[dev] sbase

From: Connor Lane Smith <cls_AT_lubutu.com>
Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 03:15:43 +0100

Hey all,

I think it's about time we started a minimalist, statically linked set
of core utilities. The BSD family are bloated, and the GNU monstrous.
Some of us seem to be resorting to using those from Plan 9, which were
designed for another operating system and exist on Unix through a
compatibility shim.

So, in a glorious demonstration of NIH syndrome, let's make our own!
I'm unsure exactly which utilities we should include (suggestions on a
comprehensive set?), but in terms of functionality a good rule of
thumb is to only include flags present in both POSIX and Plan 9, thus
making a sweet little subset. There are exceptions to this, like grep
-q and ls -a, but it's a useful guideline.

I've written a handful so far (basename, cat, echo, false, grep, tee,
touch, true, wc), which I've attached. Each tool is between 6 and 88
SLOC, and compiles with musl into a static binary between 13K and 45K
in size. The manual pages are nice and short, too.

If anyone else wants to contribute a tool written in the same style
they are most welcome. I'd like to set up an hg repo soon, but I'm
quite busy with exams atm.

Thanks,
cls

Received on Mon May 23 2011 - 04:15:43 CEST

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