ExternalVendorCode/crosstool-ng
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/crosstool-ng/crosstool-ng.git synced 2025-04-07 11:26:42 +00:00
Code Issues Actions Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

docs: split into multiple files

Browse Source 
The overview.txt file has evolved into more than just an overview.
Split it into chapters, and include the misc tutorials.

Signed-off-by: "Yann E. MORIN" <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
This commit is contained in:
Yann E. MORIN" 2010-08-14 16:37:11 +02:00
parent ebaebdacf4
commit a211f4100d
16 changed files with 1285 additions and 1203 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

4
Makefile.in
View File

@ -241,8 +241,8 @@ install-lib-samples: $(DESTDIR)$(LIBDIR) install-lib-main
done
install-doc: $(DESTDIR)$(DOCDIR)
@for doc_file in docs/CREDITS docs/overview.txt; do \
echo " INST '$${doc_file}'"; \
@echo " INST 'docs/*.txt'"
@for doc_file in docs/*.txt; do \
$(install) -m 644 "$${doc_file}" "$(DESTDIR)$(DOCDIR)"; \
done

4
ct-ng.in
View File

@ -94,11 +94,11 @@ help-distrib::
help-env::
@echo
@echo 'Environement variables (see @@CT_DOCDIR@@/overview.txt):'
@echo 'Environement variables (see @@CT_DOCDIR@@/0 - Table of content.txt):'
help-tail::
@echo
@echo 'Use action "menuconfig" to configure crosstool-NG'
@echo 'Use action "menuconfig" to configure your toolchain'
@echo 'Use action "build" to build your toolchain'
@echo 'Use action "version" to see the version'
@echo 'See "man 1 ct-ng" for some help as well'

56
docs/0 - Table of content.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
File.........: 0 - Table of content.txt
Copyrigth....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
Table Of Content /
_________________/
1- Introduction
- History
- Referring to crosstool-NG
2- Installing crosstool-NG
- Install method
- The hacker's way
- Preparing for packaging
- Shell completion
- Contributed code
3- Configuring a toolchain
- Interesting config options
- Re-building an existing toolchain
- Using as a backend for a build-system
4- Building the toolchain
- Stopping and restarting a build
- Testing all toolchains at once
- Overriding the number of // jobs
- Note on // jobs
- Tools wrapper
5- Using the toolchain
- The 'populate' script
6- Toolchain types
- Seemingly-native toolchains
7- Contributing
- Sending a bug report
- Sending patches
8- Internals
- Makefile front-end
- Kconfig parser
- Architecture-specific
- Adding a new version of a component
- Build scripts
A- Credits
B- Known issues
C- Misc. tutorials
- Using crosstool-NG on FreeBSD (and other *BSD)
- Using crosstool-NG on MacOS-X

