µ C l i b c

uClibc -- a C library for embedded systems

uClibc (aka µClibc but pronounced yew-see-lib-see) is a C library for embedded Linux systems. It is much smaller then GNU libc, but nearly all applications supported by the GNU C Library (aka glibc) also work perfectly with uClibc. Porting applications from glibc to uClibc typically involves just recompiling the source code. uClibc supports standard Linux systems (such as x86, strongArm, and powerpc), and also supports MMU-less (also known as µClinux) systems, such as those based on the Coldfire, dragonball, or arm7tdmi micro-controllers. If you are building an embedded Linux system, and you fine the GNU libc is eating up too much space, you should consider using uClibc instead. If you are working on an older system with limited memory (such as an oldworld Mac), uClibc may also be useful for you. If you are using a standard desktop Linux workstation to develop applications for an embedded Linux system, you can use run uClibc on your workstation while doing development. If you are trying to build a ultra fast fileserver for your company that has 12 Terabytes of storage, then you probably want to use glibc... uClibc is maintained by Erik Andersen and is licensed under the GNU LIBRARY GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE . This license allows you to make closed source commercial applications using uClibc (Please consider sharing some of the money you make ;-). You do not need to give away all your source code just because you use uClibc and/or run on Linux.

Mailing List

uClibc has a mailing list. To subscribe, go and visit this page.

Known Working Applications List

uClibc now has a list of applications that are known to work. Submissions are welcome! Since most applications work just fine with uClibc, we are especially interested in knowing about any applications that either do not compile or do not work properly with uClibc.

Frequently Asked Questions

uClibc now has a list of Frequently Asked Questions. You might want to take a look.

Latest News

22 December 2001, uClibc 0.9.8 Released! After many months of initial development, we are pleased to announce the release of uClibc 0.9.8. This release should be quite solid, and is very usable. This also marks a transition from a slow incubation phase to a more methodical release cycle. For now one, there should be approximately one release per month. You can find the source code for this release here. Old News Click here to read older news.

Download

There is now a script that creates a daily snapshot tarball of uClibc and posts it on here. uClibc also has a publically browsable CVS tree (this CVS tree is also mirrored onto uclibc.org but they are both the same thing). Anonymous CVS access is available, and For those that are actively contributing there is even CVS write access.

Help Support uClibc development

Do you like uClibc? Do you need support? Do you need some feature added to uClibc? Then why not help out? We are happy to accept donations, provide support contracts, and implement funded feature requests. Additionally, uClibc is looking for corporate sponsors to assist development, pay for bandwidth, and help with hardware donations, especially donations of hardware for non-Intel architectures. Click here to help support uClibc and/or request features. If you prefer to contact us directly for payments (we have a credit card machine so you can avoid online payments), hardware donations, support requests, etc., you can contact CodePoet Consulting here.

TODO

Here are a few things on the TODO list: Shared library support for all supported architectures. We now have our own ld.so, but it needs to be ported to support each architecture. Shared library support for mmu-less systems. This is very doable (think of C++ vtables for example), but will take some work. Someone (hopefully) needs to volunteer to take the LSB Test Suite, pull out the C library testing stuff, and convert it (perl script, by hand, I don't care how) into a form that is usable without having it take over your entire system (i.e. similar to what is currently in the uClibc test suite). This will be enormously helpful! other things as I think of them.

Other Open Source C libraries:

GNU C Library (aka glibc) Al's FREE C Runtime Library diet libc the minix C library newlib and there is a C library, for eCos as well.

Links to other useful stuff

The uClinux home page. The uClinux CVS reporitory. The uClibc home page. BusyBox. CodePoet Consulting.

Mail all comments, insults, suggestions and bribes to Erik Andersen