" ## Strict POSIX compliance" is the first point in the INVIOLABLES.md,
so I assume this is the main purpose of NuttX's existence. The main
priority
is POSIX, everything else is an addition - that's how I understand it.

pon., 4 maj 2026 o 15:05 Gregory Nutt <[email protected]> napisał(a):

>
>
>
> ________________________________
> *Hobbyists are valued users of the OS including retro computing hobbyists
> and DIY “Maker” hobbyists.*
> -
>
> *Supported toolchains: GCC, Clang, SDCC, ZiLOG ZDS-II (c89), IAR. Others?*
> I think we all agree that time_t 64-bit is very important and should be the
> default, but we cannot leave behind old MCUs and users because of it. (that
> is what "All Users Matter" means)
>
> But what if this is conflicts with
>
>  ## Strict POSIX compliance
>
> Support for SDCC and ZDS where not removed, just broken irreparably.
> Those compilers (and other small system compilers) will not support POSIX
> interface definitions.  One problem is that you cannot pass structures or
> even enumeration values as parameters.  There used to be special case
> definitions (not so different from what we are talking about here) to make
> the OS interfaces non-POSIX so that these tools could build NuttX.  The
> change was very invasive and turned me into the believer in very strict
> POSIX interface definitions.
>
> This case it was a painful trade-off.
>
> As a point of clarification... those changes were made PRIOR to the
> INVIOLABLES.md.  The starting point really should be sometime after that.
> From the standpoint of the INVIOLABLES.md, those architectures and tools
> were never supported.
>
> Otherwise we can change our motto to Linus Torvalds' phrase: "Doers
> decide!" (probably he got it from "Parable of the Sower" book)
>
> So let me disagree with my colleague raiden00: "NuttX is for All Users" and
> "All Users Matter" :-)
>
> BR,
>
> Alan
>
> On Mon, May 4, 2026 at 9:07 AM Nathan Hartman <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> > One of the nicest things about NuttX is that you can use it with any
> > microcontroller. That's the biggest selling point for me: instead of
> using
> > a different set of vendor libraries for each microcontroller, you can
> > standardize on NuttX and your code becomes portable across
> microcontrollers
> > regardless of vendor.
> >
> > If we start leaving microcontrollers behind, first it will be 8-bit
> > microcontrollers, then likely it will be 16-bit, eventually we'll be a
> > large and heavy OS that only works on powerful, expensive chips.
> >
> > I like the idea of 64-bit time_t being the default with a way to reduce
> it
> > when appropriate for a particular use case. The Kconfig "---help---" text
> > could warn that less than 64-bit is non-POSIX and the consequences of
> using
> > less than 64 bits, and let the developer decide. By default we'll be
> > 64-bits and complying with POSIX on this issue.
> >
> > My 2¢...
> >
> > Nathan
> >
> > On Mon, May 4, 2026 at 7:43 AM Alan C. Assis <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > > I wasn't aware that libfaketime was facing an issue with the time_t
> > moving
> > > to 64-bit ?
> > >
> > > https://github.com/wolfcw/libfaketime/issues/418
> > >
> > > I think in our case we don't have any issue (I hope), other than the
> code
> > > increasing and a worse performance on 8/16/32-bit MCUs.
> > >
> > > BR,
> > >
> > > Alan
> > >
> > > On Sun, May 3, 2026 at 4:22 PM Gregory Nutt <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > > There are some compilers that do not support uin64_t natively.  For
> > > those,
> > > > library support would be needed.
> > > >
> > > > If an implementation requires multiple accesses to read/write uint64,
> > > then
> > > > the accesses would be non-atomic.  At a bare minimum, the locked
> > section
> > > > would be required (which would not prevent concurrent accesses from
> > > > interrupt handlers).
> > > >
> > > > I support the POSIX first prioritization.  I removed a lot of support
> > > > needed by some of these architectures in the past for similar
> reasons.
> > > > That broke certain compilers and a lot of implementations (which are
> > > still
> > > > broken).  We should probably do the same, but with full awareness of
> > > > functionality well will use or things that are very broken.
> > > >
> > > > I have suggested removing support for the 8 bit architectures and for
> > > > compilers like the ZDS and SDCC compilers.  Carrying architectures
> with
> > > > this level of breakage is misleading.
> > > >
> > > > ________________________________
> > > > From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
> > > > Sent: Sunday, May 3, 2026 9:42 AM
> > > > To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
> > > > Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] Removal of CONFIG_SYSTEM_TIME64 and make
> time_t
> > > > 64-bit by default
> > > >
> > > > Hello,
> > > >
> > > > I tried for AVR128DA28 - tools/configure.sh -l breadxavr:nsh
> > > >
> > > > Default setting (CONFIG_SYSTEM_TIME64 not set):
> > > >
> > > > Register: nsh
> > > > Register: sh
> > > > LD: nuttx
> > > > Memory region         Used Size  Region Size  %age Used
> > > >             flash:       50457 B       128 KB     38.50%
> > > >              sram:         636 B        16 KB      3.88%
> > > >            eeprom:           0 B        512 B      0.00%
> > > >            rodata:         592 B         4 KB     14.45%
> > > > CP: nuttx.hex
> > > > CP: nuttx.asm
> > > >
> > > > With CONFIG_SYSTEM_TIME64 set:
> > > >
> > > > Register: nsh
> > > > Register: sh
> > > > LD: nuttx
> > > > Memory region         Used Size  Region Size  %age Used
> > > >             flash:       52307 B       128 KB     39.91%
> > > >              sram:         668 B        16 KB      4.08%
> > > >            eeprom:           0 B        512 B      0.00%
> > > >            rodata:         592 B         4 KB     14.45%
> > > > CP: nuttx.hex
> > > > CP: nuttx.asm
> > > >
> > > > 2kB seems quite noticeable for a chip with 128kB flash. Runtime costs
> > > > are somewhat hard to assess, the time_t type is used in internal
> > > > timekeeping but the code was developed with tickless mode of
> operation
> > > > in mind so the timekeeping functions should not run that often unless
> > > > the system gets busy with processing lots of timed events.
> > > >
> > > > As for the benefits - the real question is how many devices (designed
> > > > with a chip like this one) need to know real time and therefore
> handle
> > > > year 2038. (None of my use cases need that.)
> > > >
> > > > So for small systems, having the option to configure NuttX so time_t
> is
> > > > 32 bit wide would certainly be beneficial. Making the SYSTEM_TIME64
> > > > option default to DEFAULT_SMALL would be nice but it's not
> > POSIX-correct
> > > > so I don't think that's gonna fly.
> > > >
> > >
> >
>

Reply via email to