Re: busybox still too bloated
On Tue Sep 25, 2001 at 12:04:28PM -0400, Adam Di Carlo wrote:
> Erik Andersen <andersen@codepoet.org> writes:
> > I suspect that all of the following could probably be eliminated: ar, date,
> > echo, env, expr, gzip, halt, lsmod, poweroff, wc, which, whoami.
> >
> > A quick check shows that disabling just , ar + date + echo + env + expr + gzip
> > + lsmod adds up to 21k (x86).
>
> You are talking about reducing out of busybox? We'd have to make sure
> all the install.sh and the pcmcia stuff doesn't use this before we can
> be certain it is not needed..
Right. I can't think of a good reason for ar to be included. echo dups a
shell buildtin. lsmod duplicates moduilts (which we are using due to limited
arch support in busybox insmod). env and expr duplicate shell functionality.
date we can probably live without. I'm sure we need gunzip, but gzip?
Probably safe to axe them all, but I wanted to double check in case someone is
using this stuff and I just don't know about it.
> > Hmm. I just noticed... It looks like we do not use busybox
> > ifconfig or busybox route on the boot floppies. We could save quite
> > a bit of space that way.
> >
> > $ du -hc /sbin/ifconfig /sbin/route
> > 56k /sbin/ifconfig
> > 44k /sbin/route
> > 100k total
> >
> > By way of comparision, a full featured busybox ifconfig + route cost
> > just 12k, thereby saving us 88k (x86).
>
> Wow. Last I heard, though, this didn't work too well on non-x86
> arches? Is that not true? Is it mature now?
It is very mature -- hav't had any complaints since March. There is no
arch-dependant stuff in busybox ifconfig -- perhaps you are thinking of busybox
insmod (which is arch-dependant).
> This sort of this is how we should go about it.
>
> Also, what about busybox ash? Is that mature enough to use instead of
> the proper ash package? Or did it have some problems?
It is pretty solid -- we got POSIX math support back in a few revs back (minus
the flex dependancy). By default it lacks a few obscure bits of POSIX shell
support, but I can turn those bits back on if it turns out those bits are
neededon. I think it is worth giving it a try... Default busybox ash is just
51k. Enabling tab completion and command line editing (which would be _great_
to have on the boot floppies) brings it to 59k. It looks like the debian ash
binary now in the boot floppies weighs in at 81k (and lacks both command line
editing and tab completion).
-Erik
--
Erik B. Andersen email: andersee@debian.org, formerly of Lineo
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