Remove libm dependency #34

History

The libm dependency was introduced 3 years ago to make sure that this project works on many common Linux distributions #21

From what I understand, it happens because Deno builds their binaries on a newer Linux machine, and thus can end up depending on new glibc functions. The exp2f function was supposedly introduced in glibc version 2.1, and updated in glibc 2.27. From the bug report, Deno really did end up needing glibc 2.27 denoland/deno#13516 (comment)

Since then, many of the aforementioned Linux distributions have hit "end of life". Which means we might be able to safely revert those changes and get back to a zero-dependencies world. But not today!

I dug into which common and supported Linux distros still ship with an older glibc version and found

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.9 https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/Release
  • End of life: May 31, 2029 with an add-on, otherwise June 30, 2024
  • I think it's
• Amazon Linux 2 https://repology.org/project/glibc/versions
  • End of life: 2026-06-30

Everything else that I've found has a newer glibc version, or is no longer officially supported. Other big projects like Node.js have since then moved to requiring a newer glibc version.

Feature request

I propose removing the libm dependency once Amazon Linux 2 hits end of life. Which is in roughly 1 year.