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First pass update of the roadmap. (Lots more analysis needs to be redone.)

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Rob Landley 2025-01-18 13:58:41 -06:00
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@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
<ul>
<li><a href=#goals>Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href=#susv4>POSIX-2008/SUSv4</a></li>
<li><a href=#susv5>POSIX-2024/SUSv5</a></li>
<li><a href=#sigh>Linux "Standard" Base</a></li>
<li><a href=#rfc>IETF RFCs and Man Pages</a></li>
<li><a href=#dev_env>Development Environment</a></li>
@ -32,72 +32,80 @@ for Toybox's 1.0 release. Most of these have their own section in the
<a href=status.html>status page</a>, showing current progress towards
commplation.</p>
<p>The most interesting publicly available standards are A) POSIX-2008 (also
known as SUSv4), B) the Linux Standard Base version 4.1, and C) the official
<a href=https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/>Linux man pages</a>.
But each of those include commands we've decided not implement, exclude
commands or features we have, and don't always entirely match reality.</p>
<p>The most interesting publicly available command line standards are:</p>
<ol>
<li>POSIX-2024 (also known as SUSv5)</li>
<li>the Linux Standard Base version 4.1 (frozen, becoming obsolete)</li>
<li>the official <a href=https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/>Linux man pages</a></li>
</ol>
But each of those include commands we've decided not implement and/or exclude
commands or features we have, nor do they always entirely match reality.</p>
<p>The most thorough real world test (other than a large interactive
userbase) is using toybox as the command line in a build system such as
<a href=https://landley.net/aboriginal/about.html>Aboriginal
Linux</a>, having it rebuild itself from source code, and using the result
userbase) is using toybox as the command line in a
<a href=https://landley.net/aboriginal/about.html>build system</a> container
where it can rebuild itself from source code, then using the result
to <a href=https://github.com/landley/control-images>build Linux From Scratch</a>.
The current "minimal native development system" goal is to use
<a href=faq.html#mkroot>mkroot</a>
plus <a href=faq.html#cross>musl-cross-make</a> to hermetically build
<a href=https://source.android.com>AOSP</a>.</p>
<p>We've also checked what commands were provided by similar projects
(klibc, sash, sbase, embutils, nash, beastiebox...), looked at various
<p>Over the years we've also checked what commands were provided by similar
projects (klibc, sash, sbase, embutils, nash, beastiebox...), looked at various
vendor configurations of busybox, and collected end user requests.</p>
<p>Finally, we'd like to provide a good replacement for the Bash shell,
which was the first program Linux ever ran (leading up to the 0.0.1 release
in 1991) and remains the standard shell of Linux (no matter what Ubuntu says).
This doesn't necessarily mean including every last Bash 5.x feature, but
does involve {various,features} &lt(beyond) posix.</p>
does involve {various,features} &lt;(beyond) posix.</p>
<p>See the <a href=status.html>status page</a> for the categorized command list
and progress towards implementing it.</p>
<p>See the <a href=status.html>status page</a> for the current categorized
command list and progress towards implementing it.</p>
<hr />
<a name="standards">
<h2>Use case: standards compliance.</h2>
<h3><a name=susv4 /><a href="#susv4">POSIX-2008/SUSv4</a></h3>
<h3><a name=susv4 /><a name=susv5 /><a href="#susv5">POSIX-2024/SUSv5</a></h3>
<p>The best standards describe reality rather than attempting to impose a
new one. I.E. "A good standard should document, not legislate."
Standards which document existing reality tend to be approved by
more than one standards body, such as ANSI and ISO both approving <a href=https://landley.net/c99-draft.html>C99</a>. That's why IEEE 1003.1-2008,
the Single Unix Specification version 4, and the Open Group Base Specification
edition 7 are all the same standard from three sources, which most people just
more than one standards body, such as ANSI and ISO both approving <a href=https://landley.net/c99-draft.html>C99</a>. That's why IEEE 1003.1-2024,
the Single Unix Specification version 5, and the Open Group Base Specification
Issue 8 are all the same standard from three sources, which most people just
call "posix" (short for "portable operating system that works like unix").
It's available <a href=https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799>online in full</a>, and may be downloaded as a tarball.
Previous versions (<a href=https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/>SUSv3</a> and
It's available <a href=https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/>online
in full</a>
https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799>online in full</a>, and may
be <a href=https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/download>downloaded</a>
as a tarball. Previous versions
(<a href=https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799.2008edition/>SUSv4</a>,
<a href=https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/>SUSv3</a> and
<a href=https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7990989775/>SUSv2</a>)
are also available.</p>
<p>The original Posix was a collection of different standards (POSIX.1
from 1988, POSIX.1b from 1993, and POSIX.1c from 1995). The unified
SUSv2 came out in 1997 and SUSv3 came out in 2001.
<a href=https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799.2008edition/>Posix
2008</a> was then reissued in 2013 and 2018, the first was minor wordsmithing
with no behavioral changes, the second was to renew a ten year timeout
to still be considered a "current standard" by some government regulations,
but isn't officially a new standard. It's still posix-2008/SUSv4/Issue 7.
The endless committee process to produce
"Issue 8" has been ongoing for over 15 years now, with conference
calls on mondays and thursdays, mostly to discuss recent bug tracker
entries then publish the minutes of the meeting on the mailing list.
