klibc

{{Short description|Minimalist implementation of C standard library}}

{{Infobox software

| name = klibc

| logo =

| caption =

| screenshot =

| developer = H. Peter Anvin

| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|reference|P348}}

| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P577}}}}

| operating system = Linux

| genre = Runtime library

| license = BSD licenses/GPLv2

| website = {{URL|https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/klibc/}}

}}

In computing, klibc is a minimalistic subset of the standard C library developed by H. Peter Anvin. It was developed mainly to be used during the Linux startup process, and it is part of the early user space, i.e. components used during kernel startup, but which do not run in kernel mode.https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/early-userspace/README {{Bare URL plain text|date=March 2022}} These components do not have access to the standard library (usually glibc or musl) used by normal userspace programs.

The development of klibc library was part of the 2002 effort to move some Linux initialization code out of the kernel.Jonathan Corbet, (November 2002) [https://lwn.net/Articles/14776/ Initramfs arrives], LWN.net{{cite web |url=http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=103622506919278&w=2 |title=initramfs merge, part 1 of N |date=2002-02-11 }}{{cite web |url= http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=103626389507412&w=2 |title= Re: initramfs merge, part 1 of N |date=2002-02-11 }} According to its documentation, the klibc library is optimized for correctness and small size. Because of its design, klibc is also technically suitable for embedded software in general on a variety of platforms, and is used even by full-featured programs such as the MirBSD Korn Shell.

During the Linux startup process, klibc is loaded from within a temporary RAM file system, initramfs. It is incorporated by default into initial RAM file systems that are created by the mkinitramfs script in Debian[http://packages.debian.org/source/stable/klibc Debian stable Klibc]. and Ubuntu. Furthermore, it has a set of small Unix utilities that are useful in early user space: cpio, dash, fstype, mkdir, mknod, mount, nfsmount, run-init, etc. all using the klibc library.{{cite web|url=https://git.kernel.org/?p=libs/klibc/klibc.git;a=tree;f=usr;h=f3224b691ca990bed5081ea31106bed47ce23653;hb=HEAD|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708115938/http://git.kernel.org/?p=libs/klibc/klibc.git;a=tree;f=usr;h=f3224b691ca990bed5081ea31106bed47ce23653;hb=HEAD|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-07-08|title=libs/klibc/klibc.git / tree}} An alternate strategy is to include everything in one executable, like BusyBox, which determines the requested applet via arguments or hard links or symlinks.