108
docs/1 - Introduction.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
File.........: 1 - Introduction.txt
Copyrigth....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
Introduction /
_____________/
crosstool-NG aims at building toolchains. Toolchains are an essential component
in a software development project. It will compile, assemble and link the code
that is being developed. Some pieces of the toolchain will eventually end up
in the resulting binary/ies: static libraries are but an example.
So, a toolchain is a very sensitive piece of software, as any bug in one of the
components, or a poorly configured component, can lead to execution problems,
ranging from poor performance, to applications ending unexpectedly, to
mis-behaving software (which more than often is hard to detect), to hardware
damage, or even to human risks (which is more than regrettable).
Toolchains are made of different piece of software, each being quite complex
and requiring specially crafted options to build and work seamlessly. This
is usually not that easy, even in the not-so-trivial case of native toolchains.
The work reaches a higher degree of complexity when it comes to cross-
compilation, where it can become quite a nightmare...
Some cross-toolchains exist on the internet, and can be used for general
development, but they have a number of limitations:
- they can be general purpose, in that they are configured for the majority:
no optimisation for your specific target,
- they can be prepared for a specific target and thus are not easy to use,
nor optimised for, or even supporting your target,
- they often are using aging components (compiler, C library, etc...) not
supporting special features of your shiny new processor;
On the other side, these toolchain offer some advantages:
- they are ready to use and quite easy to install and setup,
- they are proven if used by a wide community.
But once you want to get all the juice out of your specific hardware, you will
want to build your own toolchain. This is where crosstool-NG comes into play.
There are also a number of tools that build toolchains for specific needs,
which are not really scalable. Examples are:
- buildroot (buildroot.uclibc.org) whose main purpose is to build root file
systems, hence the name. But once you have your toolchain with buildroot,
part of it is installed in the root-to-be, so if you want to build a whole
new root, you either have to save the existing one as a template and
restore it later, or restart again from scratch. This is not convenient,
- ptxdist (www.pengutronix.de/software/ptxdist), whose purpose is very
similar to buildroot,
- other projects (openembedded.org for example), which are again used to
build root file systems.
crosstool-NG is really targeted at building toolchains, and only toolchains.
It is then up to you to use it the way you want.
History |
--------+
crosstool was first 'conceived' by Dan Kegel, who offered it to the community
as a set of scripts, a repository of patches, and some pre-configured, general
purpose setup files to be used to configure crosstool. This is available at
http://www.kegel.com/crosstool, and the subversion repository is hosted on
google at http://code.google.com/p/crosstool/.
I once managed to add support for uClibc-based toolchains, but it did not make
into mainline, mostly because I didn't have time to port the patch forward to
the new versions, due in part to the big effort it was taking.
So I decided to clean up crosstool in the state it was, re-order the things
in place, add appropriate support for what I needed, that is uClibc support
and a menu-driven configuration, named the new implementation crosstool-NG,
(standing for crosstool Next Generation, as many other comunity projects do,
and as a wink at the TV series "Star Trek: The Next Generation" ;-) ) and
made it available to the community, in case it was of interest to any one.
Referring to crosstool-NG |
--------------------------+
The long name of the project is crosstool-NG:
* no leading uppercase (except as first word in a sentence)
* crosstool and NG separated with a hyphen (dash)
* NG in uppercase
Crosstool-NG can also be referred to by its short name CT-NG:
* all in uppercase
* CT and NG separated with a hyphen (dash)
The long name is preferred over the short name, except in mail subjects, where
the short name is a better fit.
When referring to a specific version of crosstool-NG, append the version number
either as:
* crosstool-NG X.Y.Z
- the long name, a space, and the version string
* crosstool-ng-X.Y.Z
- the long name in lowercase, a hyphen (dash), and the version string
- this is used to name the release tarballs
* crosstool-ng-X.Y.Z+hg_id
- the long name in lowercase, a hyphen, the version string, and the Hg id
(as returned by: ct-ng version)
- this is used to differentiate between releases and snapshots
The frontend to crosstool-NG is the command ct-ng:
* all in lowercase
* ct and ng separated by a hyphen (dash)

93
docs/2 - Installing crosstool-NG.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
File.........: 2 - Installing crosstool-NG.txt
Copyrigth....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
Installing crosstool-NG /
________________________/
There are two ways you can use crosstool-NG:
- build and install it, then get rid of the sources like you'd do for most
programs,
- or only build it and run from the source directory.
The former should be used if you got crosstool-NG from a packaged tarball, see
"Install method", below, while the latter is most useful for developpers that
use a clone of the repository, and want to submit patches, see "The Hacker's
way", below.
Install method |
---------------+
If you go for the install, then you just follow the classical, but yet easy
./configure way:
./configure --prefix=/some/place
make
make install
export PATH="${PATH}:/some/place/bin"
You can then get rid of crosstool-NG source. Next create a directory to serve
as a working place, cd in there and run:
ct-ng help
See below for complete usage.
The Hacker's way |
-----------------+
If you go the hacker's way, then the usage is a bit different, although very
simple:
./configure --local
make
Now, *do not* remove crosstool-NG sources. They are needed to run crosstool-NG!
Stay in the directory holding the sources, and run:
./ct-ng help
See below for complete usage.
Now, provided you used a clone of the repository, you can send me your changes.
See the section titled CONTRIBUTING, below, for how to submit changees.
Preparing for packaging |
------------------------+
If you plan on packaging crosstool-NG, you surely don't want to install it
in your root file system. The install procedure of crosstool-NG honors the
DESTDIR variable:
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
make DESTDIR=/packaging/place install
Shell completion |
-----------------+
crosstool-NG comes with a shell script fragment that defines bash-compatible
completion. That shell fragment is currently not installed automatically, but
this is planned.
To install the shell script fragment, you have two options:
- install system-wide, most probably by copying ct-ng.comp into
/etc/bash_completion.d/
- install for a single user, by copying ct-ng.comp into ${HOME}/ and
sourcing this file from your ${HOME}/.bashrc
Contributed code |
-----------------+
Some people contibuted code that couldn't get merged for various reasons. This
code is available as lzma-compressed patches, in the contrib/ sub-directory.
These patches are to be applied to the source of crosstool-NG, prior to
installing, using something like the following:
lzcat contrib/foobar.patch.lzma |patch -p1
There is no guarantee that a particuliar contribution applies to the current
version of crosstool-ng, or that it will work at all. Use contributions at
your own risk.

