<!-- ACE-subsets.html,v 4.40 2003/04/16 20:56:47 shuston Exp --> <html> <head> <title>ACE+TAO Subsetting</title> <link rev=made href="mailto:ace-users@cs.wustl.edu"> </head> <body text = "#000000" link="#000fff" vlink="#ff0f0f" bgcolor="#ffffff"> <hr><p> <H3>ACE+TAO Subsetting</H3> We are involved in ongoing activities to subset ACE+TAO to make them more flexible and to reduce their memory footprint for embedded systems. This document describes what we've done thus far, what we're planning to do next, and how to leverage our efforts to minimize the size of your ACE+TAO applications. <P> <HR><P> <font size=+2><strong>Contents</strong></font> <ol> <li><a href="#Motivation">Motivation for Splitting ACE into Multiple Libraries</a> <li><a href="#Configuration Management">Configuration Management</a> <li><a href="#Classes">Classes in Each ACE Library Subset</a> <li><a href="#ACE Library Size Breakdown">ACE Library Size Breakdown</a> <li><a href="#Building ACE Subsets">Building ACE Subsets</a> <li><a href="#ACE_OS Adaptation Layer">ACE_OS Adaptation Layer</a> <li><a href="#minimumTAO">Minimum TAO</a> <li><a href="../apps/soreduce/README">The Shared Library Reduction (<CODE>soreduce</CODE>) tool</a> <li><a href="#Status">ACE+TAO Subsetting Work in Progress</a> </ol><p> <hr><p> <h3><a name="Motivation">Motivation for Splitting ACE into Multiple Libraries</a></h3> This document describes how we are splitting ACE into multiple libraries, each of which will contain a smaller subset of the overall ACE functionality. The primary motivations for subsetting ACE are: <UL> <LI><EM>Principle of parsimony</EM> -- <EM>i.e.</EM>, developers should incur time/space overhead for components they use, rather than for all the components in the ACE framework. <P> <LI><EM>Simplify the learning curve</EM> -- <EM>i.e.</EM>, developers only need to learn how to program components that they actually use. <P> </UL> The main design goals of our approach are as follows: <P> <OL> <LI>Support the original libACE as before. Thus, for users who want to use the existing ACE library as is, there will be no changes, i.e., just link with <CODE>libACE</CODE> as usual. <P> <LI>Allow ACE (and TAO) programmers to use smaller subsets of the entire <CODE>libACE</CODE> library. These subsets will include the following libraries: <P> <DL> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE> -- This library contains the OS adaptation layer and its supporting classes. All other ACE libraries will depend on <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE> and it will depend on <EM>no</EM> other ACE libraries. <P> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_Utils</CODE> -- This library contains the various ACE container classes and other miscellaneous classes, such as Singleton, auto_ptr, timers, etc. This library will depend only on <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE>.<P> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_Logging</CODE> -- This library contains the various ACE logging and tracing classes. This library will depend only on <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE>. <P> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_Threads</CODE> -- This library contains the ACE thread/process management and synchronization classes. This library will depend only on <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE>. <P> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_Demux</CODE> -- This library contains the ACE Reactor and Proactor classes. This library will depend on <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE> and <CODE>libACE_Thread</CODE>. <P> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_Connection</CODE> -- This library contains the ACE Connection components, i.e., Acceptor, Connector, and Svc_Handler. This library will depend on <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE>, <CODE>libACE_Thread</CODE>, and <CODE>libACE_Demux</CODE>. <P> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_Sockets</CODE> -- This library contains the ACE C++ wrappers for sockets. This library will depend on <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE>. <P> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_IPC</CODE> -- This library contains all the ACE C++ wrappers for the other types of IPC and FILE I/O other than sockets. This library will depend on <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE> and <CODE>libACE_Sockets</CODE>. <P> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_Timer</CODE> -- This library contains the ACE C++ wrappers for timer support. This library will depend on <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE>. <P> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_Svcconf</CODE> -- This library contains the ACE C++ wrappers for the Service Configurator. This library will depend on <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE>, <CODE>libACE_Demux</CODE>, <CODE>libACE_Thread</CODE>, and <CODE>libACE_Sockets</CODE>. <P> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_Streams</CODE> -- This library contains the ACE Streams classes. This library will depend on <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE>, <CODE>libACE_Demux</CODE>, and <CODE>libACE_Thread</CODE>. <P> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_Memory</CODE> -- This library contains the ACE C++ wrappers for shared memory and memory-mapped files. This library will depend on <CODE>libACE_OS</CODE>.<P> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_Token</CODE> -- This library contains the ACE C++ wrappers for token support. This library is not needed by <a href="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO.html">TAO</a>.<p> <DT> <img alt="o" src="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/gifs/misc/redball.gif"> <CODE>libACE_Other</CODE> -- This library contains miscellaneous code, primarily including a CORBA interface and naming support. It is not actively supported, and is not needed by <a href="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO.html">TAO</a>. Its functionality is included in TAO.<P> </DL> </OL> We are also planning to support the OMG's <A HREF="http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?orbos/98-08-04.pdf">Minimum CORBA</A> specification as part of a separate effort. Preliminary results of prototypes for Minimum CORBA we've integrate to TAO have been very promising, yielding a 40% reduction in ORB footprint. <P> Note that the ACE library subsets described above are intended as a guideline, <EM>not</EM> a complete specification. The actual partitioning of files in the final ACE library subsets may differ somewhat to improve footprint and simplify common use-cases. <P> <hr><p> <h3><a name="Configuration Management">Configuration Management</a></h3> Configuration management for the ACE library subsets described above will be organized as follows: <OL> <LI>A single source tree with a single "version" for the source tree.<P> <LI>Releases of libACE and its "subsets" will be atomic, <EM>i.e.</EM>, all or nothing.<P> </OL> <hr><p> <h3><a name="Classes">Classes in Each ACE Library Subset</a></h3> Below, we describe the classes in each ACE library subset. <H4>libACE_OS</H4> This library contains the OS adaptation layer and its supporting classes. The classes in this library should not depend on any other ACE library subsets. All of the other libraries will depend on this library. The following classes are included in this library. <PRE><CODE> ARGV Argv_Type_Converter Basic_Types Time_Value OS OS_Dirent OS_Memory OS_QoS OS_String OS_TLI OS_Errno Base_Thread_Adapter OS_Thread_Adapter OS_Log_Msg_Attributes Thread_Hook Sched_Params Handle_Set Copy_Disabled </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Utils</H4> This library contains the following ACE container classes and other miscellaneous classes. <PRE><CODE> ACE Active_Map_Manager Arg_Shifter Capabilities Containers Configuration Configuration_Import_Export Dirent Dirent_Selector Dynamic Flag_Manip Framework_Component Functor Get_Opt Hash_Map_Manager Connection_Recycling_Strategy Hashable Notification_Strategy Recyclable Refcountable Handle_Ops Init_ACE Lib_Find Message_Block Method_Request Object_Manager Registry String_Base_Const SString Stats Sample_History </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Logging</H4> This library contains the various ACE logging and tracing classes. <PRE><CODE> Dump Log_Msg Log_Msg_Callback Log_Msg_Backend Log_Msg_IPC Log_Msg_NT_Event_Log Log_Msg_UNIX_Syslog Log_Record Logging_Strategy Trace </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Threads</H4> This library contains the ACE thread/process management and synchronization classes. <PRE><CODE> Activation_Queue Process Process_Manager Synch Synch_Options Process_Semaphore Process_Mutex RW_Process_Mutex File_Lock Thread Thread_Manager Thread_Adapter Thread_Exit Thread_Control Token </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Demux</H4> This library contains the ACE Reactor and its associated classes, including the ACE Connection components. <PRE><CODE> Event_Handler FlReactor Msg_WFMO_Reactor POSIX_Proactor POSIX_CB_Proactor WIN32_Proactor Priority_Reactor Proactor Reactor Select_Reactor Select_Reactor_Base SUN_Proactor Dev_Poll_Reactor TP_Reactor TkReactor WFMO_Reactor XtReactor QtReactor </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Connection</H4> This library contains the ACE Connection components, i.e., Acceptor, Connector, and Svc_Handler. <PRE><CODE> Asynch_IO Asynch_IO_Impl Asynch_Pseudo_Task POSIX_Asynch_IO WIN32_Asynch_IO </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Sockets</H4> This library contains the ACE C++ wrappers for sockets. <PRE><CODE> Addr INET_Addr IPC_SAP LSOCK LSOCK_Acceptor LSOCK_CODgram LSOCK_Connector LSOCK_Dgram LSOCK_Stream SOCK SOCK_Acceptor SOCK_CODgram Sock_Connect SOCK_Connector SOCK_Dgram SOCK_Dgram_Bcast SOCK_Dgram_Mcast SOCK_IO SOCK_Stream </code></pre> <H4>libACE_IPC</H4> This library contains all the ACE C++ wrappers for the other types of IPC and FILE I/O other than sockets. This library will depend on the <CODE>libACE_Socket</CODE> library. <PRE><CODE> ATM_Addr ATM_Acceptor ATM_Connector ATM_Params ATM_QoS ATM_Stream XTI_ATM_Mcast DEV DEV_Addr DEV_Connector DEV_IO FIFO FIFO_Recv FIFO_Recv_Msg FIFO_Send FIFO_Send_Msg FILE_Addr FILE FILE_Connector FILE_IO IO_SAP IOStream Pipe Signal SPIPE_Addr SPIPE SPIPE_Acceptor SPIPE_Connector SPIPE_Stream SV_Message SV_Message_Queue SV_Semaphore_Complex SV_Semaphore_Simple SV_Shared_Memory TLI TLI_Acceptor TLI_Connector TLI_Stream TTY_IO UNIX_Addr UPIPE_Acceptor UPIPE_Connector UPIPE_Stream MEM_Acceptor MEM_Addr MEM_Connector MEM_IO MEM_SAP MEM_Stream </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Svcconf</H4> This library contains the ACE C++ wrappers for the Service Configurator component. <PRE><CODE> DLL DLL_Manager Dynamic_Service_Base Parse_Node Service_Config Service_Manager Service_Object Service_Repository Service_Types Service_Templates Shared_Object XML_Svc_Conf Svc_Conf_l Svc_Conf_y Svc_Conf_Lexer_Guard </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Streams</H4> This library contains the ACE Streams classes. <PRE><CODE> CDR_Base CDR_Stream Codeset_IBM1047 Message_Queue Reactor_Notification_Strategy Task </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Memory</H4> This library contains the ACE C++ wrappers for shared memory and memory-mapped files. <PRE><CODE> Based_Pointer_Repository Malloc PI_Malloc Malloc_Allocator Malloc_Instantiations Mem_Map Memory_Pool Obchunk Obstack Read_Buffer Shared_Memory Shared_Memory_MM Shared_Memory_SV </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Timer</H4> This componenty contains the ACE C++ wrappers for the ACE timer classes. <pre><code> Basic_Stats High_Res_Timer Profile_Timer System_Time Time_Request_Reply Timeprobe Timer_Hash Timer_Heap Timer_List Timer_Queue Timer_Wheel </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Token</H4> This componenty contains the ACE C++ wrappers for Token classes. <pre><code> Local_Tokens Remote_Tokens Token_Collection Token_Invariants Token_Manager Token_Request_Reply </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Codec</H4> This component contains the ACE codec support: <pre><code> Codecs </code></pre> <H4>libACE_Other</H4> This component contains miscellaneous ACE C++ wrappers: <pre><code> Local_Name_Space Name_Proxy Name_Request_Reply Name_Space Naming_Context Registry_Name_Space Remote_Name_Space </code></pre> <hr><p> <h3><a name="ACE Library Size Breakdown">ACE Library Size Breakdown</a></h3> Here is an example size breakdown, by ACE library component. It is for the ACE 5.0 libACE.a, statically built with these <a href="../ACE-INSTALL.html#flags">make flags</a>: <pre><code> debug=0 optimize=1 static_libs_only=1 DEFFLAGS=-DACE_USE_RCSID=0 </code></pre><p> These options translate into:<P> (a) No debugging,<BR> (b) Optimization is set to -O2,<BR> (c) Static ACE and TAO libraries, and<BR> (d) Use of RCS Ids is turned off. <P> To build an ACE static library, if shared libraries are the default, use <code>make static_libs_only=1</code>. If you're using recent versions of GNU GCC, you can use the <A HREF="../ACE-INSTALL.html#repo">-frepo</A> option, which typically reduces the footprint by another 25 percent. <P> <center><table cellpadding=4 border=4> <tr> <th>Platform <th>Component <th>Total <th>For TAO<br>subset <th>OS <th>Utils <th>Logging <th>Threads <th>Demux <th>Con-<br>nection <th>Sockets <th>IPC <th>Svcconf <th>Streams <th>Memory <th>Token <th>Other <tr> <th rowspan=2>Linux (RedHat 6.0/Intel)<br>egcs 2.91.66 <th>Size, bytes <td align=center>648727 <td align=center>515501 <td align=center>10937 <td align=center>118305 <td align=center>13544 <td align=center>59593 <td align=center>74629 <td align=center>49933 <td align=center>16084 <td align=center>34820 <td align=center>92192 <td align=center>18462 <td align=center>27002 <td align=center>71574 <td align=center>61652 <tr> <th>Percentage of<br>total size <td align=center>100 <td align=center>79.46 <td align=center>1.69 <td align=center>18.24 <td align=center>2.09 <td align=center>9.19 <td align=center>11.50 <td align=center>7.70 <td align=center>2.48 <td align=center>5.37 <td align=center>14.21 <td align=center>2.85 <td align=center>4.16 <td align=center>11.03 <td align=center>9.50 <tr> <th rowspan=2>LynxOS 3.0.0<br>g++ 2.7-97r1 <th>Size, bytes <td align=center>582672 <td align=center>475216 <td align=center>25620 <td align=center>97220 <td align=center>11000 <td align=center>44192 <td align=center>71388 <td align=center>58100 <td align=center>13120 <td align=center>31572 <td align=center>77972 <td align=center>21468 <td align=center>23564 <td align=center>60832 <td align=center>46624 <tr> <th>Percentage of<br>total size <td align=center>100 <td align=center>81.56 <td align=center>4.40 <td align=center>16.69 <td align=center>1.89 <td align=center>7.58 <td align=center>12.25 <td align=center>9.97 <td align=center>2.25 <td align=center>5.42 <td align=center>13.38 <td align=center>3.68 <td align=center>4.04 <td align=center>10.44 <td align=center>8.00 <tr> <th rowspan=2>SunOS5.7<br>egcs 2.91.60 <th>Size, bytes <td align=center>709543 <td align=center>570693 <td align=center>11877 <td align=center>115306 <td align=center>13721 <td align=center>63027 <td align=center>87962 <td align=center>68551 <td align=center>16917 <td align=center>42954 <td align=center>99839 <td align=center>21357 <td align=center>29182 <td align=center>75970 <td align=center>62880 <tr> <th>Percentage of<br>total size <td align=center>100 <td align=center>80.43 <td align=center>1.67 <td align=center>16.25 <td align=center>1.93 <td align=center>8.88 <td align=center>12.40 <td align=center>9.66 <td align=center>2.38 <td align=center>6.05 <td align=center>14.07 <td align=center>3.01 <td align=center>4.11 <td align=center>10.71 <td align=center>8.86 <tr> <th rowspan=2>SunOS 5.7<br>GreenHills 1.8.9 <th>Size, bytes <td align=center>803651 <td align=center>653787 <td align=center>15800 <td align=center>146633 <td align=center>18544 <td align=center>69172 <td align=center>103584 <td align=center>60580 <td align=center>23084 <td align=center>52986 <td align=center>108200 <td align=center>21528 <td align=center>33676 <td align=center>79324 <td align=center>70540 <tr> <th>Percentage of<br>total size <td align=center>100 <td align=center>81.35 <td align=center>1.97 <td align=center>18.25 <td align=center>2.31 <td align=center>8.61 <td align=center>12.89 <td align=center>7.54 <td align=center>2.87 <td align=center>6.59 <td align=center>13.46 <td align=center>2.68 <td align=center>4.19 <td align=center>9.87 <td align=center>8.78 <tr> <th rowspan=2>SunOS 5.7<br>Sun C++ 4.2 <th>Size, bytes <td align=center>626824 <td align=center>494501 <td align=center>15502 <td align=center>64929 <td align=center>15605 <td align=center>63364 <td align=center>106841 <td align=center>55013 <td align=center>19945 <td align=center>73584 <td align=center>46434 <td align=center>19685 <td align=center>25952 <td align=center>69843 <td align=center>62480 <tr> <th>Percentage of<br>total size <td align=center>100 <td align=center>78.89 <td align=center>2.47 <td align=center>10.36 <td align=center>2.49 <td align=center>10.11 <td align=center>17.04 <td align=center>8.78 <td align=center>3.18 <td align=center>11.74 <td align=center>7.41 <td align=center>3.14 <td align=center>4.14 <td align=center>11.14 <td align=center>9.97 <tr> <th rowspan=2>VxWorks 5.3.1<br>GreenHills 1.8.8 <th>Size, bytes <td align=center>689564 <td align=center>542628 <td align=center>22252 <td align=center>145036 <td align=center>19664 <td align=center>63640 <td align=center>54296 <td align=center>980 <td align=center>22120 <td align=center>47468 <td align=center>117932 <td align=center>23220 <td align=center>27220 <td align=center>78900 <td align=center>68036 <tr> <th>Percentage of<br>total size <td align=center>100 <td align=center>78.69 <td align=center>3.23 <td align=center>21.03 <td align=center>2.85 <td align=center>9.23 <td align=center>7.87 <td align=center>0.14 <td align=center>3.21 <td align=center>6.88 <td align=center>17.10 <td align=center>3.37 <td align=center>3.95 <td align=center>11.44 <td align=center>9.87 <tr> <th rowspan=2>VxWorks 5.3.1<br>g++ cygnus-<br>2.7.2-960126<br> (with implicit templates) <th>Size, bytes <td align=center>1051540 <td align=center>888244 <td align=center>36484 <td align=center>140832 <td align=center>14344 <td align=center>66740 <td align=center>266192 <td align=center>14480 <td align=center>15084 <td align=center>106308 <td align=center>142500 <td align=center>55932 <td align=center>29348 <td align=center>88564 <td align=center>74732 <tr> <th>Percentage of<br>total size <td align=center>100 <td align=center>84.47 <td align=center>3.47 <td align=center>13.39 <td align=center>1.36 <td align=center>6.35 <td align=center>25.31 <td align=center>1.38 <td align=center>1.43 <td align=center>10.11 <td align=center>13.55 <td align=center>5.32 <td align=center>2.79 <td align=center>8.42 <td align=center>7.11 </table></center><p> <blockquote>It has also been observed recently that using -xO3 with -xspace on SUN CC 5.3 compiler gives a big footprint reduction of the order of 40% </blockquote> <hr><p> <h3><a name="Building ACE Subsets">Building ACE Subsets</a></h3> By default, the ACE library contains all of the components that ACE currently supports. To reduce build time and library size, you can exclude unused components. To do that, define an <code>ACE_COMPONENTS</code> variable using this approach:<p> <ol> <li>In your <code>$(ACE_ROOT)/include/makeinclude/platform_macros.GNU</code> file, <em>e.g.</em>, add: <pre><code>ACE_COMPONENTS = OS</code></pre>or<p> <li>On the make command line, <em>e.g.</em>, <pre><code>make ACE_COMPONENTS=OS</code></pre>or<p> <li>Set (and export) the <code>ACE_COMPONENTS</code> environment variable to contain the components that you want to build.<p> </ol> Please see <code><a href="../ace/Makefile">../ace/Makefile</a></code> for the default contents of <code>ACE_COMPONENTS</code>.<p> A special value of <code>ACE_COMPONENTS</code> can be used to build an ACE library that supports <a href="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO.html">TAO</a>. The special value is <code>FOR_TAO</code>. So, for example, you can add this to your <code>$(ACE_ROOT)/include/makeinclude/platform_macros.GNU</code> to restrict ACE support to just that which is needed for TAO: <pre><code> ACE_COMPONENTS = FOR_TAO </code></pre><p> Please note the current limitations:<p> <ol> <li>We currently don't check for interdependencies between components. For example, if you build any component beside <code>OS</code>, you must explicitly include <code>OS</code> in your <code>ACE_COMPONENTS</code>.<br><br></li> <li>We currently don't check this macro in other ACE or TAO Makefiles, or in their tests. We'll add those checks as time allows.<br><br></li> <li>This is only supported by the gmake Makefiles. For example, the MSVC projects on Win32 do not support the specification of components.<br><br></li> </ol> <hr><p> <h3><a name="ACE_OS Adaptation Layer">ACE_OS Adaptation Layer</a></h3> The lowest-level component, <code>OS</code>, is also called the <em>ACE_OS adaption layer</em>. It provides the ACE interface to the underlying operating system, but little else. It can be used standalone.<p> To create the ACE_OS adaptation layer, build your <code>libACE</code> with <code>ACE_COMPONENTS</code> set to <code>OS</code>. In addition, add <code>#include "ace/config-minimal.h"</code> to your <code>ACE_wrappers/ace/config.h</code> file.<p> When using the ACE_OS adaptation layer, you'll be limited to the the <code>ACE_OS</code> member functions, ACE's <a href="../ace/Basic_Types.h">Basic_Types</a> and <a href="../ace/Sched_Params.h">Sched_Params</a>, and macros defined in <a href="../ace/OS.h"><code>ace/OS.h</code></a>. See ACE's <a href="../tests/Basic_Types_Test.cpp">Basic_Types_Test.cpp</a> for an example of usage.<p> <a name="minimumTAO"><!--#include virtual="minimumTAO.html" --></a> <P><HR><P> Back to the <A HREF="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html">ACE</A> home page.<BR> Back to <A HREF="index.html">ACE Documentation Home</A>. <!--#include virtual="/~schmidt/cgi-sig.html" --> </BODY> </HTML>