As stated earlier, the goal of LFS is to build a complete and
usable foundation-level system. This includes all packages
needed to replicate itself while providing a relatively minimal
base from which to customize a more complete system based on the
choices of the user. This does not mean that LFS is the smallest
system possible. Several important packages are included that
are not strictly required. The lists below document the
rationale for each package in the book. This package contains
programs for producing shell scripts that can automatically
configure source code from a developer's template. It is often
needed to rebuild a package after updates to the build
procedures. This package contains programs for generating Make
files from a template. It is often needed to rebuild a package
after updates to the build procedures. This package satisfies an
LSB core requirement to provide a Bourne Shell interface to the
system. It was chosen over other shell packages because of its
common usage and extensive capabi