source: BOOK/prologue/common/foreword.xml@ 2988f45

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<sect1 id="pre-foreword">
  <?dbhtml filename="foreword.html"?>

  <title>Foreword</title>

  <para>The Linux From Scratch Project has seen many changes in the
  few years of its existence.  I personally became involved with the
  project in 1999, around the time of the 2.x releases.  At that time,
  the build process was to create static binaries with the host system,
  then chroot and build the final binaries on top of the static ones.</para>

  <para>Later came the use of the /static directory to hold the initial
  static builds, keeping them separated from the final system, then
  the PureLFS process developed by Ryan Oliver and Greg Schafer,
  introducing a new toolchain build process that divorces even our initial
  builds from the host.  Finally, LFS 6 bought Linux Kernel 2.6, the
  udev dynamic device structure, sanitized kernel headers, and other
  improvements to the Linux From Scratch system.</para>

  <para>The one "flaw" in LFS is that it has always been based on an x86
  class processor.  With the advent of the Athlon 64 and Intel EM64T
  processors, the x86-only LFS is no longer ideal. Throughout this time,
  Ryan Oliver developed and documented a process by which you could
  build Linux for any system and from any system, by use of
  cross-compilation techniques.  Thus, the Cross-Compiled LFS (CLFS) was
  born.</para>

  <para>CLFS follows the same guiding principles the LFS project has
  always followed, e.g., knowing your system inside and out by virtue
  of having built the system yourself.  Additionally, during a CLFS
  build, you will learn advanced techniques such as cross-build toolchains,
  multilib support (32 &amp; 64-bit libraries side-by-side), alternative
  architectures such as Sparc, MIPS, and Alpha, and much more.</para>

  <para>We hope you enjoy building your own CLFS system, and the benefits
  that come from a system tailored to your needs.</para>

<literallayout>--
Jeremy Utley, CLFS 1.x Release Manager (Page Author)
Jim Gifford, CLFS Project Co-leader
Ryan Oliver, CLFS Project Co-leader
Joe Ciccone, Justin Knierim, Chris Staub, Matt Darcy, Ken Moffat,
Manuel Canales Esparcia, and Nathan Coulson - CLFS Developers</literallayout>

</sect1>