__NOTOC__ In

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

, uClibc (sometimes written μClibc) is a small

C standard library The C standard library, sometimes referred to as libc, is the standard library for the C (programming language), C programming language, as specified in the ISO C standard.International Organization for Standardization, ISO/International Electrote ...

intended for

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

-based operating systems for

embedded systems An embedded system is a specialized computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is em ...

and mobile devices. uClibc was written to support μClinux, a version of Linux not requiring a

memory management unit A memory management unit (MMU), sometimes called paged memory management unit (PMMU), is a computer hardware unit that examines all references to computer memory, memory, and translates the memory addresses being referenced, known as virtual mem ...

and thus suited for

microcontroller A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Pro ...

s (uCs; the "u" is a

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

typographical

approximation An approximation is anything that is intentionally similar but not exactly equal to something else. Etymology and usage The word ''approximation'' is derived from Latin ''approximatus'', from ''proximus'' meaning ''very near'' and the prefix ...

- not a proper

romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...

, which would be letter "m" - of μ for "micro"). Development on uClibc started around 1999. uClibc was mostly written from scratch, but has incorporated code from glibc and other projects. The project lead is Erik Andersen, and the other main contributor is Manuel Novoa III. Licensed under the

GNU Lesser General Public License The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the LGPL into their own ...

, uClibc is

free and open-source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term encompassing free ...

Linux kernel System Call Interface and uClibc

uClibc is much smaller than the

glibc The GNU C Library, commonly known as glibc, is the GNU Project implementation of the C standard library. It provides a wrapper around the system calls of the Linux kernel and other kernels for application use. Despite its name, it now also dir ...

, the C library normally used with Linux distributions. While glibc is intended to fully support all relevant C standards across a wide range of hardware and kernel platforms, uClibc is specifically focused on embedded Linux systems. Features can be enabled or disabled according to space requirements. uClibc runs on standard and MMU-less Linux systems. It supports

i386 The Intel 386, originally released as the 80386 and later renamed i386, is the third-generation x86 architecture microprocessor from Intel. It was the first 32-bit processor in the line, making it a significant evolution in the x86 archite ...

x86-64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit extension of the x86 instruction set architecture, instruction set. It was announced in 1999 and first available in the AMD Opteron family in 2003. It introduces two new ope ...

, ARM (big/little endian), Atmel AVR32, Analog Devices Blackfin, Renesas/Hitachi H8 (h8300), Motorola m68k, MIPS (big/little endian), IBM PowerPC,

SuperH SuperH (or SH) is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computing (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Hitachi and currently produced by Renesas. It is implemented by microcontrollers and microprocessors for embedded systems. At the ...

(big/little endian), Sun SPARC, and Renesas/NEC v850 processors. uClibc-ng is a fork of uClibc announced on the

OpenWRT OpenWrt (from ''open wireless router'') is an open-source project for embedded operating systems based on Linux kernel, Linux, primarily used on Embedded system, embedded devices to Router (computing), route network traffic. The main components ...

mailing list in July 2014 after more than two years had passed without a uClibc release, citing a lack of any communication from the maintainer. At present, the original project's author no longer publishes updates, but refers to the still actively developed fork uClibc-ng for current releases.

References

External links

uClibc++ website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uclibc 2000 software C standard library Embedded Linux Free computer libraries Free software programmed in C Interfaces of the Linux kernel Linux APIs Software using the GNU Lesser General Public License

See also

References

Further reading

External links