Native Development with TCC

BoredOS includes a native port of the Tiny C Compiler (TCC), allowing you to compile and run C programs directly within the operating system.

Basic Usage

The compiler is available as tcc. You can use it much like you would on a standard Unix-like system.

Compiling a Simple CLI Program

Create a file named hello.c:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    printf("Hello from BoredOS native TCC!\n");
    return 0;
}

Compile and run it:

tcc hello.c -o hello.elf
./hello.elf

Developing GUI Applications

To develop applications that use the BoredOS Window Manager and UI library, you need to link against libboredos.

Example GUI App (hello_gui.c)

#include <libc/libui.h>
#include <libc/syscall.h>

int main() {
    ui_window_t win = ui_window_create("Hello TCC", 100, 100, 300, 200);
    if (!win) return 1;

    gui_event_t ev;
    while (1) {
        if (ui_get_event(win, &ev)) {
            if (ev.type == GUI_EVENT_PAINT) {
                ui_draw_string(win, 20, 40, "Compiled natively!", 0xFFFFFFFF);
                ui_mark_dirty(win, 0, 0, 300, 200);
            } else if (ev.type == GUI_EVENT_CLOSE) {
                break;
            }
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

Compilation Command

tcc hello_gui.c -o hello_gui.elf -lboredos

Technical Details

Standard Paths

• Headers: /usr/include, /usr/local/include
• Libraries: /usr/lib
• TCC Internal: /usr/lib/tcc

Compilation Process

BoredOS TCC generates standard ELF64 binaries. It automatically links with:

1. crt0.o: Entry point initialization.
2. crti.o / crtn.o: Constructor/Destructor support.
3. libc.a: The BoredOS standard C library.
4. libtcc1.a: TCC runtime support.

Memory & Storage Requirements

• Static Linking Only: BoredOS currently only supports static linking for native binaries.
• Live ISO Mode: You are limited by the 128MB RAMFS capacity. Compiling very large projects may fail if this limit is reached.
• Disk Installation: The compiler writes directly to your persistent disk. Your storage capacity is limited only by the size of your partition, and your work persists across reboots.
• System RAM: The kernel statically reserves 128MB for the internal RAMFS regardless of boot mode, though this does not limit your storage on a disk install.
• No JIT: The tcc -run feature is currently unsupported due to kernel memory protection and the lack of mmap with execution permissions in userland.

Troubleshooting

I/O Error during compilation

If you encounter an "I/O Error" while writing the output file, you may have run out of space.

• Live ISO: You have exceeded the 128MB RAMFS limit.
• Disk Installation: Your disk partition is full.

Missing Headers

Ensure that you are including headers using the standard syntax: #include <stdio.h>. If you are using custom paths, use the -I flag:

tcc myapp.c -I/root/my_headers -o myapp.elf