Systems documentation

_layouts/documentation.html

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
           </li>
           <li><a href="/docs/boxes.html">Boxes</a></li>
           <li><a href="/docs/base_boxes.html">Base Boxes</a></li>
+          <li><a href="/docs/systems.html">Systems</a></li>
           <li><a href="/docs/rake.html">Rake Integration</a></li>
         </ol>
       </div>

docs/systems.md

@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+---
+layout: documentation
+title: Documentation - Systems
+---
+# Systems
+
+Systems are an abstraction within Vagrant which describe how various operating system specific
+tasks are to be run. Systems abstract away tasks such as shutting down, mounting folders, etc.
+since some operating systems handle this slightly different. This opens the door to supporting
+more than unix-like systems.
+
+<div class="info">
+  <h3>This topic is for advanced users</h3>
+  <p>
+    The following topic is for <em>advanced</em> users. The majority of Vagrant users
+    will never have to do this. Therefore, only continue if you want to support a non-linux
+    based operating system.
+  </p>
+</div>
+
+## System Tasks
+
+The following is a list of tasks which are delegated to system classes:
+
+* **Halting** - Shutting down the machine gracefully
+* **Mounting Shared Folders** - Creating, mounting, and setting up the permissions
+  for shared folders.
+
+This list will surely grow as Vagrant grows. For now, to implement a custom operating
+system implementation, only the above two features need to be implemented.
+
+## Creating a New System Implementer
+
+Creating a new system implementer is quite simple: Inherit from `Vagrant::Systems::Base`
+and implement the stubbed method on that class. Instead of going over each method here,
+I'll point you to the [base source file](http://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/blob/master/lib/vagrant/systems/base.rb)
+which is thoroughly commented to explain each method.
+
+## Using a New System Implementer
+
+The new system implementer should be specified as the `config.vm.system` configuration
+value. By default, this is `:linux`. A symbol represents a built-in system type. For
+your custom types, you should set the value as the class name for your new implementer.
+Below is a sample Vagrantfile which does just this:
+
+{% highlight ruby %}
+# An example system:
+require 'bsd_system'
+
+Vagrant::Config.run do |config|
+  # Set the system to the proper class name:
+  config.vm.system = BSDSystem
+end
+{% endhighlight %}
+
+The configured Vagrant environment will then use the custom system implementation.