[klibc] New to this list, and a first question

[H. Peter Anvin]

Harald Dunkel wrote:
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> H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> |
> | Oh, I see what you're going for.  This hopefully will be taken care of
> | by integrating klibc into the kernel build tree, I hope.
> |
> | People have asked for a way to build with klibc outside the klibc tree.
> | This is much more complex, because klibc uses Makefiles to get all the
> | right compiler options.  See some of the archives for more info.
> |
> 
> I am not sure about building klibc together with the
> kernel, either. IIRC one goal of initramfs is to
> move functionality from kernel into user space. So
> why stick with the kernel build environment for this
> user space stuff?
> 
> Surely there should be a well defined interface
> between kernel and the tools on initramfs. But
> it would help alot if there is some stability in
> this interface. This would make it possible to
> prepare a single initramfs skeleton for any recent
> kernel (e.g. a skeleton for LVM support, or a
> skeleton for NFS mount, etc.). On a kernel update
> all you have to do is to select the right skeleton
> for your boot method, append some new kernel modules
> to this cpio file, and you are done.
> 

That's exactly what you *DON'T* want, because it makes it nearly impossible to 
migrate kernel functionality to userspace.  Instead you want the kernel to be 
able to couple some functionality tightly, while having a well-defined 
interface for augmenting that functionality.

	-hpa