doc: Remarks from Rutger.
* doc/mes.texi: Remarks from Rutger.
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Jan Nieuwenhuizen
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doc/mes.texi
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doc/mes.texi
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@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ Scheme interpreter and C compiler written for bootstrapping the GNU system.
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* Bootstrapping:: Would you strap my boots?
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* Contributing:: Your help needed!
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* Acknowledgments:: Thanks!
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* Resources::
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* GNU Free Documentation License:: The license of this manual.
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* Concept Index:: Concepts.
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* Programming Index:: Data types, functions, and variables.
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@ -115,9 +116,9 @@ These were “Maxwell’s Equations of Software!”
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@end quotation
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Mes@footnote{``Mes'' is an acronym for the Maxwell Equations of
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Software.} consists of a mutual self-hosting Scheme interpreter
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prototype written in C and a Nyacc-based (see @pxref{NYACC User's
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Guide,,, nyacc-ug, NYACC User's Guide}) C compiler written in Scheme.
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Software.} consists of a mutual self-hosting Scheme interpreter written
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in C and a Nyacc-based (see @pxref{NYACC User's Guide,,, nyacc-ug, NYACC
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User's Guide}) C compiler written in Scheme.
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The Scheme interpreter @file{mes.c} is about 5000LOC of restricted C and
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intended to be bootstrappable using a very simple C compiler.
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@ -125,19 +126,39 @@ intended to be bootstrappable using a very simple C compiler.
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@section Software Freedom
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@cindex purpose
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The four essential Freedoms of Software are at the core of our GNU
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community. Quoting@footnote{The four essential freedoms
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@url{https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html}} freedom #1
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community. Quoting the GNU philosophy@footnote{The four essential
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freedoms @url{https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html}}
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@quotation
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The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does
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your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a
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precondition for this.
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A program is free software if the program's users have the four
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essential freedoms:
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@enumerate 0
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@item
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The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
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@item
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The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does
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your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is
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a precondition for this.
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@item
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The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom
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2).
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@item
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The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others
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(freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance
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to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a
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precondition for this.
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@end enumerate
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@end quotation
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So we have access to the software, we have studied it, possibly modified
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it, we built it and we installed it on a computer or some device. How
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can we trust that when we run the program we are indeed running the
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untainted product of the source code that we studied?
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untainted product of the source code that we studied? Unless we are
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certain of this we cannot really enjoy freedom 1.
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@menu
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* Reproducible Builds:: Reproducibility and free software.
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@ -175,7 +196,7 @@ largely because failing that precondition makes justifable trust in
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binaries provided suspect at best and downright dangerous in reality.
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It becomes clear that a bit-by-bit reproducible build of all our
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sofwares is essential if we value our Freedom #1.
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sofwares is essential if we value our Freedom 1.
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@subsection An Old Idea
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@ -199,8 +220,8 @@ Software distributions that take reproducible builds seriously are
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currently shipping well over 90% reproducible packages.
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That a package builds bit-by-bit reproducibly however is not enough to
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guarantee Freedom #1. There is another factor that is often overlooked:
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opaque ascii or binary @emph{seeds} that are injected dnuring build
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guarantee Freedom 1. There is another factor that is often overlooked:
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opaque ascii or binary @emph{seeds} that are injected during build
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time. Yes, a package may build reproduciblly from all inspectable
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sourcess...but what functionality is programmed in the opaque seed?
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@ -245,10 +266,10 @@ $ du -schx *
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There is an obvious solution: we cannot allow any binary seeds in our
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software stack. Not even in the bootstrap binaries. Maybe that is a
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bit too strong: want to have the absolute minimum of binary seeds and
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all binary seeds need to be inspectable and need to be reviewed.
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bit too strong: we want to have the absolute minimum of binary seeds and
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all binary seeds need to be inspectable and must be reviewed.
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@subsection The Magical Self Hosting Hex Assembler
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@subsection The Magical Self-Hosting Hex Assembler
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June 2016 I learnt about
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@url{https://github.com/oriansj/stage0/,Stage0}. Jeremiah Orians
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@ -283,7 +304,7 @@ powers of LISP?
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Mes is a Scheme@footnote{Scheme is a modern LISP} interpreter that will
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be indirectly bootstrapped from @file{hex0} and that wields the magical
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powers of LISP to close the bootstrap gap, asserting we can enjoy
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software Freedom #1.
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software Freedom 1.
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@c *********************************************************************
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@node Installation
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@ -480,6 +501,15 @@ binutils-source + binutils0 + gcc + glibc => binutils
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gcc-source + binutils + gcc-core + glibc => gcc
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@end verbatim
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@c FIXME: ./pre-inst-env guix graph --type=references gcc-mesboot@4.1.0
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@c | dot -T png > gcc-mesboot-4.1.0.png
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@c Using anything else (e.g. --type=package, --type=bag) produces an
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@c unreadable image with *many* duplicates.
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Here's a generated dependency diagram to give you impression, it is
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not complete or correct.
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@image{images/gcc-mesboot-graph,2in,,Reference graph of the gcc-mesboot}
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Work is ongoing to remove these binary seeds that were intentionally
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@ -889,12 +919,46 @@ Join us on @code{#bootstrappable} on the Freenode IRC network or on
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We would like to thank the following people for their help: Jeremiah
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Orians, pdewacht, rain1, Ricardo Wurmus, Rutger van Beusekom.
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w
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We also thank Ludovic Courtès for creating GuixSD and making the
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bootstrap problem so painfully visible, John McCarthy for creating
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LISP-1.5 and Alan Kay for their inspiring comment on
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@url{https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1039523, Page 13}.
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@c *********************************************************************
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@node Resources
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@chapter Resources
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@itemize
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@item
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@url{https://bootstrappable.org, Bootstrappable Builds} Minimize the
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amount and size of opaque binary seeds we need to swallow.
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@item
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@url{https://reproducible-builds.org, Reproducible Builds}
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Provide a verifiable path from source code to binary.
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@item
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@url{https://gitlab.com/oriansj/stage0, Stage0}
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If we want, it could all start with a ~500 byte self-hosting hex
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assembler.
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@item
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@url{https://bootstrapping.miraheze.org, Bootstrapping wiki} An amazing
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collection of small/bootstrappable compilers, operating systems,
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anything you need.
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@item
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@url{irc.freenode.net, #bootstrappable} The bootstrapping community home
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at the freenode IRC network.
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@item
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@file{guix-devel@@gnu.org} The Guix mailing list, where it all started.
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@url{https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/, guix-devel archives}.
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@end itemize
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@c *********************************************************************
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@node GNU Free Documentation License
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@appendix GNU Free Documentation License
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