[TUHS] Unix Kernel Size

[Warner Losh]

On Sat, Jun 30, 2018 at 1:11 PM, Andy Kosela <akosela at andykosela.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Saturday, June 30, 2018, Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com> wrote:
>
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I'd like to thank everybody that sent me data for my unix kernel size
>> stuff. There's two artifacts I've crated. One I think I've shared before,
>> which is my spreadsheet:
>> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13C77pmJFw4ZBmGJuNarB
>> UvWBxBKWXG-jtvARxJDHiXs/edit?usp=sharing
>>
>>
> It would be interesting to compare it to Linux throughout the history.  I
> can still compile a minimal latest Linux kernel that is around 2M.  Not bad
> if you ask me.
>

It's possible to build FreeBSD much smaller as well (some ARM ports can get
that small)... But that's not the comparison I was going for since that
often understates the effect of the SCSI/SATA stack you need these days, or
the network stack, or other technology that's considered 'standard.' It's
entirely due to ease of use and cheap memory.

I didn't include a growth of the Linux kernel due to the less-prevalent use
of GENERIC-type kernels there, and a lack of good data sources I could mine
quickly for apples-to-apples comparisons over time.

Warner
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