Adds contrib patch to support the OpenRISK or1k.
/trunk/contrib/openrisc-or32.patch.lzma | 2578 2578 0 0 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 2578 insertions(+)
1 File.........: overview.txt
2 Content......: Overview of how crosstool-NG works.
3 Copyrigth....: (C) 2007 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
4 License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
11 crosstool-NG aims at building toolchains. Toolchains are an essential component
12 in a software development project. It will compile, assemble and link the code
13 that is being developed. Some pieces of the toolchain will eventually end up
14 in the resulting binary/ies: static libraries are but an example.
16 So, a toolchain is a very sensitive piece of software, as any bug in one of the
17 components, or a poorly configured component, can lead to execution problems,
18 ranging from poor performance, to applications ending unexpectedly, to
19 mis-behaving software (which more than often is hard to detect), to hardware
20 damage, or even to human risks (which is more than regrettable).
22 Toolchains are made of different piece of software, each being quite complex
23 and requiring specially crafted options to build and work seamlessly. This
24 is usually not that easy, even in the not-so-trivial case of native toolchains.
25 The work reaches a higher degree of complexity when it comes to cross-
26 compilation, where it can become quite a nightmare...
28 Some cross-toolchains exist on the internet, and can be used for general
29 development, but they have a number of limitations:
30 - they can be general purpose, in that they are configured for the majority:
31 no optimisation for your specific target,
32 - they can be prepared for a specific target and thus are not easy to use,
33 nor optimised for, or even supporting your target,
34 - they often are using aging components (compiler, C library, etc...) not
35 supporting special features of your shiny new processor;
36 On the other side, these toolchain offer some advantages:
37 - they are ready to use and quite easy to install and setup,
38 - they are proven if used by a wide community.
40 But once you want to get all the juice out of your specific hardware, you will
41 want to build your own toolchain. This is where crosstool-NG comes into play.
43 There are also a number of tools that build toolchains for specific needs,
44 which are not really scalable. Examples are:
45 - buildroot (buildroot.uclibc.org) whose main purpose is to build root file
46 systems, hence the name. But once you have your toolchain with buildroot,
47 part of it is installed in the root-to-be, so if you want to build a whole
48 new root, you either have to save the existing one as a template and
49 restore it later, or restart again from scratch. This is not convenient,
50 - ptxdist (www.pengutronix.de/software/ptxdist), whose purpose is very
52 - other projects (openembedded.org for example), which is again used to
53 build root file systems.
55 crosstool-NG is really targeted at building toolchains, and only toolchains.
56 It is then up to you to use it the way you want.
63 crosstool was first 'conceived' by Dan Kegel, who offered it to the community
64 as a set of scripts, a repository of patches, and some pre-configured, general
65 purpose setup files to be used to configure crosstool. This is available at
66 http://www.kegel.com/crosstool, and the subversion repository is hosted on
67 google at http://code.google.com/p/crosstool/.
69 I once managed to add support for uClibc-based toolchains, but it did not make
70 into mainline, mostly because I didn't have time to port the patch forward to
71 the new versions, due in part to the big effort it was taking.
73 So I decided to clean up crosstool in the state it was, re-order the things
74 in place, add appropriate support for what I needed, that is uClibc support
75 and a menu-driven configuration, named the new implementation crosstool-NG,
76 (standing for crosstool Next Generation, as many other comunity projects do,
77 and as a wink at the TV series "Star Trek: The Next Generation" ;-) ) and
78 made it available to the community, in case it was of interest to any one.
80 ___________________________
82 Installing crosstool-NG /
83 ________________________/
85 There are two ways you can use crosstool-NG:
86 - build and install it, then get rid of the sources like you'd do for most
88 - or only build it and run from the source directory.
90 The former should be used if you got crosstool-NG from a packaged tarball, see
91 "Install method", below, while the latter is most useful for developpers that
92 checked the code out from SVN, and want to submit patches, see "The Hacker's
98 If you go for the install, then you just follow the classical, but yet easy
100 ./configure --prefix=/some/place
103 export PATH="${PATH}:/some/place/bin"
105 You can then get rid of crosstool-NG source. Next create a directory to serve
106 as a working place, cd in there and run:
109 See below for complete usage.
114 If you go the hacker's way, then the usage is a bit different, although very
119 Now, *do not* remove crosstool-NG sources. They are needed to run crosstool-NG!
120 Stay in the directory holding the sources, and run:
123 See below for complete usage.
125 Now, provided you checked-out the code, you can send me your interesting changes
129 and mailing me the result! :-P
134 Some people contibuted code that couldn't get merged for various reasons. This
135 code is available as patches in the contrib/ sub-directory. These patches are
136 to be applied to the source of crosstool-NG, prior to installing.
