[Rule-list] Slinky questions

[Ed Blackman]

A couple of questions about the compressed filesystem on disk 1:
- What is the purpose of the /usr/lib/rpm/{rpmrc,macros} files?  I
  can't find anything that references them.
- I know that the binaries are statically linked, but what are they
  linked against?  Standard glibc?  If so, have you considered using
  one of the smaller libc's?

The reason I'm scavenging for space is that I've been hacking on the
install to add function (install from ISO images over NFS) and to make
the interface a little more user-friendly, but the busybox sh syntax
is quite limited, and it's been fairly frustrating at times.

I wondered whether there would be any interest in looking at using
another language for the installer.  It would have to be small (on
disk and in memory) and fairly straightforward for developers with a
C/Perl/shell background, but I think that another language with more
capabilities than busybox sh would allow us to do more.

I think that Lua (http://www.lua.org) might fit that description.
It's small (Tom's RootBoot uses it) and somewhat C-ish/Perl-ish and
pretty easy to read (IMO, anyway).

Thoughts?  If people are OK with the idea, I'd be willing to find
space for the interpreter on the disk, and port the existing scripts.

Oh, one more question, this time just for Marco.  Do you build the
images by hand, or do you have an automated process?

Ed

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