From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 28 22:05:46 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6CE3E16A417; Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:05:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from deischen@freebsd.org) Received: from mail.netplex.net (mail.netplex.net [204.213.176.10]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3933113C448; Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:05:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from deischen@freebsd.org) Received: from sea.ntplx.net (sea.ntplx.net [204.213.176.11]) by mail.netplex.net (8.14.2/8.14.2/NETPLEX) with ESMTP id lASLs54M022686; Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:54:05 -0500 (EST) X-Virus-Scanned: by AMaViS and Clam AntiVirus (mail.netplex.net) X-Greylist: Message whitelisted by DRAC access database, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.0 (mail.netplex.net [204.213.176.10]); Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:54:06 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:54:05 -0500 (EST) From: Daniel Eischen X-X-Sender: eischen@sea.ntplx.net To: Robert Watson In-Reply-To: <20071128213947.Q7555@fledge.watson.org> Message-ID: References: <20071128211022.GA74762@lor.one-eyed-alien.net> <20071128213947.Q7555@fledge.watson.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: Brooks Davis , freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: RFC: libkse*.a in 7.0 X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Daniel Eischen List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:05:46 -0000 On Wed, 28 Nov 2007, Robert Watson wrote: > > On Wed, 28 Nov 2007, Brooks Davis wrote: > >> A number of people have proposed a direction in 8.0 that would remove >> support for the syscalls and kernel data structures required by libkse. >> Apparently this would enable significant simplification of portions of the >> kernel, but I have no deeply held personal opinion. The intent is that if >> that happens, alternate versions of the necessicary dynamic libraries will >> be supplied in updated compat#x packages. This will address most >> consumers. The one set of consumers that would not be addressed is those >> who have statically linked, threaded binaries using libkse. > > It's worth noting that some other mainstream operating systems work hard to > disallow static linking for precisely this sort of reason -- when I last > checked, Mac OS X had only one statically linked binary, init, and it may > well be that launchd is dynamically linked. This is part of a very explicit > policy that the defined ABI for applications is *not* the system call layer, > but rather, the library interfaces, which gives greater flexibility to modify > the system call interface as needed. I argued for removing libc.a as well as lib.a a couple of years ago and was met with opposition, mostly because statically linked applications are faster. I think we should remove libthr.a, libkse.a and libc.a, so flame on! -- DE