138 ____________________________
140 Configuring crosstool-NG /
141 _________________________/
143 crosstool-NG is configured by a configurator presenting a menu-stuctured set of
144 options. These options let you specify the way you want your toolchain built,
145 where you want it installed, what architecture and specific processor it
146 will support, the version of the components you want to use, etc... The
147 value for those options are then stored in a configuration file.
149 The configurator works the same way you configure your Linux kernel.It is
150 assumed you now how to handle this.
152 To enter the menu, type:
155 Almost every config item has a help entry. Read them carefully.
157 String and number options can refer to environment variables. In such a case,
158 you must use the shell syntax: ${VAR}. You shall neither single- nor double-
159 quote the string/number options.
161 There are three environment variables that are computed by crosstool-NG, and
165 It represents the target tuple you are building for. You can use it for
166 example in the installation/prefix directory, such as:
167 /opt/x-tools/${CT_TARGET}
170 The top directory where crosstool-NG is running. You shouldn't need it in
171 most cases. There is one case where you may need it: if you have local
172 patches and you store them in your running directory, you can refer to them
173 by using CT_TOP_DIR, such as:
174 ${CT_TOP_DIR}/patches.myproject
177 The version of crosstool-NG you are using. Not much use for you, but it's
178 there if you need it.
181 Interesting config options |
182 ---------------------------*
184 CT_LOCAL_TARBALLS_DIR:
185 If you already have some tarballs in a direcotry, enter it here. That will
186 speed up the retrieving phase, where crosstool-NG would otherwise download
190 This is where the toolchain will be installed in (and for now, where it
191 will run from). Common use is to add the target tuple in the directory
192 path, such as (see above):
193 /opt/x-tools/${CT_TARGET}
196 An identifier for your toolchain, will take place in the vendor part of the
197 target tuple. It shall *not* contain spaces or dashes. Usually, keep it
198 to a one-word string, or use underscores to separate words if you need.
199 Avoid dots, commas, and special characters.
202 An alias for the toolchian. It will be used as a prefix to the toolchain
203 tools. For example, you will have ${CT_TARGET_ALIAS}-gcc
205 Also, if you think you don't see enough versions, you can try to enable one of
209 Show obsolete versions or tools. Most of the time, you don't want to base
210 your toolchain on too old a version (of gcc, for example). But at times, it
211 can come handy to use such an old version for regression tests. Those old
212 versions are hidden behind CT_OBSOLETE.
215 Show experimental versions or tools. Again, you might not want to base your
216 toolchain on too recent tools (eg. gcc) for production. But if you need a
217 feature present only in a recent version, or a new tool, you can find them
218 hidden behind CT_EXPERIMENTAL.
221 Show broken versions or tools. Some usefull tools are currently broken: they
222 won't compile, run, or worse, cause defects when running. But if you are
223 brave enough, you can try and debug them. They are hidden behind CT_BROKEN,
224 which itself is hidden behind EXPERIMENTAL.
226 Re-building an existing toolchain |
227 ----------------------------------+
229 If you have an existing toolchain, you can re-use the options used to build it
230 to create a new toolchain. That needs a very little bit of effort on your side
231 but is quite easy. The options to build a toolchain are saved in the build log
232 file that is saved within the toolchain. crosstool-NG can extract those options
233 to recreate a new configuration:
234 ct-ng extractconfig </path/to/your/build.log
236 will extract those options, prompt you for the new ones, which you can later
237 edit with menuconfig.
239 Of course, if your build log was compressed, you'd have to use something like:
240 bzcat /path/to/your/build.log.bz2 |ct-ng extractconfig
242 ________________________
244 Running crosstool-NG /
245 _____________________/
247 To build the toolchain, simply type:
250 This will use the above configuration to retrieve, extract and patch the
251 components, build, install and eventually test your newly built toolchain.
253 You are then free to add the toolchain /bin directory in your PATH to use
256 In any case, you can get some terse help. Just type:
262 Stopping and restarting a build |
263 -------------------------------*
265 If you want to stop the build after a step you are debugging, you can pass the
266 variable STOP to make:
269 Conversely, if you want to restart a build at a specific step you are
270 debugging, you can pass the RESTART variable to make:
271 ct-ng RESTART=some_step
273 Alternatively, you can call make with the name of a step to just do that step:
276 ct-ng RESTART=libs_headers STOP=libc_headers
278 The shortcuts +step_name and step_name+ allow to respectively stop or restart
280 ct-ng +libc_headers and: ct-ng libc_headers+
282 ct-ng STOP=libc_headers and: ct-ng RESTART=libc_headers
284 To obtain the list of acceptable steps, please call:
287 Note that in order to restart a build, you'll have to say 'Y' to the config
288 option CT_DEBUG_CT_SAVE_STEPS, and that the previous build effectively went
292 Testing all toolchains at once |
293 -------------------------------*
295 You can test-build all samples; simply call:
299 Overriding the number of // jobs |
300 ---------------------------------*
302 If you want to override the number of jobs to run in // (the -j option to
303 make), you can either re-enter the menuconfig, or simply add it on the command
307 which tells crosstool-NG to override the number of // jobs to 4.
