAGIC 0x19540119 (as found in /usr/include/ufs/ffs/fs.h on FreeBSD
systems).
He was also primarily responsible for creating the complementary features of filesystem snapshot
s and background fsck
(file system check and repair), which both integrate closely with soft updates. After the filesystem snapshot, the filesystem can be brought up immediately after a power outage, and fsck can run as a background process.
The Design and Implementation series of books are regarded as very high quality works in computer science. They have been strongly influential in the development of the BSD descendants and have contributed to their cohesive and well-thought-out nature. The well-known daemon image, often used to identify BSD, is copyrighted by Marshall Kirk McKusick.
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
) is a computer scientist
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, known for his extensive work on BSD, from the 1980s to FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
in the present day. He was president of the USENIX
USENIX
-External links:* *...
Association from 1990 to 1992 and again from 2002 to 2004, and still serves on the board. He is also on the editorial board of ACM Queue Magazine. He is known to friends and colleagues as "Kirk".
McKusick received his B.S.
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, and 2 M.S.
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
degrees (in 1979 and 1980 respectively) and a Ph.D.
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1984. http://cal.berkeley.edu
He lives in California with Eric Allman
Eric Allman
Eric Paul Allman is an American computer programmer who developed sendmail and its precursor delivermail in the late 1970s and early 1980s at UC Berkeley.-Education and training:...
, his domestic partner since graduate school. McKusick is an avid wine collector and the temperature and vital statistics of his house and wine cellar are available on the web from his homepage.
BSD
McKusick started with BSD by virtue of the fact that he shared an office at Berkeley with Bill JoyBill Joy
William Nelson Joy , commonly known as Bill Joy, is an American computer scientist. Joy co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Vinod Khosla, Scott McNealy and Andy Bechtolsheim, and served as chief scientist at the company until 2003...
, who in essence spearheaded the beginnings of the BSD system.
Some of his largest contributions to BSD have been to the file system
File system
A file system is a means to organize data expected to be retained after a program terminates by providing procedures to store, retrieve and update data, as well as manage the available space on the device which contain it. A file system organizes data in an efficient manner and is tuned to the...
. He helped design the original Berkeley Fast File System (FFS). More recently, he implemented soft updates
Soft updates
In computer file systems, soft updates is an approach to maintaining disk integrity after a crash or power outage. They are an alternative to journaling file systems....
, an alternative approach to maintaining disk integrity after a crash or power outage, in FFS, and a revised version of UFS
Unix File System
The Unix file system is a file system used by many Unix and Unix-like operating systems. It is also called the Berkeley Fast File System, the BSD Fast File System or FFS...
known as "UFS2". The magic number
Magic number (programming)
In computer programming, the term magic number has multiple meanings. It could refer to one or more of the following:* A constant numerical or text value used to identify a file format or protocol; for files, see List of file signatures...
used in the UFS2 super block structure reflects McKusick's birth date: #define FS_UFS2_MAGIC 0x19540119 (as found in /usr/include/ufs/ffs/fs.h on FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
systems).
He was also primarily responsible for creating the complementary features of filesystem snapshot
Snapshot (computer storage)
In computer systems, a snapshot is the state of a system at a particular point in time. The term was coined as an analogy to that in photography. It can refer to an actual copy of the state of a system or to a capability provided by certain systems....
s and background fsck
Fsck
The system utility fsck is a tool for checking the consistency of a file system in Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux.-Use:...
(file system check and repair), which both integrate closely with soft updates. After the filesystem snapshot, the filesystem can be brought up immediately after a power outage, and fsck can run as a background process.
The Design and Implementation series of books are regarded as very high quality works in computer science. They have been strongly influential in the development of the BSD descendants and have contributed to their cohesive and well-thought-out nature. The well-known daemon image, often used to identify BSD, is copyrighted by Marshall Kirk McKusick.