On Tue, Jul 07, 2026 at 11:52:15AM +0000, Michael Ackermann via Tinycc-devel wrote: > > 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
VSOBFS _creates_ a fully functional Minix operating system instance (a disk image), including C compilers, among others tinycc for C99. The disk image represents the solution of the "trusting trust" compiler backdoor problem. It is proven to only reflect its corresponding sources and nothing else, its purpose is specifically to be a trustable compiler- and kernel-building platform. The provenance is ensured by using multiple diverse and independent arbitrary platforms for building the image. No seeds, only sources are being used. See e.g. https://codeberg.org/keciav/vsobfs > > "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. Exactly, in the sense that human-verifiable OS/toolchain bootstrap from binary codes is no longer feasible nowadays. The good news (now already old news) is that it is possible to prevent the "trusting trust" vulnerability, without such bootstrap. Tinycc was extremely useful in the implementation of the solution. The small size of its code made it feasible to correct the incompatibilities when building it by an older compiler. Regards /tccm _______________________________________________ Tinycc-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/tinycc-devel
