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  1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
  2. <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
  3. "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
  4. <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
  5. %general-entities;
  6. ]>
  7. <sect1 id="pre-why">
  8. <?dbhtml filename="package-choices.html"?>
  9. <title>Rationale for Packages in the Book</title>
  10. <para>As stated earlier, the goal of LFS is to build a complete and usable
  11. foundation-level system. This includes all packages needed to replicate
  12. itself while providing a relatively minimal base from which to customize
  13. a more complete system based on the choices of the user. This does not
  14. mean that LFS is the smallest system possible. Several important packages
  15. are included that are not strictly required. The lists below document the
  16. rationale for each package in the book.</para>
  17. <itemizedlist>
  18. <listitem>
  19. <para>Acl</para>
  20. <para>This package contains utilities to administer Access
  21. Control Lists, which are used to define more fine-grained
  22. discretionary access rights for files and directories.
  23. </para>
  24. </listitem>
  25. <listitem>
  26. <para>Attr</para>
  27. <para>This package contains programs for administering
  28. extended attributes on filesystem objects.
  29. </para>
  30. </listitem>
  31. <listitem>
  32. <para>Autoconf</para>
  33. <para>This package contains programs for producing shell scripts that
  34. can automatically configure source code from a developer's
  35. template. It is often needed to rebuild a package after updates
  36. to the build procedures.</para>
  37. </listitem>
  38. <listitem>
  39. <para>Automake</para>
  40. <para>This package contains programs for generating Make files from
  41. a template. It is often needed to rebuild a package after updates
  42. to the build procedures.</para>
  43. </listitem>
  44. <listitem>
  45. <para>Bash</para>
  46. <para>This package satisfies an LSB core requirement to provide
  47. a Bourne Shell interface to the system. It was chosen over
  48. other shell packages because of its common usage and extensive
  49. capabilities beyond basic shell functions.</para>
  50. </listitem>
  51. <listitem>
  52. <para>Bc</para>
  53. <para>This package provides an arbitrary precision numeric processing language.
  54. It satisfies a requirement needed when building the Linux kernel.</para>
  55. </listitem>
  56. <listitem>
  57. <para>Binutils</para>
  58. <para>This package contains a linker, an assembler, and other
  59. tools for handling object files. The programs in this package are
  60. needed to compile most of the packages in an LFS system and beyond.</para>
  61. </listitem>
  62. <listitem>
  63. <para>Bison</para>
  64. <para>This package contains the GNU version of yacc (Yet Another
  65. Compiler Compiler) needed to build several other LFS programs.</para>
  66. </listitem>
  67. <listitem>
  68. <para>Bzip2</para>
  69. <para>This package contains programs for compressing and decompressing
  70. files. It is required to decompress many LFS packages.</para>
  71. </listitem>
  72. <listitem>
  73. <para>Check</para>
  74. <para>This package contains a test harness for other programs.</para>
  75. </listitem>
  76. <listitem>
  77. <para>Coreutils</para>
  78. <para>This package contains a number of essential programs for viewing
  79. and manipulating files and directories. These programs are needed for
  80. command line file management, and are necessary for the installation
  81. procedures of every package in LFS.</para>
  82. </listitem>
  83. <listitem revision="systemd">
  84. <para>D-Bus</para>
  85. <para>This package contains programs to implement a message bus system,
  86. which a simple way for applications to talk to one another.
  87. </para>
  88. </listitem>
  89. <listitem>
  90. <para>DejaGNU</para>
  91. <para>This package contains a framework for testing other programs.
  92. It is only installed in the temporary toolchain.</para>
  93. </listitem>
  94. <listitem>
  95. <para>Diffutils</para>
  96. <para>This package contains programs that show the differences
  97. between files or directories. These programs can be used to create
  98. patches, and are also used in many packages' build procedures.</para>
  99. </listitem>
  100. <listitem>
  101. <para>E2fsprogs</para>
  102. <para>This package contains the utilities for handling the ext2, ext3
  103. and ext4 file systems. These are the most common and thoroughly
  104. tested file systems that Linux supports.</para>
  105. </listitem>
  106. <listitem revision="sysv">
  107. <para>Eudev</para>
  108. <para>This package is a device manager. It dynamically controls the entries
  109. in the /dev directory as devices are added or removed from the system.
