Crux
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CRUX is a lightweight, i686-optimized Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users. The primary focus of this distribution is keep it simple, which is reflected in a straightforward tar.gz-based package system, BSD-style initscripts, and a relatively small collection of trimmed packages. The secondary focus is utilization of new Linux features and recent tools and libraries. CRUX also has a ports system which makes it easy to install and upgrade applications.
Current release is [2.2]
Ports System
taken from the CRUX handbook
A port is a directory containing the files needed for building a package using pkgmk. This means that this directory at least has the files Pkgfile (which is the package build description) and .footprint (which is used for regression testing and contains a list of files this package is expected to contain once it is built). Further, a port directory can contain patches and/or other files needed for building the package. It is important to understand that the actual source code for the package is not necessarily present in port directory. Instead the Pkgfile contains an URL which points to a location where the source can be downloaded.
The use of the word port in this context is borrowed from the BSD world, where a port refers to a program that has been ported to a system or platform. The word can sometimes be a bit misleading since most programs require no actual porting to run on CRUX (or on Linux in general).
prt-get
taken from prt-get manual with permisson from authorprt-get is a package management tool for CRUX which provides additional functionality to crux package management system. It works with the local ports tree and is therefore fully compatible with ports and pkgmk/pkgadd. It offers the following features:
- abstract port installation/update from file system
- install/update a list of packages with one command
- list dependencies for a list of packages
- show information about ports
- search within the ports
- advanced logging for builds
prt-get also offers some features like searching ports by name, showing information about ports (without installing them of course) and can list the dependencies listed in the Pkgfile, and provide a complete dependency list for a port. Note that dependencies are no requirement for crux packages and therefore not always accurate.
Releases
| version | date |
|---|---|
| 0.5 | January 20 2001 |
| 0.5.1 | January 30 2001 |
| 0.5.2 | February 4 2001 |
| 0.5.3 | February 11 2001 |
| 0.5.4 | March 3 2001 |
| 0.6 | March 11 2001 |
| 0.7 | April 6 2001 |
| 0.8 | June 10 2001 |
| 0.9 | July 7 2001 |
| 0.9.1 | October 3 2001 |
| 0.9.2 | January 20 2002 |
| 0.9.3 | April 14 2002 |
| 0.9.4 | September 12 2002 |
| 1.0 | December 14 2002 |
| 1.1 | March 23 2003 |
| 1.2 | August 11 2003 |
| 1.3 | December 6 2003 |
| 1.3.1 | February 20 2004 |
| 2.0 | March 20 2004 |
| 2.1 | April 25 2005 |
| 2.2 | April 9 2006 |
Recently with devfs being deprecated the CRUX team has had to move from devfs to udev. The current release has udev installed and uses the 2.6.15.6 kernel. CRUX has had to answer the same question over and over, which is: Why devfs instead of udev?
To quote Per: You are not forced to use devfs, it just happens to be the default in CRUX. Feel free to use udev or a static /dev if you want... It was chosen 5 years ago, when I first made CRUX, simply because I liked it. Until recently I've had no reason to replace it with something else.
Though this is a moot point now because in their current release CRUX has udev on the CD with a few major overhauls that have been discussed and are being implemented.
Other Architectures
CRUX ppc
Maintained and created by Giulivo Navigante.
taken from the CRUX PPC site without permission (yet)
CRUX PPC is a port for the PowerPC platform of CRUX. It's a GNU system with a Linux kernel that runs on NewWorld PowerPC computers. The included software works at its best speed on 750 (G3) and 74xx (G4) CPUs. CRUX PPC supports PegasosII and the major part of Apple's computers (Dual CPU included) and has special features (such as CPU Frequency Scaling) for laptops.
The stable [downloadable] CD is at version 2.0.
CRUX PPC also has a [forum].
CRUX 64bit
Discontinued, was maintained by Daniel Müller. He had his own [ports] tree and [iso] at version 2.1.
CRUX SPARC
Maintained by Johannes Winkelmann.
taken from the CRUX SPARC site without permission (yet)
CRUX/SPARC 2.1rc1 is out, and appears to work fine; that said, I installed and run it on my blade 100.
All ports of the original CRUX base have been ported, except for those that are x86 specific: bin86 and lilo. In addition, silo (Sparc Improved linux Loader) and sparc-utils are available, plus binutils64 and gcc-sparc64 to compile a 64-bit kernel; note that the userland is 32-bit for now.
The site is located [here], with an [iso] at version 2.1rc1.
See also
External links
- [CRUX Website]
- [CRUX for PowerPC]
- [CRUX for 64bit]
- [CRUX for sparc]
- [uCRUX with uclibc instead of glibc]
- [lCRUX (LiveCD edition)]
- [Linux-Books.us - A collection of CRUX books available for free download]
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