133
docs/3 - Configuring a toolchain.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,133 @@
File.........: 3 - Configuring a toolchain.txt
Copyrigth....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
Configuring crosstool-NG /
_________________________/
crosstool-NG is configured with a configurator presenting a menu-stuctured set
of options. These options let you specify the way you want your toolchain
built, where you want it installed, what architecture and specific processor it
will support, the version of the components you want to use, etc... The
value for those options are then stored in a configuration file.
The configurator works the same way you configure your Linux kernel. It is
assumed you now how to handle this.
To enter the menu, type:
ct-ng menuconfig
Almost every config item has a help entry. Read them carefully.
String and number options can refer to environment variables. In such a case,
you must use the shell syntax: ${VAR}. You shall neither single- nor double-
quote the string/number options.
There are three environment variables that are computed by crosstool-NG, and
that you can use:
CT_TARGET:
It represents the target tuple you are building for. You can use it for
example in the installation/prefix directory, such as:
/opt/x-tools/${CT_TARGET}
CT_TOP_DIR:
The top directory where crosstool-NG is running. You shouldn't need it in
most cases. There is one case where you may need it: if you have local
patches and you store them in your running directory, you can refer to them
by using CT_TOP_DIR, such as:
${CT_TOP_DIR}/patches.myproject
CT_VERSION:
The version of crosstool-NG you are using. Not much use for you, but it's
there if you need it.
Interesting config options |
---------------------------+
CT_LOCAL_TARBALLS_DIR:
If you already have some tarballs in a direcotry, enter it here. That will
speed up the retrieving phase, where crosstool-NG would otherwise download
those tarballs.
CT_PREFIX_DIR:
This is where the toolchain will be installed in (and for now, where it
will run from). Common use is to add the target tuple in the directory
path, such as (see above):
/opt/x-tools/${CT_TARGET}
CT_TARGET_VENDOR:
An identifier for your toolchain, will take place in the vendor part of the
target tuple. It shall *not* contain spaces or dashes. Usually, keep it
to a one-word string, or use underscores to separate words if you need.
Avoid dots, commas, and special characters.
CT_TARGET_ALIAS:
An alias for the toolchian. It will be used as a prefix to the toolchain
tools. For example, you will have ${CT_TARGET_ALIAS}-gcc
Also, if you think you don't see enough versions, you can try to enable one of
those:
CT_OBSOLETE:
Show obsolete versions or tools. Most of the time, you don't want to base
your toolchain on too old a version (of gcc, for example). But at times, it
can come handy to use such an old version for regression tests. Those old
versions are hidden behind CT_OBSOLETE. Those versions (or features) are so
marked because maintaining support for those in crosstool-NG would be too
costly, time-wise, and time is dear.
CT_EXPERIMENTAL:
Show experimental versions or tools. Again, you might not want to base your
toolchain on too recent tools (eg. gcc) for production. But if you need a
feature present only in a recent version, or a new tool, you can find them
hidden behind CT_EXPERIMENTAL. Those versions (or features) did not (yet)
receive thorough testing in crosstool-NG, and/or are not mature enough to
be blindly trusted.
Re-building an existing toolchain |
----------------------------------+
If you have an existing toolchain, you can re-use the options used to build it
to create a new toolchain. That needs a very little bit of effort on your side
but is quite easy. The options to build a toolchain are saved with the
toolchain, and you can retrieve this configuration by running:
${CT_TARGET}-ct-ng.config
An alternate method is to extract the configuration from a build.log file.
This will be necessary if your toolchain was build with crosstool-NG prior
to 1.4.0, but can be used with build.log files from any version:
ct-ng extractconfig <build.log >.config
Or, if your build.log file is compressed (most probably!):
bzcat build.log.bz2 |ct-ng extractconfig >.config
The above commands will dump the configuration to stdout, so to rebuild a
toolchain with this configuration, just redirect the output to the
.config file:
${CT_TARGET}-ct-ng.config >.config
ct-ng oldconfig
Then, you can review and change the configuration by running:
ct-ng menuconfig
Using as a backend for a build-system |
--------------------------------------+
Crosstool-NG can be used as a backend for an automated build-system. In this
case, some components that are expected to run on the target (eg. the native
gdb, ltrace, DUMA...) are not available in the menuconfig, and they are not
build either, as it is considered the responsibility of the build-system to
build its own versions of those tools.
If you want to use crosstool-NG as a backend to generate your toolchains for
your build-system, you have to set and export this environment variable:
CT_IS_A_BACKEND=y
(case is not sensitive, you can say Y).