  110. </para>
  111. </listitem>
  112. <listitem>
  113. <para>Expat</para>
  114. <para>This package contains a relatively small XML parsing library. It
  115. is required by the XML::Parser Perl module.</para>
  116. </listitem>
  117. <listitem>
  118. <para>Expect</para>
  119. <para>This package contains a program for carrying out scripted
  120. dialogues with other interactive programs. It is commonly used
  121. for testing other packages. It is only installed in the temporary
  122. toolchain.</para>
  123. </listitem>
  124. <listitem>
  125. <para>File</para>
  126. <para>This package contains a utility for determining the type of a
  127. given file or files. A few packages need it to build.</para>
  128. </listitem>
  129. <listitem>
  130. <para>Findutils</para>
  131. <para>This package contains programs to find files in a file system.
  132. It is used in many packages' build scripts.</para>
  133. </listitem>
  134. <listitem>
  135. <para>Flex</para>
  136. <para>This package contains a utility for generating programs that
  137. recognize patterns in text. It is the GNU version of the lex
  138. (lexical analyzer) program. It is required to build several
  139. LFS packages.</para>
  140. </listitem>
  141. <listitem>
  142. <para>Gawk</para>
  143. <para>This package contains programs for manipulating text files.
  144. It is the GNU version of awk (Aho-Weinberg-Kernighan). It is used in
  145. many other packages' build scripts.</para>
  146. </listitem>
  147. <listitem>
  148. <para>Gcc</para>
  149. <para>This package is the Gnu Compiler Collection. It contains the
  150. C and C++ compilers as well as several others not built by LFS.
  151. </para>
  152. </listitem>
  153. <listitem>
  154. <para>GDBM</para>
  155. <para>This package contains the GNU Database Manager library. It
  156. is used by one other LFS package, Man-DB.</para>
  157. </listitem>
  158. <listitem>
  159. <para>Gettext</para>
  160. <para>This package contains utilities and libraries for
  161. internationalization and localization of numerous packages.</para>
  162. </listitem>
  163. <listitem>
  164. <para>Glibc</para>
  165. <para>This package contains the main C library. Linux programs would
  166. not run without it.</para>
  167. </listitem>
  168. <listitem>
  169. <para>GMP</para>
  170. <para>This package contains math libraries that provide useful functions
  171. for arbitrary precision arithmetic. It is required to build Gcc.</para>
  172. </listitem>
  173. <listitem>
  174. <para>Gperf</para>
  175. <para>This package contains a program that generates a perfect hash
  176. function from a key set. It is required for Eudev.</para>
  177. </listitem>
  178. <listitem>
  179. <para>Grep</para>
  180. <para>This package contains programs for searching through files. These
  181. programs are used by most packages' build scripts.</para>
  182. </listitem>
  183. <listitem>
  184. <para>Groff</para>
  185. <para>This package contains programs for processing and formatting text.
  186. One important function of these programs is to format man pages.</para>
  187. </listitem>
  188. <listitem>
  189. <para>GRUB</para>
  190. <para>This package is the Grand Unified Boot Loader. It is one
  191. of several boot loaders available, but is the most flexible.
  192. </para>
  193. </listitem>
  194. <listitem>
  195. <para>Gzip</para>
  196. <para>This package contains programs for compressing and
  197. decompressing files. It is needed to decompress many packages in LFS
  198. and beyond.</para>
  199. </listitem>
  200. <listitem>
  201. <para>Iana-etc</para>
  202. <para>This package provides data for network services and protocols.
  203. It is needed to enable proper networking capabilities.</para>
  204. </listitem>
  205. <listitem>
  206. <para>Inetutils</para>
  207. <para>This package contains programs for basic network
  208. administration.</para>
  209. </listitem>
  210. <listitem>
  211. <para>Intltool</para>
  212. <para>This package contains tools for extracting translatable
  213. strings from source files.</para>
  214. </listitem>
  215. <listitem>
  216. <para>IProute2</para>
  217. <para>This package contains programs for basic and advanced IPv4 and
  218. IPv6 networking. It was chosen over the other common network
  219. tools package (net-tools) for its IPv6 capabilities. </para>
  220. </listitem>
  221. <listitem>
  222. <para>Kbd</para>
  223. <para>This package contains key-table files, keyboard utilities
  224. for non-US keyboards, and a number of console fonts.</para>
  225. </listitem>
  226. <listitem>
  227. <para>Kmod</para>
  228. <para>This package contains programs needed to administer Linux
  229. kernel modules.</para>
  230. </listitem>
  231. <listitem>
  232. <para>Less</para>
  233. <para>This package contains a very nice text file viewer that
  234. allows scrolling up or down when viewing a file. It is also used by
  235. Man-DB for viewing manpages.</para>
  236. </listitem>
  237. <listitem>
  238. <para>Libcap</para>
  239. <para>This package implements the user-space interfaces to
  240. the POSIX 1003.1e capabilities available in Linux kernels.
