uClibc-ng - a small C Library for Linux
uClibc-ng (aka µClibc-ng/pronounced yew-see-lib-see-next-generation) is a C
library for developing embedded Linux systems. It is much smaller than the GNU
C Library, but nearly all applications supported by glibc also work perfectly
with uClibc-ng.
uClibc-ng is a spin-off of uClibc from http://www.uclibc.org
from Erik Andersen and others.
Porting applications from glibc to uClibc-ng typically involves just
recompiling the source code. uClibc-ng even supports shared libraries and
threading. It currently runs on standard Linux and MMU-less (also
known as µClinux) systems with support for ARC, ARM, Blackfin, i386, M68K/Coldfire
MIPS, MIPS64, NDS32, PowerPC, SH, Sparc, X86_64 and XTENSA processors.
If you are building an embedded Linux system and you find that
glibc is eating up too much space, you should consider using
uClibc-ng. If you are building a huge fileserver with 12 Terabytes
of storage, then using glibc may make more sense. Unless, for
example, that 12 Terabytes will be Network Attached Storage and
you plan to burn Linux into the system's firmware...
uClibc-ng is maintained by Waldemar Brodkorb and is licensed under the
GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE. This license allows you to
make closed source commercial applications using an unmodified
version of uClibc-ng. You do not need to give away all your source code just
because you use uClibc-ng and/or run on Linux. You should, however,
carefuly review the license and make certain you understand and
abide by it strictly.
For installation instructions, see the file INSTALL.
uClibc-ng strives to be standards compliant, which means that most
documentation written for SuSv3, or for glibc also applies to
uClibc-ng functions. However, many GNU extensions are not supported
because they have not been ported, or more importantly, would
increase the size of uClibc-ng disproportional to the added
functionality.
Additional information can be found at http://www.uclibc-ng.org/.
uClibc-ng may be freely modified and distributed under the terms of
the GNU Lesser General Public License, which can be found in the
file COPYING.LIB.
And most of all, be sure to have some fun! :-)
-Waldemar