RuntimeLibrary < PPCEmbedded

%SECTION0{name=RuntimeLibrary}% Runtime Library

%SECTION1{name=glibc}% glibc

   * [[http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/]]
     and [[http://sources.redhat.com/glibc/]]

Modern releases of glibc are very large for a traditional embedded
system. If your application requires only one or two user programs,
you can statically link them to avoid requiring the entire dynamic
library. Another option is to hand-strip the dynamic library to a
bare minimum.

Some modifications are required to the official glibc-2.1.x releases
to make them work in the embedded PowerPC environment, such as cache
line size modifications. See 
[[http://lists.linuxppc.org/listarcs/linuxppc-embedded/199909/msg00000.html]]

After applying these modifications, glibc-2.1.x can be configured for
cross-compiling with:

<verbatim>
#!/bin/sh
export PATH=/path/to/local/i686-pc-linux-gnu/bin:$PATH
export CFLAGS="-msoft-float -O2 -DNDEBUG=1"
export CC=powerpc-linux-gcc
export AR=powerpc-linux-ar
export RANLIB=powerpc-linux-ranlib
configure --host=powerpc-linux --prefix=/path/to/local/powerpc-linux \
  --with-headers=/path/to/linux-2.2.13/include --enable-add-ons=linuxthreads \
  --with-gnu-as --with-gnu-ld --disable-sanity-checks --without-fp
</verbatim>

There is a magic script named  which removes unused functions from
the shared C library in the Debian Boot Floppies package, at
[[ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/potato/main/source/admin/boot-floppies_2.2.23.tar.gz]]

%SECTION1{name=Sglibc}% sglibc

   * [[http://sourceforge.net/projects/sglibc]] and
     [[http://external-lists.varesearch.com/lists/listinfo/sglibc]]

This is an attempt to produce a small glibc-compatible C runtime library subset
suitable for embedded systems.

To cut down some of the bloat in glibc, apply the patches at [[http://external-lists.varesearch.com/archives/sglibc/1999-September/000007.html]]

%SECTION1{name=uClibc}% uClibc

   * [[http://opensource.lineo.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb/uClibc/]]

uC-Libc is a C library for embedded systems developed originally for
uClinux and now being ported to other architectures including PowerPC.
It has a different set of design goals from GNU libc, but for many embedded
systems it is a sensible choice.

%SECTION1{name=Dietlibc}% dietlibc

   * [[http://www.fefe.de/dietlibc/]]

The diet libc is a libc that is optimized for small size. It can be used
to create small statically linked binaries for Linux on alpha, arm, mips,
sparc, ppc and x86.

%SECTION1{name=newlib}% newlib

   * [[http://sources.redhat.com/newlib/]]

Newlib is a free C library intended for use on embedded systems, with less
restrictive licensing than the [[GPL]]. However, it currently lacks
the libgloss layer necessary to use it as the C library under Linux.

%SECTION1{name=libc5}% libc5

Older Linux libc's are often quite small, but generally not supported by anyone
now.
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