[gentoo-embedded] busybox + python questions

[gentoo-embedded] busybox + python questions

[Philippe Clérié]

The default configuration of busybox (1.1.3) installs a /bin/bb executable to 
which nothing apparently is linked. I renamed it, played with a few applets 
and so far nothing is broken. What is that bb for?

I am discovering that python is really not something I might want installed on 
a small system. The base package is about 22MB on disk. 2/3 of that it seems 
are pyc and pyo files. Plus there are quite a few packages I don't anticipate 
needing. Can we reduce that footprint? Or do I have to give up on python? 

I am shooting for a 16MB or less root ramdisk.


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Philippe

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Re: [gentoo-embedded] busybox + python questions

[Mike Frysinger]

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On Wednesday 09 August 2006 18:36, Philippe Clérié wrote:
> The default configuration of busybox (1.1.3) installs a /bin/bb executable
> to which nothing apparently is linked. I renamed it, played with a few
> applets and so far nothing is broken. What is that bb for?

it's a standalone static rescue shell

broken system ?  boot with init=/bin/bb

> I am discovering that python is really not something I might want installed
> on a small system. The base package is about 22MB on disk. 2/3 of that it
> seems are pyc and pyo files. Plus there are quite a few packages I don't
> anticipate needing. Can we reduce that footprint? Or do I have to give up
> on python?

it's your system so only you know if you really need python

in terms of Gentoo, if you dont want to run portage on the target, then by 
default there's not much point in having python
-mike

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Re: [gentoo-embedded] busybox + python questions

[Philippe Clérié]

On Wednesday 09 August 2006 19:39, Mike Frysinger wrote:
> On Wednesday 09 August 2006 18:36, Philippe Clérié wrote:
> > The default configuration of busybox (1.1.3) installs a /bin/bb
> > executable to which nothing apparently is linked. I renamed it, played
> > with a few applets and so far nothing is broken. What is that bb for?
>
> it's a standalone static rescue shell
>
> broken system ?  boot with init=/bin/bb

:-) OK! Thanks. 

>
> > I am discovering that python is really not something I might want
> > installed on a small system. The base package is about 22MB on disk. 2/3
> > of that it seems are pyc and pyo files. Plus there are quite a few
> > packages I don't anticipate needing. Can we reduce that footprint? Or do
> > I have to give up on python?
>
> it's your system so only you know if you really need python
>

I was hoping to do the web interface with python. I knew there was going to be 
a penalty, I hadn't expected it to be so bad. I would like to stay under 16MB 
for the root ramdisk, but it looks like it's damn near impossible with 
python. 

Time to look for alternatives.

Philippe


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Re: [gentoo-embedded] busybox + python questions

[Mike Frysinger]

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On Wednesday 09 August 2006 21:05, Philippe Clérié wrote:
> I was hoping to do the web interface with python. I knew there was going to
> be a penalty, I hadn't expected it to be so bad. I would like to stay under
> 16MB for the root ramdisk, but it looks like it's damn near impossible with
> python.

the .pyc files are for cache only afaik ... but they help performance greatly

maybe see about slimming down python itself ... it has a lot of optional 
plugins
-mike

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Re: [gentoo-embedded] busybox + python questions

[Natanael Copa]

On Wed, 2006-08-09 at 21:05 -0400, Philippe Clérié wrote:

> > it's your system so only you know if you really need python
> >
> 
> I was hoping to do the web interface with python. I knew there was going to be
> a penalty, I hadn't expected it to be so bad. I would like to stay under 16MB
> for the root ramdisk, but it looks like it's damn near impossible with
> python.
> 
> Time to look for alternatives.

Ruby on rails is like 10MB on my hardened embedded system.

PHP with almost no use-flags turned on takes 3.6MB.

Lua is even smaller. 700KB. There is a lua web framework called Kepler
that should be pretty small. Its not in portage yet (and build scripts
are ugly)

Lua makes it also pretty good on the Computer Language Shootout:
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/lua.php

If you want to make it really small you can look at haserl. It's
embedded shell.
http://haserl.sourceforge.net

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Re: [gentoo-embedded] busybox + python questions

[Philippe Clérié]

Thanks for the suggestions. They all involve learning another language, 
although I'm somewhat familiar with PHP. I think I'll also look at increasing 
the hardware requirements.

Ciao


On Thursday 10 August 2006 01:48, Natanael Copa wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-08-09 at 21:05 -0400, Philippe Clérié wrote:
> > > it's your system so only you know if you really need python
> >
> > I was hoping to do the web interface with python. I knew there was going
> > to be a penalty, I hadn't expected it to be so bad. I would like to stay
> > under 16MB for the root ramdisk, but it looks like it's damn near
> > impossible with python.
> >
> > Time to look for alternatives.
>
> Ruby on rails is like 10MB on my hardened embedded system.
>
> PHP with almost no use-flags turned on takes 3.6MB.
>
> Lua is even smaller. 700KB. There is a lua web framework called Kepler
> that should be pretty small. Its not in portage yet (and build scripts
> are ugly)
>
> Lua makes it also pretty good on the Computer Language Shootout:
> http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/lua.php
>
> If you want to make it really small you can look at haserl. It's
> embedded shell.
> http://haserl.sourceforge.net
>
> --
> Natanael Copa

-- 


Philippe

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<Anonymous>

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