142
docs/4 - Building the toolchain.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
File.........: 4 - Building the toolchain.txt
Copyrigth....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
Building the toolchain /
_______________________/
To build the toolchain, simply type:
ct-ng build
This will use the above configuration to retrieve, extract and patch the
components, build, install and eventually test your newly built toolchain.
You are then free to add the toolchain /bin directory in your PATH to use
it at will.
In any case, you can get some terse help. Just type:
ct-ng help
or:
man 1 ct-ng
Stopping and restarting a build |
--------------------------------+
If you want to stop the build after a step you are debugging, you can pass the
variable STOP to make:
ct-ng build STOP=some_step
Conversely, if you want to restart a build at a specific step you are
debugging, you can pass the RESTART variable to make:
ct-ng build RESTART=some_step
Alternatively, you can call make with the name of a step to just do that step:
ct-ng libc_headers
is equivalent to:
ct-ng build RESTART=libc_headers STOP=libc_headers
The shortcuts +step_name and step_name+ allow to respectively stop or restart
at that step. Thus:
ct-ng +libc_headers and: ct-ng libc_headers+
are equivalent to:
ct-ng build STOP=libc_headers and: ct-ng build RESTART=libc_headers
To obtain the list of acceptable steps, please call:
ct-ng list-steps
Note that in order to restart a build, you'll have to say 'Y' to the config
option CT_DEBUG_CT_SAVE_STEPS, and that the previous build effectively went
that far.
Building all toolchains at once |
--------------------------------+
You can build all samples; simply call:
ct-ng build-all
Overriding the number of // jobs |
---------------------------------+
If you want to override the number of jobs to run in // (the -j option to
make), you can either re-enter the menuconfig, or simply add it on the command
line, as such:
ct-ng build.4
which tells crosstool-NG to override the number of // jobs to 4.
You can see the actions that support overriding the number of // jobs in
the help menu. Those are the ones with [.#] after them (eg. build[.#] or
build-all[.#], and so on...).
Note on // jobs |
----------------+
The crosstool-NG script 'ct-ng' is a Makefile-script. It does *not* execute
in parallel (there is not much to gain). When speaking of // jobs, we are
refering to the number of // jobs when making the *components*. That is, we
speak of the number of // jobs used to build gcc, glibc, and so on...
Tools wrapper |
--------------+
Starting with gcc-4.3 come two new dependencies: GMP and MPFR. With gcc-4.4,
come three new ones: PPL, CLooG/ppl and MPC. With gcc-4.5 again comes a new
dependency on libelf. These are libraries that enable advanced features to
gcc. Additionally, some of those libraries can be used by binutils and gdb.
Unfortunately, not all systems on which crosstool-NG runs have all of those
libraries. And for those that do, the versions of those libraries may be
older than the version required by gcc (and binutils and gdb). To date,
Debian stable (aka Lenny) is lagging behind on some, and is missing the
others.
This is why crosstool-NG builds its own set of libraries as part of the
toolchain.
The companion libraries can be built either as static libraries, or as shared
libraries. The default is to build static libraries, and is the safe way.
If you decide to use static companion libraries, then you can stop reading
this section.
But if you prefer to have shared libraries, then read on...
Building shared companion libraries poses no problem at build time, as
crosstool-NG correctly points gcc (and binutils and gdb) to the correct
place where our own version of the libraries are installed. But it poses
a problem when gcc et al. are run: the place where the libraries are is most
probably not known to the host dynamic linker. Still worse, if the host system
has its own versions, then ld.so would load the wrong libraries!
So we have to force the dynamic linker to load the correct version. We do this
by using the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable, that informs the dynamic linker where
to look for shared libraries prior to searching its standard places. But we
can't impose that burden on all the system (because it'd be a nightmare to
configure, and because two toolchains on the same system may use different
versions of the libraries); so we have to do it on a per-toolchain basis.
So we rename all binaries of the toolchain (by adding a dot '.' as their first
character), and add a small program, the so-called "tools wrapper", that
correctly sets LD_LIBRARY_PATH prior to running the real tool.
First, the wrapper was written as a POSIX-compliant shell script. That shell
script is very simple, if not trivial, and works great. The only drawback is
that it does not work on host systems that lack a shell, for example the
MingW32 environment. To solve the issue, the wrapper has been re-written in C,
and compiled at build time. This C wrapper is much more complex than the shell
script, and although it sems to be working, it's been only lightly tested.
Some of the expected short-comings with this C wrapper are;
- multi-byte file names may not be handled correctly
- it's really big for what it does
So, the default wrapper installed with your toolchain is the shell script.
If you know that your system is missing a shell, then you shall use the C
wrapper (and report back whether it works, or does not work, for you).
A final word on the subject: do not build shared libraries. Build them
static, and you'll be safe.

