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<!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <link rel="author" href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org" /> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/graphics/gnu-head-mini.png" /> <meta name="ICBM" content="42.355469,-71.058627" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/layout.min.css" media="screen" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/print.min.css" media="print" />   <title>Mes - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>      <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/server/banners/fundraiser.css" media="screen" /> <style type="text/css" media="screen"></style> <style type="text/css" media="screen">  #fundraiser { direction: ltr; } </style>  </head> <body> <div class="inner">  <div id="top"> <p><a class="skip" href="#content"><b>Skip to main text</b></a></p> </div> <div id='fundraiser'> <div class="message"> <p class="headline"><b>Come build a better world with us!</b></p> <p><a href="https://my.fsf.org/donate?mtm_campaign=fall24&mtm_source=banner">Please don't scroll past this. 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It has helped to decimate the number and size of binary seeds that were used in the bootstrap of <a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/guix">GNU Guix</a> 1.0. Recently, version 0.24.2 has realized the first <a href="https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2023/the-full-source-bootstrap-building-from-source-all-the-way-down/">Full Source Bootstrap</a> for Guix. The final goal is to help create a full source bootstrap as part of the <a href="https://bootstrappable.org">bootstrappable builds</a> effort for any UNIX-like operating system. </p> <p> The Scheme interpreter is written in ~5,000 LOC of simple C, and the C compiler written in Scheme and these are mutual self-hosting. Mes can now be bootstrapped from <a href="https://github.com/oriansj/m2-planet">M2-Planet</a> and <a href="https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/mescc-tools">Mescc-Tools</a>. </p> <p> Mes has a Garbage Collector, a library of loadable Scheme modules– notably Dominique Boucher's <a href="https://github.com/schemeway/lalr-scm">LALR</a>, Pre-R6RS <a href="https://www.cs.indiana.edu/chezscheme/syntax-case/old-psyntax.html">portable syntax-case</a> with R7RS ellipsis, Matt Wette's <a href="https://www.nongnu.org/nyacc">Nyacc</a> –and test suite, just enough to support a REPL and a C99 compiler: mescc. </p> <p> Mes + MesCC + Mes C Library can build a <a href="https://gitlab.com/janneke/tinycc">bootstrappable TinyCC</a> that is self-hosting. Using this bootstrappable-tcc and the Mes C library we can build an ancient version of the GNU tools triplet: glibc-2.2.5, binutils-2.20.1, gcc-2.95.3. This is enough to bootstrap Guix for i686-linux, x86<sub>64</sub>-linux, armhf-linux and aarch64-linux. </p> <p> Mes was inspired by The Maxwell Equations of Software: <a href="https://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/book/LISP%201.5%20Programmers%20Manual.pdf">LISP-1.5</a> – John McCarthy page 13, Guix's source/binary packaging transparency and Jeremiah Orians's <a href="https://github.com/oriansj/stage0">stage0</a>, a ~500-byte self-hosting hex assembler. </p> <p> We are very grateful to NLNet for sponsoring the <a href="https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes">Reduced Binary Seed bootstrap</a>, the <a href="https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes-arm">ARM port</a>, and the <a href="https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes-ARM_RISC-V">Full Source Bootstrap.</a> <a href="https://NLnet.nl/NGI0"> <img src="images/ngi0.png" alt="Logo NGI Zero: letterlogo shaped like a tag" height="40px" /> </a> </p> <p> GNU Mes is free software, it is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence version 3 or later. </p>  <h3 id="download">Downloading Mes</h3> <div class="outline-text-2" id="text-1"> <div class="org-src-container"> <pre class="src src-bash">git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/mes.git </pre> </div> </div> <p>Mes can be found on the main GNU ftp server: <a href="https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mes/">https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mes/</a> (via HTTP) and <a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mes/">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mes/</a> (via FTP). It can also be found on the <a href="/prep/ftp.html">GNU mirrors</a>; please <a href="https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/mes/">use a mirror</a> if possible.</p> <h3 id="documentation">Documentation</h3> <p><a href="manual/">Documentation for Mes</a> is available online, as is <a href="/manual/">documentation for most GNU software</a>. You may also find more information about Mes by running <em>info mes</em> or <em>man mes</em>, or by looking at <em><prefix>/share/doc/mes/</em>, <em>/usr/doc/mes/</em>, <em>/usr/local/doc/mes/</em>, or similar directories on your system. A brief summary is available by running <em>mes --help</em>.</p> <h3 id="mail">Mailing lists</h3> <p>Mes uses the following mailing lists:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-mes">bug-mes</a> is used to discuss most aspects of Mes, including development and enhancement requests, as well as bug reports.</li> <li><a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/guix-devel">guix-devel</a> is for general user help and discussion.</li> </ul> <p>Announcements about Mes and most other GNU software are made on <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu">info-gnu</a> (<a href="https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/">archive</a>).</p> <p>Security reports that should not be made immediately public can be sent directly to the maintainer. If there is no response to an urgent issue, you can escalate to the general <a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/security">security</a> mailing list for advice.</p> <h3 id="contribute">Getting involved</h3> <p>Development of Mes, and GNU in general, is a volunteer effort, and you can contribute. For information, please read <a href="/help/">How to help GNU</a>. If you'd like to get involved, it's a good idea to join the discussion mailing list (see above). </p> <p> Join the <code>#bootstrappable</code> channel on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libera_Chat">Libera聽Chat IRC network</a> to chat with the Bootstrappable and GNU Mes community or to get help in real time. </p> <dl> <dt>Test releases</dt> <dd>Trying the latest test release (when available) is always appreciated. Test releases of Mes can be found at <a href="https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/mes/">https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/mes/</a> (via HTTPS) and <a href="ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/mes/">ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/mes/</a> (via FTP).</dd> <dt>Development</dt> <dd>For development sources, issue trackers, and other information, please see the <a href="https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/mes/">Mes project page</a> at <a href="https://savannah.gnu.org">savannah.gnu.org</a>.</dd>  <dt>Maintainer</dt> <dd>Mes is currently being maintained by Janneke Nieuwenhuizen. Please use the mailing lists for contact.</dd> </dl> <h3 id="license">Licensing</h3> <p>Mes is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html" rel="license">GNU General Public License</a> as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.</p> </div>  <div style="clear:both"></div> <div id="mission-statement" role="complementary"> <div class="backtotop"> <hr class="no-display" /> <a href="#header"><span>BACK TO TOP </span>▲</a> </div> <div style="clear: both"></div> <blockquote> <p style="direction:ltr; text-align:left"><a href="//www.fsf.org"><img id="fsfbanner" src="/graphics/fsf-logo-notext-small.png" alt=" [FSF logo] " width="75" height="25" /></a><strong> “The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom. We defend the rights of all software users.”</strong></p> </blockquote> <div id="support-the-fsf" class="button"> <a class="join" href="//www.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom?referrer=4052">JOIN</a> <a class="donate" href="//donate.fsf.org/">DONATE</a> <a class="shop" href="//shop.fsf.org/">SHOP</a> </div> </div>  <div id="footer"> <div class="unprintable"> <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a href="mailto:bug-mes@gnu.org"><bug-mes@gnu.org></a>.</p> <p> Please see the <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting translations of this article.</p> </div>  <p>Copyright © 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p> <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>  <div id="bottom-notes" class="unprintable"> <p><a href="//www.fsf.org/about/dmca-notice">Copyright Infringement Notification</a></p> <div id="generic"> </div> </div>  <p class="unprintable">Updated:  $Date: 2023/11/11 06:20:27 $  </p> </div> </div> </body> </html>