Subject: Re: crunch and /sbin...
To: None <seebs@solon.com>
From: Mike Long <mike.long@analog.com>
List: current-users
Date: 12/20/1995 01:51:00
>Posted-Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 15:55:45 -0600
>Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 15:56:04 -0600
>From: Peter Seebach <seebs@solon.com>
>
>Is crunch reliable enough that it would be feasible to build a crunched
>/sbin, or possibly small sets of crunched utilities for /?  It seems
>as though saving the N copies of libc would be worth something - but, of
>course, I don't know how much slower or less efficient it may be.

If it's good enough for installation, it must at least be OK for
normal use.

Pros:
1) reduced disk space
2) reduced VM consumption (you pay for init, everything else is free)

Cons:
1) non-standard build/install process
2) small time penalty because the crunch-generated wrapper code has to
   compare argv[0] to all of the sub-binary names
3) possible security problems with setuid/setgid binaries.
-- 
Mike Long <mike.long@analog.com>           http://www.shore.net/~mikel
VLSI Design Engineer         finger mikel@shore.net for PGP public key
Analog Devices, CPD Division          CCBF225E7D3F7ECB2C8F7ABB15D9BE7B
Norwood, MA 02062 USA       (eq (opinion 'ADI) (opinion 'mike)) -> nil