309 You can see the actions that support overriding the number of // jobs in
310 the help menu. Those are the ones with [.#] after them (eg. build[.#] or
311 regtest[.#], and so on...).
313 _______________________
315 Using the toolchain /
316 ____________________/
318 Using the toolchain is as simple as adding the toolchain's bin directory in
320 export PATH="${PATH}:/your/toolchain/path/bin"
322 and then using the target tuple to tell the build systems to use your
324 ./configure --target=your-target-tuple
326 make CC=your-target-tuple-gcc
328 make CROSS_COMPILE=your-target-tuple-
331 When your root directory is ready, it is still missing some important bits: the
332 toolchain's libraries. To populate your root directory with those libs, just
334 your-target-tuple-populate -s /your/root -d /your/root-populated
336 This will copy /your/root into /your/root-populated, and put the needed and only
337 the needed libraries there. Thus you don't polute /your/root with any cruft that
338 would no longer be needed should you have to remove stuff. /your/root always
339 contains only those things you install in it.
341 You can then use /your/root-populated to build up your file system image, a
342 tarball, or to NFS-mount it from your target, or whatever you need.
344 populate accepts the following options:
347 Use 'src_dir' as the 'source', un-populated root directory
350 Put the 'destination', populated root directory in 'dst_dir'
353 Remove 'dst_dir' if it previously existed
356 Be verbose, and tell what's going on (you can see exactly where libs are
367 There are four kinds of toolchains you could encounter.
369 First off, you must understand the following: when it comes to compilers there
370 are up to four machines involved:
371 1) the machine configuring the toolchain components: the config machine
372 2) the machine building the toolchain components: the build machine
373 3) the machine running the toolchain: the host machine
374 4) the machine the toolchain is generating code for: the target machine
376 We can most of the time assume that the config machine and the build machine
377 are the same. Most of the time, this will be true. The only time it isn't
378 is if you're using distributed compilation (such as distcc). Let's forget
379 this for the sake of simplicity.
381 So we're left with three machines:
386 Any toolchain will involve those three machines. You can be as pretty sure of
387 this as "2 and 2 are 4". Here is how they come into play:
389 1) build == host == target
390 This is a plain native toolchain, targetting the exact same machine as the
391 one it is built on, and running again on this exact same machine. You have
392 to build such a toolchain when you want to use an updated component, such
393 as a newer gcc for example.
394 crosstool-NG calls it "native".
396 2) build == host != target
397 This is a classic cross-toolchain, which is expected to be run on the same
398 machine it is compiled on, and generate code to run on a second machine,
400 crosstool-NG calls it "cross".
402 3) build != host == target
403 Such a toolchain is also a native toolchain, as it targets the same machine
404 as it runs on. But it is build on another machine. You want such a
405 toolchain when porting to a new architecture, or if the build machine is
406 much faster than the host machine.
407 crosstool-NG calls it "cross-native".
409 4) build != host != target
410 This one is called a canadian-toolchain (*), and is tricky. The three
411 machines in play are different. You might want such a toolchain if you
412 have a fast build machine, but the users will use it on another machine,
413 and will produce code to run on a third machine.
414 crosstool-NG calls it "canadian".
416 crosstool-NG can build all these kinds of toolchains (or is aiming at it,
419 (*) The term Canadian Cross came about because at the time that these issues
420 were all being hashed out, Canada had three national political parties.
421 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_compiler
428 Internally, crosstool-NG is script-based. To ease usage, the frontend is
434 The entry point to crosstool-NG is the Makefile script "ct-ng". Calling this
435 script with an action will act exactly as if the Makefile was in the current
436 working directory and make was called with the action as rule. Thus:
439 is equivalent to having the Makefile in CWD, and calling:
442 Having ct-ng as it is avoids copying the Makefile everywhere, and acts as a
445 ct-ng loads sub- Makefiles from the library directory $(CT_LIB_DIR), as set up
446 at configuration time with ./configure.
448 ct-ng also searches for config files, sub-tools, samples, scripts and patches in
449 that library directory.
