Getting started in the FreeBSD bootloader

[eatonphil]

Hey! I am interested in learning more (and hacking on) Forth in the FreeBSD bootloader (or any other bootloaders that use a Forth interpreter). Does anyone have any suggestions for getting started on this? (Guides, posts, anything.) Thanks!

[larsbrinkhoff]

I have noted there is plenty of FreeBSD Forth code on GitHub: https://github.com/search?q=beastie+extension%3A4th

[Mat2]

The FreeBSD boot loader includes at current a Ficl interpreter which is running some Forth scripts for diplaying a boot menu and handling different boot options. Maybe because the Ficl 4 source base initially introduced some critical bugs, there exist an ongoing effort to replace Ficl with Lua and rewrite the boot scripts: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/projects/lua-bootloader

Anyhow, both scripting languages seem to be supported in future. Just take a look to the FreeBSD source tree.