  241. </para>
  242. </listitem>
  243. <listitem>
  244. <para>Libelf</para>
  245. <para>The elfutils project provides libraries and tools for ELF files
  246. and DWARF data. Most utilities in this package are available in
  247. other packages, but the library is needed to build the Linux
  248. kernel using the default (and most efficient) configuration.</para>
  249. </listitem>
  250. <listitem>
  251. <para>Libffi</para>
  252. <para>This package implements a portable, high level programming
  253. interface to various calling conventions. Some programs may not know
  254. at the time of compilation what arguments are to be passed to a
  255. function. For instance, an interpreter may be told at run-time about
  256. the number and types of arguments used to call a given function. Libffi
  257. can be used in such programs to provide a bridge from the interpreter
  258. program to compiled code.</para>
  259. </listitem>
  260. <listitem>
  261. <para>Libpipeline</para>
  262. <para>The Libpipeline package contains a library for manipulating
  263. pipelines of subprocesses in a flexible and convenient way. It is
  264. required by the Man-DB package.</para>
  265. </listitem>
  266. <listitem>
  267. <para>Libtool</para>
  268. <para>This package contains the GNU generic library support
  269. script. It wraps the complexity of using shared libraries in a
  270. consistent, portable interface. It is needed by the test
  271. suites in other LFS packages.</para>
  272. </listitem>
  273. <listitem>
  274. <para>Linux Kernel</para>
  275. <para>This package is the Operating System. It is the Linux in
  276. the GNU/Linux environment.</para>
  277. </listitem>
  278. <listitem>
  279. <para>M4</para>
  280. <para>This package contains a general text macro processor useful
  281. as a build tool for other programs.</para>
  282. </listitem>
  283. <listitem>
  284. <para>Make</para>
  285. <para>This package contains a program for directing the building
  286. of packages. It is required by almost every package in LFS.</para>
  287. </listitem>
  288. <listitem>
  289. <para>Man-DB</para>
  290. <para>This package contains programs for finding and viewing man pages.
  291. It was chosen instead of the <application>man</application> package
  292. due to superior internationalization capabilities. It supplies
  293. the man program.</para>
  294. </listitem>
  295. <listitem>
  296. <para>Man-pages</para>
  297. <para>This package contains the actual contents of the basic
  298. Linux man pages.</para>
  299. </listitem>
  300. <listitem>
  301. <para>Meson</para>
  302. <para>This package provides a software tool for automating the building
  303. of software. The main goal for Meson is to minimize the amount of time
  304. that software developers need to spend configuring their build
  305. system.</para>
  306. </listitem>
  307. <listitem>
  308. <para>MPC</para>
  309. <para>This package contains functions for the arithmetic of complex
  310. numbers. It is required by Gcc.</para>
  311. </listitem>
  312. <listitem>
  313. <para>MPFR</para>
  314. <para>This package contains functions for multiple precision
  315. arithmetic. It is required by Gcc.</para>
  316. </listitem>
  317. <listitem>
  318. <para>Ninja</para>
  319. <para>This package contains a small build system with a focus on speed.
