xref: /linux/tools/include/nolibc/nolibc.h (revision cbdb1f163af2bb90d01be1f0263df1d8d5c9d9d3)
1 /* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1 OR MIT */
2 /* nolibc.h
3  * Copyright (C) 2017-2018 Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu>
4  */
5 
6 /*
7  * This file is designed to be used as a libc alternative for minimal programs
8  * with very limited requirements. It consists of a small number of syscall and
9  * type definitions, and the minimal startup code needed to call main().
10  * All syscalls are declared as static functions so that they can be optimized
11  * away by the compiler when not used.
12  *
13  * Syscalls are split into 3 levels:
14  *   - The lower level is the arch-specific syscall() definition, consisting in
15  *     assembly code in compound expressions. These are called my_syscall0() to
16  *     my_syscall6() depending on the number of arguments. The MIPS
17  *     implementation is limited to 5 arguments. All input arguments are cast
18  *     to a long stored in a register. These expressions always return the
19  *     syscall's return value as a signed long value which is often either a
20  *     pointer or the negated errno value.
21  *
22  *   - The second level is mostly architecture-independent. It is made of
23  *     static functions called sys_<name>() which rely on my_syscallN()
24  *     depending on the syscall definition. These functions are responsible
25  *     for exposing the appropriate types for the syscall arguments (int,
26  *     pointers, etc) and for setting the appropriate return type (often int).
27  *     A few of them are architecture-specific because the syscalls are not all
28  *     mapped exactly the same among architectures. For example, some archs do
29  *     not implement select() and need pselect6() instead, so the sys_select()
30  *     function will have to abstract this.
31  *
32  *   - The third level is the libc call definition. It exposes the lower raw
33  *     sys_<name>() calls in a way that looks like what a libc usually does,
34  *     takes care of specific input values, and of setting errno upon error.
35  *     There can be minor variations compared to standard libc calls. For
36  *     example the open() call always takes 3 args here.
37  *
38  * The errno variable is declared static and unused. This way it can be
39  * optimized away if not used. However this means that a program made of
40  * multiple C files may observe different errno values (one per C file). For
41  * the type of programs this project targets it usually is not a problem. The
42  * resulting program may even be reduced by defining the NOLIBC_IGNORE_ERRNO
43  * macro, in which case the errno value will never be assigned.
44  *
45  * Some stdint-like integer types are defined. These are valid on all currently
46  * supported architectures, because signs are enforced, ints are assumed to be
47  * 32 bits, longs the size of a pointer and long long 64 bits. If more
48  * architectures have to be supported, this may need to be adapted.
49  *
50  * Some macro definitions like the O_* values passed to open(), and some
51  * structures like the sys_stat struct depend on the architecture.
52  *
53  * The definitions start with the architecture-specific parts, which are picked
54  * based on what the compiler knows about the target architecture, and are
55  * completed with the generic code. Since it is the compiler which sets the
56  * target architecture, cross-compiling normally works out of the box without
57  * having to specify anything.
58  *
59  * Finally some very common libc-level functions are provided. It is the case
60  * for a few functions usually found in string.h, ctype.h, or stdlib.h.
61  *
62  * The nolibc.h file is only a convenient entry point which includes all other
63  * files. It also defines the NOLIBC macro, so that it is possible for a
64  * program to check this macro to know if it is being built against and decide
65  * to disable some features or simply not to include some standard libc files.
66  *
67  * A simple static executable may be built this way :
68  *      $ gcc -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -fno-ident -s -Os -nostdlib \
69  *            -static -include nolibc.h -o hello hello.c -lgcc
70  *
71  * Simple programs meant to be reasonably portable to various libc and using
72  * only a few common includes, may also be built by simply making the include
73  * path point to the nolibc directory:
74  *      $ gcc -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -fno-ident -s -Os -nostdlib \
75  *            -I../nolibc -o hello hello.c -lgcc
76  *
77  * The available standard (but limited) include files are:
78  *   ctype.h, errno.h, signal.h, stdio.h, stdlib.h, string.h, time.h
79  *
80  * In addition, the following ones are expected to be provided by the compiler:
81  *   float.h, stdarg.h, stddef.h
82  *
83  * The following ones which are part to the C standard are not provided:
84  *   assert.h, locale.h, math.h, setjmp.h, limits.h
85  *
86  * A very useful calling convention table may be found here :
87  *      http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/syscall.2.html
88  *
89  * This doc is quite convenient though not necessarily up to date :
90  *      https://w3challs.com/syscalls/
91  *
92  */
93 #ifndef _NOLIBC_H
94 #define _NOLIBC_H
95 
96 #include "std.h"
97 #include "arch.h"
98 #include "types.h"
99 #include "sys.h"
100 #include "ctype.h"
101 #include "signal.h"
102 #include "stdio.h"
103 #include "stdlib.h"
104 #include "string.h"
105 #include "time.h"
106 #include "unistd.h"
107 
108 /* Used by programs to avoid std includes */
109 #define NOLIBC
110 
111 #endif /* _NOLIBC_H */
112