GCC Goes For "libc Diversity" With Picolibc Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: GCC Goes For "libc Diversity" With Picolibc Support

Keith Packard is known for his X.Org/X11 work over the course of many years but alongside other software projects he also maintains Picolibc as a C library designed for embedded 32-bit and 64-bit systems. Recently he sent out a patch for adding Picolibc support to the GCC compiler...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/GCC-libc-Diversity-picolibc

[MastaG]

Back in the days I used to experiment with uclibc and came to the conclusion that lots of GNU software assumes you're using glibc.
Using something else will break things due to missing functionality.

[bug77]

I am wondering if we're not past the point where ISO C would also need to define some profiles for various purpose libs. I understand the difference and they're technically unrelated. They're still used together almost all the time.

[edxposed]

The diversity of GNU is like the diversity of OS that Apple Arm products are able to run.

[caligula]

Back in the days I used to experiment with uclibc and came to the conclusion that lots of GNU software assumes you're using glibc.
Using something else will break things due to missing functionality.

Now a days there's musl which supports more apps. There are some political issues though, like the fact that musl and systemd aren't compatible (musl devs doesn't want to support systemd and systemd dev don't want to support anything other than glibc), which makes things a bit hard because most distros now use systemd.

[bug77]

Now a days there's musl which supports more apps. There are some political issues though, like the fact that musl and systemd aren't compatible (musl devs doesn't want to support systemd and systemd dev don't want to support anything other than glibc), which makes things a bit hard because most distros now use systemd.

Tbh, it makes zero sense for a C lib such as musl (or glibc) to support something like systemd. Luckily, Alpine doesn't use systemd, so I don't care whether systemd is tied to glibc or not.

[brad0]

musl devs doesn't want to support systemd

That's not how anything should work.

[mobadboy]

too woke for me, sorry

[NekkoDroid]

musl devs doesn't want to support systemd and systemd dev don't want to support anything other than glibc

From my knowledge it's more that systemd uses kernel APIs that glibc wraps that musl doesn't want to implement and systemd isn't gonna make their own wrappers when glibc already does the job.

[Weasel]

From my knowledge it's more that systemd uses kernel APIs that glibc wraps that musl doesn't want to implement and systemd isn't gonna make their own wrappers when glibc already does the job.

Sounds like systemd can suck it.