  320. It is designed to have its input files generated by a higher-level build
  321. system, and to run builds as fast as possible.</para>
  322. </listitem>
  323. <listitem>
  324. <para>Ncurses</para>
  325. <para>This package contains libraries for terminal-independent
  326. handling of character screens. It is often used to provide
  327. cursor control for a menuing system. It is needed by a number of
  328. packages in LFS.</para>
  329. </listitem>
  330. <listitem>
  331. <para>Openssl</para>
  332. <para>This package provides management tools and libraries relating to
  333. cryptography. These are useful for providing cryptographic functions to
  334. other packages, including the Linux kernel.</para>
  335. </listitem>
  336. <listitem>
  337. <para>Patch</para>
  338. <para>This package contains a program for modifying or creating files by
  339. applying a <emphasis>patch</emphasis> file typically created
  340. by the <application>diff</application> program. It is needed by
  341. the build procedure for several LFS packages.</para>
  342. </listitem>
  343. <listitem>
  344. <para>Perl</para>
  345. <para>This package is an interpreter for the runtime language
  346. PERL. It is needed for the installation and test suites of several LFS
  347. packages.</para>
  348. </listitem>
  349. <listitem>
  350. <para>Pkg-config</para>
  351. <para>This package provides a program to return meta-data about an
  352. installed library or package.</para>
  353. </listitem>
  354. <listitem>
  355. <para>Procps-NG</para>
  356. <para>This package contains programs for monitoring processes. These
  357. programs are useful for system administration, and are also used by
  358. the LFS Bootscripts.</para>
  359. </listitem>
  360. <listitem>
  361. <para>Psmisc</para>
  362. <para>This package contains programs for displaying information
  363. about running processes. These programs are useful for system
  364. administration.</para>
  365. </listitem>
  366. <listitem>
  367. <para>Python 3</para>
  368. <para>This package provides an interpreted language that has a design
  369. philosophy that emphasizes code readability.</para>
  370. </listitem>
  371. <listitem>
  372. <para>Readline</para>
  373. <para>This package is a set of libraries that offers command-line
  374. editing and history capabilities. It is used by Bash.</para>
  375. </listitem>
  376. <listitem>
  377. <para>Sed</para>
  378. <para>This package allows editing of text without opening it in a
  379. text editor. It is also needed by most LFS packages' configure
  380. scripts.</para>
  381. </listitem>
  382. <listitem>
  383. <para>Shadow</para>
  384. <para>This package contains programs for handling passwords
  385. in a secure way.</para>
  386. </listitem>
  387. <listitem revision="sysv">
  388. <para>Sysklogd</para>
  389. <para>This package contains programs for logging system messages,
  390. such as those given by the kernel or daemon processes when unusual
  391. events occur.</para>
  392. </listitem>
  393. <listitem revision="systemd">
  394. <para>Systemd</para>
  395. <para>This package provides an <application>init</application> program
  396. and several additional boot and system control capabilities as an
  397. alternative to Sysvinit. It is used by many commercial distributions.
  398. </para>
  399. </listitem>
  400. <listitem revision="sysv">
  401. <para>Sysvinit</para>
  402. <para>This package provides the <application>init</application>
  403. program, which is the parent of all other processes on the Linux
  404. system. </para>
  405. </listitem>
  406. <listitem>
  407. <para>Tar</para>
  408. <para>This package provides archiving and extraction capabilities
  409. of virtually all packages used in LFS.</para>
  410. </listitem>
  411. <listitem>
  412. <para>Tcl</para>
  413. <para>This package contains the Tool Command Language used
  414. in many test suites in LFS packages. It is only installed in
  415. the temporary toolchain.</para>
  416. </listitem>
  417. <listitem>
  418. <para>Texinfo</para>
  419. <para>This package contains programs for reading, writing, and
  420. converting info pages. It is used in the installation
  421. procedures of many LFS packages.</para>
  422. </listitem>
  423. <listitem>
  424. <para>Util-linux</para>
  425. <para>This package contains miscellaneous utility programs.
  426. Among them are utilities for handling file systems, consoles,
  427. partitions, and messages.</para>
  428. </listitem>
  429. <listitem>
  430. <para>Vim</para>
  431. <para>This package contains an editor. It was chosen because of its
  432. compatibility with the classic vi editor and its huge number of powerful
  433. capabilities. An editor is a very personal choice for
  434. many users and any other editor could be substituted if desired.</para>
  435. </listitem>
  436. <listitem>
  437. <para>XML::Parser</para>
  438. <para>This package is a Perl module that interfaces with Expat.</para>
  439. </listitem>
  440. <listitem>
  441. <para>XZ Utils</para>
  442. <para>This package contains programs for compressing and decompressing
  443. files. It provides the highest compression generally available
  444. and is useful for decompressing packages in XZ or LZMA format.</para>
  445. </listitem>
  446. <listitem>
  447. <para>Zlib</para>
  448. <para>This package contains compression and decompression routines
  449. used by some programs.</para>
  450. </listitem>
  451. <listitem>
  452. <para>Zstd</para>
  453. <para>This package contains compression and decompression routines
  454. used by some programs. It provide high compression ratios and a very
  455. wide range of compression / speed trade-offs.</para>
  456. </listitem>
  457. </itemizedlist>
  458. </sect1>