Hello from a libc-free world! (Part 1)

https://blogs.oracle.com/ksplice/entry/hello_from_a_libc_free

 

By jesstess on Mar 16, 2010

As an exercise, I want to write a Hello World program in C simple enough that I can disassemble it and be able to explain all of the assembly to myself.

This should be easy, right?

This adventure assumes compilation and execution on a Linux machine. Some familiarity with reading assembly is helpful.

Here's our basic Hello World program:

jesstess@kid-charlemagne:~/c$ cat hello.c
int main()
{
  printf("Hello World\n");
  return 0;
}

The problem is that gcc is still using standard library startup files when linking. Want proof? We'll compile with -nostdlib, which according to the gcc man page won't "use the standard system libraries and startup files when linking. Only the files you specify will be passed to the linker".