Gentoo Archives: gentoo-embedded

From: Eric Radman <theman@×××××××.com>
To: gentoo-embedded@g.o
Subject: [gentoo-embedded] Is you're business going to depend on it?
Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2003 14:03:26
Message-Id: 1068195793.4081.45.camel@inspiration.x.eradman.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-embedded] Welcome by Seemant Kulleen
1 The discussion over glibc vs. uClibc is very important because every
2 system really has to be built, tested, and debugged with a specific C
3 library in mind. Fundimental functions like malloc() are sometimes
4 exhibit slightly different behavior.
5
6 Many applications and services will not compile against uClibc becuase
7 simply does not provide many of the functions that glibc does.(1) The
8 reason for this is because uClibc focuses on C89, C99, and SUSv3 (Single
9 UNIX Specification 3) compatibility, but not full compatibility with
10 glibc.(2) The selection of Diet libc is even more troublesome because it
11 is targets the development of binaries that are statically linked.(3)
12
13 I would argue that building a hardened platform requres the
14 standardization of basic programming libraries. Otherwise our motto will
15 be "it should work with whatever library you choose". Embedded sytems
16 such as routers fit into the mission critical category. On the other
17 hand, if someone's PDA freezes up once every 6 months nobody's going to
18 care.
19
20 References:
21 (1) www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/uclibc/Glibc_vs_uClibc_Differences.txt
22 (2) Building Embedded Linux Systems (O'Reilly), p.134
23 (3) Building Embedded Linux Systems (O'Reilly), p.139
24
25 Eric Radman
26
27 On Fri, 2003-11-07 at 02:45, Seemant Kulleen wrote:
28 > Well, look, we've had glibc (not sure if uclibc and dietlibc do yet),
29 > PROVIDE a virtual/glibc (though, to be completely correct, it should
30 > just be virtual/libc, but let's leave that aside). So this argument is
31 > just an argument. The point of a virtual is that the user has the
32 > ultimate choice to decide who satisfies the virtual. Why don't we just
33 > leave it at that and move on
34
35
36 --
37 gentoo-embedded@g.o mailing list