2 CRUNCH 0.2 README 6/14/94
4 Crunch is available via anonymous ftp to ftp.cs.umd.edu in
5 pub/bsd/crunch-0.2.tar.gz
10 * The prototype awk script has been replaced by a more capable and
11 hopefully more robust C program.
12 * No fragile template makefiles or dependencies on the details of the
13 bsd build environment.
14 * You can build crunched binaries even with no sources on-line, you
15 just need the .o files. Crunchgen still will try to figure out as
16 much as possible on its own, but you can override its guessing by
17 specifying the list of .o files explicitly.
18 * Crunch itself has been bmake'd and some man pages written, so it
19 should be ready to install.
24 Crunch is a little package that helps create "crunched" binaries for use
25 on boot, install, and fixit floppies. A crunched binary in this case is
26 one where many programs have been linked together into one a.out file.
27 The different programs are run depending on the value of argv[0], so
28 hard links to the crunched binary suffice to simulate a perfectly normal
31 As an example, I have created an 980K crunched "fixit" binary containing
32 the following programs in their entirety:
34 cat chmod cp date dd df echo ed expr hostname kill ln ls mkdir
35 mt mv pwd rcp rm rmdir sh sleep stty sync test [ badsect chown
36 clri disklabel dump rdump dmesg fdisk fsck halt ifconfig init
37 mknod mount newfs ping reboot restore rrestore swapon umount
38 ftp rsh sed telnet rlogin vi cpio gzip gunzip gzcat
40 Note carefully: vi, cpio, gzip, ed, sed, dump/restore, some networking
41 utilities, and the disk management utilities, all in a binary small
42 enough to fit on a 1.2 MB root filesystem floppy (albeit with the kernel
43 on its own boot floppy). A more reasonable subset can be made to fit
44 easily with a kernel for a decent one-disk fixit filesystem.
46 The linking together of different programs by hand is an old
47 space-saving technique. Crunch automates the process by building the
48 necessary stub files and makefile for you (via the crunchgen program),
49 and by doctoring the symbol tables of the component .o files to allow
50 them to link without "symbol multiply defined" conflicts (via the
56 Just type make, then make install.
58 Crunch was written and tested under NetBSD/i386, but should work under
59 other PC BSD systems that use GNU ld.
61 The crunchgen(1) and crunchide(1) man pages have more details on using
62 crunch, and the examples subdirectory contains some working .conf files
63 and a sample Makefile.
67 Thanks to the NetBSD team for a consistently high quality effort in
68 bringing together a solid, state of the art development environment.
70 Thanks to the FreeBSD guys; Rod Grimes, Nate Williams and Jordan
71 Hubbard; and to Bruce Evans, for immediate and detailed feedback on
72 crunch 0.1, and for pressing me to make the prototype more useable.
74 Crunch was written for the Maruti Hard Real-Time Operating System
75 project at the University of Maryland, to help make for better install
76 and recovery procedures for our NetBSD-based development environment. It
77 is copyright (c) 1994 by the University of Maryland under a UCB-style
78 freely- redistributable notice. See the file COPYRIGHT for details.
80 Please let me know of any problems or of enhancements you make to this
81 package. I'm particularly interested in the details of what you found
82 was good to put on your fixit or install disks. Thanks!
86 ............................................................................
87 : Stand on my shoulders, : jds@cs.umd.edu : James da Silva
88 : not on my toes. : uunet!mimsy!jds : http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/jds