Programs and Libraries
Redox can run programs. Some programs are interpreted by a runtime for the program's language, such as a script running in the Ion shell or a Python program. Others are compiled into machine instructions that run on a particular operating system (Redox) and specific hardware (e.g. x86 compatible CPU in 64-bit mode).
- In Redox compiled binaries use the standard ELF ("Executable and Linkable Format") format.
Programs could directly invoke Redox syscalls, but most call library functions that are higher-level and more comfortable to use. You link your program with the libraries it needs.
- Most C and C++ programs call functions in a C standard library ("libc") such as
fopen- Redox includes a Rust implementation of the Standard C library called relibc. This is how programs such as Git can run on Redox. relibc has some POSIX compatibility.
- Rust programs implicitly or explicitly call functions in the Rust standard library (libstd).
- The Rust libstd now includes an implementation of its system-dependent parts (such as file access and setting environment variables) for Redox, in
src/libstd/sys/redox. Most of libstd works in Redox, so many command-line Rust programs can be compiled for Redox.
- The Rust libstd now includes an implementation of its system-dependent parts (such as file access and setting environment variables) for Redox, in
The Redox Cookbook project includes recipes for compiling C/C++ and Rust projects into Redox binaries.
The porting of programs on Redox is done case-by-case, if a program needs just small patches, they are included as .patch files on the recipe folder, but if big or dirty patches are needed, Redox create a fork of it on GitLab and rebase for a while in the redox branch of the fork (this pattern is the same for all forks).