cosmopolitan/README.md
Justine Tunney d44ff6ce1f Make improvements
- Implement openpty()
- Add `--assimilate` flag to APE bootloader
- Restore Linux vDSO clock_gettime() support
- Use `$(APE_NO_MODIFY_SELF)` on more programs
2022-05-24 10:58:48 -07:00

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![Cosmopolitan Honeybadger](usr/share/img/honeybadger.png)
# Cosmopolitan
[Cosmopolitan Libc](https://justine.lol/cosmopolitan/index.html) makes C
a build-once run-anywhere language, like Java, except it doesn't need an
interpreter or virtual machine. Instead, it reconfigures stock GCC and
Clang to output a POSIX-approved polyglot format that runs natively on
Linux + Mac + Windows + FreeBSD + OpenBSD + NetBSD + BIOS with the best
possible performance and the tiniest footprint imaginable.
## Background
For an introduction to this project, please read the [αcτµαlly pδrταblε
εxεcµταblε](https://justine.lol/ape.html) blog post and [cosmopolitan
libc](https://justine.lol/cosmopolitan/index.html) website. We also have
[API documentation](https://justine.lol/cosmopolitan/documentation.html).
## Getting Started
If you're doing your development work on Linux or BSD then you need just
five files to get started. Here's what you do on Linux:
```sh
wget https://justine.lol/cosmopolitan/cosmopolitan.zip
unzip cosmopolitan.zip
printf 'main() { printf("hello world\\n"); }\n' >hello.c
gcc -g -Os -static -nostdlib -nostdinc -fno-pie -no-pie -mno-red-zone \
-fno-omit-frame-pointer -pg -mnop-mcount \
-o hello.com.dbg hello.c -fuse-ld=bfd -Wl,-T,ape.lds \
-include cosmopolitan.h crt.o ape-no-modify-self.o cosmopolitan.a
objcopy -S -O binary hello.com.dbg hello.com
```
You now have a portable program.
```sh
./hello.com
bash -c './hello.com' # zsh/fish workaround (we patched them in 2021)
```
Since we used the `ape-no-modify-self.o` bootloader (rather than
`ape.o`) your executable will not modify itself when it's run. What
it'll instead do, is extract a 4kb program to `${TMPDIR:-/tmp}` that
maps your program into memory without needing to copy it. It's possible
to install the APE loader systemwide as follows.
```sh
# (1) linux systems that want binfmt_misc
ape/apeinstall.sh
# (2) for linux/freebsd/netbsd/openbsd systems
cp build/bootstrap/ape.elf /usr/bin/ape
# (3) for mac os x systems
cp build/bootstrap/ape.macho /usr/bin/ape
```
If you followed steps (2) and (3) then there's going to be a slight
constant-time startup latency each time you run an APE binary. Your
system might also prevent your APE program from being installed to a
system directory as a setuid binary or a script interpreter. To solve
that, you can use the following flag to turn your binary into the
platform local format (ELF or Mach-O):
```sh
./hello.com --assimilate
```
There's also some other useful flags that get baked into your binary by
default:
```sh
./hello.com --strace
./hello.com --ftrace
```
If you want your `hello.com` program to be much tinier, more on the
order of 16kb rather than 60kb, then all you have to do is use
<https://justine.lol/cosmopolitan/cosmopolitan-tiny.zip> instead. See
<https://justine.lol/cosmopolitan/download.html>.
### MacOS
If you're developing on MacOS you can install the GNU compiler
collection for x86_64-elf via homebrew:
```sh
brew install x86_64-elf-gcc
```
Then in the above scripts just replace `gcc` and `objcopy` with
`x86_64-elf-gcc` and `x86_64-elf-objcopy` to compile your APE binary.
### Windows
If you're developing on Windows then you need to download an
x86_64-pc-linux-gnu toolchain beforehand. See the [Compiling on
Windows](https://justine.lol/cosmopolitan/windows-compiling.html)
tutorial. It's needed because the ELF object format is what makes
universal binaries possible.
## Source Builds
Cosmopolitan can be compiled from source on any Linux distro. GNU make
needs to be installed beforehand. This is a freestanding hermetic
repository that bootstraps using a vendored static gcc9 executable.
No further dependencies are required.
```sh
wget https://justine.lol/cosmopolitan/cosmopolitan.tar.gz
tar xf cosmopolitan.tar.gz # see releases page
cd cosmopolitan
make -j16
o//examples/hello.com
find o -name \*.com | xargs ls -rShal | less
```
## GDB
Here's the recommended `~/.gdbinit` config:
```
set host-charset UTF-8
set target-charset UTF-8
set target-wide-charset UTF-8
set osabi none
set complaints 0
set confirm off
set history save on
set history filename ~/.gdb_history
define asm
layout asm
layout reg
end
define src
layout src
layout reg
end
src
```
You normally run the `.com.dbg` file under gdb. If you need to debug the
`.com` file itself, then you can load the debug symbols independently as
```
gdb foo.com -ex 'add-symbol-file foo.com.dbg 0x401000'
```
## Support Vector
| Platform | Min Version | Circa |
| :--- | ---: | ---: |
| AMD | K8 Venus | 2005 |
| Intel | Core | 2006 |
| New Technology | Vista | 2006 |
| GNU/Systemd | 2.6.18 | 2007 |
| XNU's Not UNIX! | 15.6 | 2018 |
| FreeBSD | 12 | 2018 |
| OpenBSD | 6.4 | 2018 |
| NetBSD | 9.1 | 2020 |
| GNU Make | 4.0 | 2015 |