tccm, i only tried to summarize a few notes concerning bootstrapping issues
related to tinycc-devel with C-standards followed and language features chosen
so all developers are on the same page concerning this:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/tinycc-devel/2026-07/msg00002.html


On 2026-07-07 11:20, [email protected] wrote:

> > > A complete Posix-like system, i.e. including its kernel, utility programs
> > > and compilers, created as a reproducible binary, without reliance on
> > > _any_ specific binary blobs, is available since several years ago from
> > > the VSOBFS project.
> >
> > So far live-bootstrap is the only known complete(!!!) system bootstrap
> > (involving tinycc).
>
> I have to assume that you mean some very specific definition of "complete".

Yes. For example, i assume your VSOBFS relies upon a fully capable Minix
operating system, without an answer how that got bootstrapped itself
(At least i don't know)

live-bootstrap instead documents the entire dependency chain down to
stage0-posix hex0 seed (produced from macro-assembly/opcodes),
and live-bootstrap does _not_ rely upon a sysv sycall abi runtime with it.
This is a _very_ important difference for the defintion of what a
complete system bootstrap is and what isn't.

> > (for that matter there is limitations with live-bootstrap too but the 
> > developers
> > are honest about those).
>
> Correct. According to the live-bootstrap README[1]:
> "Currently, there is no way to perform the bootstrap without
> external preparations! This is a currently unsolved problem."
>
> Remarkably, this is a problem which does not seem to have a solution?

A solution to this problem implies a regression back until 8/16bit 70s era
computing with punched paper strips, which is neither practical nor relevant
to the scope of bootstrapping a modern POSIX including C-toolchain.
Nonetheless some approaches are discussed, including free/open hardware
development (Gigatron TTL and similar), but current situation seems it's just
not possible/feasible to bridge the gap towards 32bit POSIX from there.

> Regards
> /tccm
>
> [1] 
> https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fosslinux/live-bootstrap/refs/heads/master/README.rst

--

Michael

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