Overview
'ROCK Linux is a source-based GNU/Linux distro, similar to Gentoo Linux or Source Mage, in that it compiles programs from source code and has a package manager called mine. ROCK Linux is designed for system adminstrators and advanced users (in fact, Clifford Wolf, the founder, worked as a Unix system administrator before he started ROCK Linux). As such, it has few configuration utilities, GUIor otherwise.
ROCK runs on the following architectures: x86, Alpha AXP, ARM, HPPA/HPPA64, ia64, MIPS, PowerPC, Sparc32/Sparc64 and x86-64.
Package Selection
ROCK installs very few packages by default and very few patches- only about 250 packages, which set up a bare Linux From Scratch-ish enviroment. Those packages are all hand-maintained by one person, for stability (thus the 'like a rock' part) and minimal system footprint. During the installation the user is expected to select any additional packages desired, such as X11 or GNOME. It may be of interest to note that older, obsoleted packages are not supported as the developers feel that users very rarely need obsolesced versions of software; and even if older versions were carried (at considerable cost) they would not work well.
Compiler and Optimizations
You can select a compiler (by default gcc3) and various optimizations for building your distribution. That enables you to optimize for your architecture. You can also enable the GCC Stack-Smashing Protector enabled. You can use dietlibc instead of the GNU LibC as your C library. That can be very useful e.g. for embedded systems.
Other options are: selection of an init-style, custom GNU configure options, cross-building, and distributed compiling across a network. A major focus in the ROCK development always has been to make adding new features and config options as easy as possible.
Porting
ROCK Linux was designed from the begining to be easily ported. The ROCK Linux Core has been ported to the PowerPC. This was done live, on stage at the Chaos Communication Congress 1999 in only 3 congress days . Supporters like to mention this as an impressive demonstration of the high portability of ROCK Linux.
Target Distributions
A "ROCK Linux Build Target" is a ROCK Linux-based Linux distribution. The ROCK Linux build system has very flexible hooks which allow targets to modify the way the build system works. So targets can (and have) be used to create special-purpose distributions such as single-disk routers, embedded systems, NCs (thin clients), or LiveCD. See "Target Distributions" on the ROCK Linux homepage for more details
External Links
See also