Prominent committee members have died during this time.</p>
SUSv2 came out in 1997 and SUSv3 came out in 2001. SUSv4 came out in 2008
and remained the current version for 16 years (although it was
re-released in 2013, 2016, and 2018 with basically typo fixes, but was
still SUSv4 and Issue 7), until the current SUSv5 (Issue 8) finally came out
in 2024.</p>
<h3>Why not just use posix for everything?</h3>
<p>Unfortunately, Posix describes an incomplete subset of reality, because
it was designed to. It started with proprietary unix vendors collaborating to
describe the functionality their fragmented APIs could agree on, which was then
incorporated into <a href=https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/FIPS/fipspub151-2-1993.pdf>US federal procurement standards</a>
it was designed to. Those first few pre-SUSv2 Posix standards that remain
unavailable on the Open Group's wesite were produced during a period known as
"<a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_wars>the unix wars</a>" when
AT&amp;T's prioprietary control over the original UNIX(tm) intellectual property
sucked the old UNIX(tm) ecosystem dry until Linux and FreeBSD swept away
the irrelevant debris. That's why the standards process started with proprietary
unix vendors collaborating to describe what little functionality their
fragmented APIs could agree on, which was then incorporated into
<a href=https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/FIPS/fipspub151-2-1993.pdf>US federal procurement standards</a>
as a <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwrTTXOg-KI>compliance requirement</a>
for things like navy contracts, giving large corporations
like IBM and Microsoft millions of dollars of incentive
@ -105,9 +113,10 @@ to punch holes in the standard big enough to drive
<a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_POSIX_subsystem>Windows NT</a> and
<a href=http://www.naspa.net/magazine/1996/May/T9605006.PDF>OS/360</a> through.
When open source projects like Linux started developing on the internet
(enabled by the 1993 relaxation of the National Science Foundation's
(enabled by the 1993 <a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September>relaxation</a> of the National Science Foundation's
"Acceptable Use Policy" allowing everyone to connect to the internet,
previously restricted to approved government/military/university organizations),
previously restricted to approved government/military/university organizations
until the budget funding its backbone links passed from DARPA to NSF),
Posix <a href=http://www.opengroup.org/testing/fips/policy_info.html>ignored
the upstarts</a> and Linux eventually
<a href=https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3417>returned the favor</a>,
@ -286,12 +295,16 @@ have developed a certain amount of <a href=https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc8179.txt>
they <a href=https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4330.txt>document</a> is to find an <a href=https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1769.txt>earlier version</a> to read first.
(This is an example of the greybeard community problem, where all current
documentation was written by people who don't remember NOT already knowing
this stuff and the resources they originally learned from are long gone.)</p>
this stuff and the resources they originally learned from are long gone,
and <a href=https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bootdisk-HOWTO/buildroot.html>excellent</a>
<a href=https://landley.net/kdocs/mirror/lki-single.html>historical</a>
<a href=https://linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/OLD/bsd-init.txt>documents</a>
have no obvious modern alternative.)</p>
<p>That said, RFC documents can be useful (especially for networking protocols)
and the four URL templates the recommended starting files
and the four URL templates provided by the recommended starting files
for new commands (hello.c and skeleton.c in the toys/example directory)
provide point to example posix, lsb, man, and rfc pages online.</p>
point to example posix, lsb, man, and rfc pages online.</p>
<hr />
<a name="dev_env">
@ -367,6 +380,17 @@ significantly affect the rest of this analysis (although the "rebuild itself
from source" test should now include building musl-cross-make under either
mkroot or toybox's "make airlock" host environment).</p>
<p>Toybox source includes
a <b>scripts/mcm-buildall.sh</b> wrapper script around musl-cross-make, which
builds cross and native versions of gcc+musl toolchains for a dozen
different architectures, and a <b>mkroot/testroot.sh</b> that boots
all the <b>mkroot/mkroot CROSS=allnonstop LINUX=~/linux</b> systems under
qemu and performs basic automated smoketesting that they run, have a current
clock, and their network and block device support works. The "make airlock"
target is implemented by <b>scripts/install.sh</b> which sets the
$PENDING and $TOOLCHAIN variables to lists of commands to symlink out of the
host.</p>
<p>Building Linux From Scratch is not the same as building the
<a href=https://source.android.com>Android Open Source Project</a>,
but after toybox 1.0 we plan to try
@ -383,7 +407,7 @@ this goal.</p>
<h2><a name=android /><a href="#android">Use case: Replacing Android Toolbox</a></h2>
<p>Android has a policy against GPL in userspace, so even though BusyBox
predates Android by many years, they couldn't use it. Instead they grabbed
predates Android by many years, they didn't use it. Instead they grabbed
an old version of ash (later replaced by
<a href="https://www.mirbsd.org/mksh.htm">mksh</a>)
and implemented their own command line utility set
@ -467,15 +491,12 @@ getevent gzip modprobe newfs_msdos sh
</span>
</b></blockquote>
<p>Update: <a href=https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/master/system/core/Android.bp>
external/toybox/Android.bp</a> has symlinks for the following toys out
of "pending". (The toybox modprobe is also built for the device, but
it isn't actually used and is only there for sanity checking against
the libmodprobe-based implementation.) These should be a priority for
cleanup:</p>
<p>Update: Android's <a href=https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/toybox/+/refs/heads/main/Android.bp>external/toybox/Android.bp</a>
builds the following commands out of "pending", which
should be a priority for cleanup:</p>
<blockquote><b>
diff expr getopt tr brctl getfattr lsof modprobe more stty traceroute vi
diff expr tr brctl getfattr lsof modprobe more stty traceroute vi
</b></blockquote>
<p>Android wishlist:</p>
@ -1258,6 +1279,7 @@ rsync
linux32 hd strace
gpiodetect gpiofind gpioget gpioinfo gpioset httpd uclampset
nbd-server
memeater
</span>
</b></blockquote>