451 Because of a stupid make behavior/bug I was unable to track down, implicit make
452 rules are disabled: installing with --local would triger those rules, and mconf
458 The kconfig language is a hacked version, vampirised from the toybox project
459 by Rob LANDLEY (http://www.landley.net/code/toybox/), itself coming from the
460 Linux kernel (http://www.kernel.org/), and (heavily) adapted to my needs.
462 The kconfig parsers (conf and mconf) are not installed pre-built, but as
463 source files. Thus you can have the directory where crosstool-NG is installed,
464 exported (via NFS or whatever) and have clients with different architectures
465 use the same crosstool-NG installation, and most notably, the same set of
468 Architecture-specific |
469 ----------------------*
471 An architecture is defined by:
473 - a human-readable name, in lower case letters, with numbers as appropriate.
474 The underscore is allowed. Eg.: arm, x86_64
475 - a boolean kconfig option named after the architecture (in capital letters
476 if possible) prefixed with "ARCH_". Eg.: ARCH_ARM, ARCH_x86_64
477 - a directory in "arch/" named after the architecture, with the same letters
478 as above. Eg.: arch/arm, arch/x86_64
479 This directory contains:
480 - a configuration file in kconfig syntax, named "config.in", which may be
481 empty. Eg.: arch/arm/config.in
482 - a function script in bash-3.0 syntax, named "functions", which shall
483 follow the API defined below. Eg.: arch/arm/functions
485 The "functions" file API:
486 > the function "CT_DoArchValues"
489 - all variables from the ".config" file,
490 - the two variables "target_endian_eb" and "target_endian_el" which are
491 the endianness suffixes
492 + return value: 0 upon success, !0 upon failure
495 - the environment variable CT_TARGET_ARCH
497 the architecture part of the target tuple.
498 Eg.: "armeb" for big endian ARM
502 - the environment variable CT_TARGET_SYS
504 the sytem part of the target tuple.
505 Eg.: "gnu" for glibc on most architectures
506 "gnueabi" for glibc on an ARM EABI
508 - for glibc-based toolchain: "gnu"
509 - for uClibc-based toolchain: "uclibc"
512 - the environment variable CT_KERNEL_ARCH
514 the architecture name as understandable by the Linux kernel build
516 Eg.: "arm" for an ARM
517 "powerpc" for a PowerPC
523 - the environment variables to configure the cross-gcc
530 - contain (defaults):
531 - CT_ARCH_WITH_ARCH : the gcc ./configure switch to select architecture level ( "--with-arch=${CT_ARCH_ARCH}" )
532 - CT_ARCH_WITH_ABI : the gcc ./configure switch to select ABI level ( "--with-abi=${CT_ARCH_ABI}" )
533 - CT_ARCH_WITH_CPU : the gcc ./configure switch to select CPU instruction set ( "--with-cpu=${CT_ARCH_CPU}" )
534 - CT_ARCH_WITH_TUNE : the gcc ./configure switch to select scheduling ( "--with-tune=${CT_ARCH_TUNE}" )
535 - CT_ARCH_WITH_FPU : the gcc ./configure switch to select FPU type ( "--with-fpu=${CT_ARCH_FPU}" )
536 - CT_ARCH_WITH_FLOAT : the gcc ./configure switch to select floating point arithmetics ( "--with-float=soft" or /empty/ )
539 - the environment variables to pass to the cross-gcc to build target binaries
545 - CT_ARCH_FLOAT_CFLAG
546 - CT_ARCH_ENDIAN_CFLAG
547 - contain (defaults):
548 - CT_ARCH_ARCH_CFLAG : the gcc switch to select architecture level ( "-march=${CT_ARCH_ARCH}" )
549 - CT_ARCH_ABI_CFLAG : the gcc switch to select ABI level ( "-mabi=${CT_ARCH_ABI}" )
550 - CT_ARCH_CPU_CFLAG : the gcc switch to select CPU instruction set ( "-mcpu=${CT_ARCH_CPU}" )
551 - CT_ARCH_TUNE_CFLAG : the gcc switch to select scheduling ( "-mtune=${CT_ARCH_TUNE}" )
552 - CT_ARCH_FPU_CFLAG : the gcc switch to select FPU type ( "-mfpu=${CT_ARCH_FPU}" )
553 - CT_ARCH_FLOAT_CFLAG : the gcc switch to choose floating point arithmetics ( "-msoft-float" or /empty/ )
554 - CT_ARCH_ENDIAN_CFLAG : the gcc switch to choose big or little endian ( "-mbig-endian" or "-mlittle-endian" )
562 To Be Written later...