Bionic libc and BSD libc
staalmannen
This is a somewhat philosophical question since I do not know exactly
how these things work. As far as I have understood it, Bionic libc is
largely based on BSD libc with some modifications that makes it
possible to compile a modified linux kernel.
My question is whether this means that it would be possible to make an
"extended" bionic libc implementing the excluded BSDlibc things (as
far as I have read C++ support, wide chars etc;
http://elinux.org/Android_Notes#C_Library_.28bionic.29_info) not
present in this library for building a more general-purpose Linux
kernel+userland than the one used in Android, for example for desktop-
or server use. Anyone aware of such a project?
Would some things block a "linux-ported" BSD lib C from being both BSD-
compatible and at the same time able to compile a Linux kernel?
According to the information about the bionic libc and needed patches
to linux there are things in the current linux that are not optimal
and that are "blamed" on the glibc (http://www.netmite.com/android/
mydroid/bionic/libc/kernel/README.TXT). If this is the case, it may
perhaps be interesting for many people to have an equally capable
alternative libc.
Why this would be desirable can ofcourse be discussed, but I have
found a number of views on the internet where people feel that the BSD
libc is nicer than glibc (with some examples where the final binary is
smaller with BSD libc than glibc; http://www.galexander.org/glibc.html)
and it would ofcourse be rather cool if someone could build a BSD/
Linux (as soon as Clang is able to compile it, that is, which also
would require C++ support for LLVM) as an alternative to GNU/Linux
(and analogously to the reasons for using bionic in Android it might
open for additional use cases where companies are hesitant to adopt
Linux due to fear of GPL close to their apps).
Ps. sorry for spamming the list if this was an inappropriate forum for
this question. I googled around a bit and did not find any better
alternatives. Ds.
mundou
mundou