103
docs/5 - Using the toolchain.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
File.........: 5 - Using the toolchain.txt
Copyrigth....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
Using the toolchain /
____________________/
Using the toolchain is as simple as adding the toolchain's bin directory in
your PATH, such as:
export PATH="${PATH}:/your/toolchain/path/bin"
and then using the target tuple to tell the build systems to use your
toolchain:
./configure --target=your-target-tuple
or
make CC=your-target-tuple-gcc
or
make CROSS_COMPILE=your-target-tuple-
and so on...
It is strongly advised not to use the toolchain sys-root directory as an
install directory for your programs/packages. If you do so, you will not be
able to use your toolchain for another project. It is even strongly advised
that your toolchain is chmod-ed to read-only once successfully build, so that
you don't go polluting your toolchain with your programs/packages' files.
Thus, when you build a program/package, install it in a separate directory,
eg. /your/root. This directory is the /image/ of what would be in the root file
system of your target, and will contain all that your programs/packages have
installed.
The 'populate' script |
----------------------+
When your root directory is ready, it is still missing some important bits: the
toolchain's libraries. To populate your root directory with those libs, just
run:
your-target-tuple-populate -s /your/root -d /your/root-populated
This will copy /your/root into /your/root-populated, and put the needed and only
the needed libraries there. Thus you don't polute /your/root with any cruft that
would no longer be needed should you have to remove stuff. /your/root always
contains only those things you install in it.
You can then use /your/root-populated to build up your file system image, a
tarball, or to NFS-mount it from your target, or whatever you need.
The populate script accepts the following options:
-s src_dir
Use 'src_dir' as the un-populated root directory.
-d dst_dir
Put the populated root directory in 'dst_dir'.
-l lib1 [...]
Always add specified libraries.
-L file
Always add libraries listed in 'file'.
-f
Remove 'dst_dir' if it previously existed; continue even if any library
specified with -l or -L is missing.
-v
Be verbose, and tell what's going on (you can see exactly where libs are
coming from).
-h
Print the help.
See 'your-target-tuple-populate -h' for more information on the options.
Here is how populate works:
1) performs some sanity checks:
- src_dir and dst_dir are specified
- src_dir exists
- unless forced, dst_dir does not exist
- src_dir != dst_dir
2) copy src_dir to dst_dir
3) add forced libraries to dst_dir
- build the list from -l and -L options
- get forced libraries from the sysroot (see below for heuristics)
- abort on the first missing library, unless -f is specified
4) add all missing libraries to dst_dir
- scan dst_dir for every ELF files that are 'executable' or
'shared object'
- list the "NEEDED Shared library" fields
- check if the library is already in dst_dir/lib or dst_dir/usr/lib
- if not, get the library from the sysroot
- if it's in sysroot/lib, copy it to dst_dir/lib
- if it's in sysroot/usr/lib, copy it to dst_dir/usr/lib
- in both cases, use the SONAME of the library to create the file
in dst_dir
- if it was not found in the sysroot, this is an error.

64
docs/6 - Toolchain types.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
File.........: 6 - Toolchain types.txt
Copyrigth....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
Toolchain types /
________________/
There are four kinds of toolchains you could encounter.
First off, you must understand the following: when it comes to compilers there
are up to four machines involved:
1) the machine configuring the toolchain components: the config machine
2) the machine building the toolchain components: the build machine
3) the machine running the toolchain: the host machine
4) the machine the toolchain is generating code for: the target machine
We can most of the time assume that the config machine and the build machine
are the same. Most of the time, this will be true. The only time it isn't
is if you're using distributed compilation (such as distcc). Let's forget
this for the sake of simplicity.
So we're left with three machines:
- build
- host
- target
Any toolchain will involve those three machines. You can be as pretty sure of
this as "2 and 2 are 4". Here is how they come into play:
1) build == host == target
This is a plain native toolchain, targetting the exact same machine as the
one it is built on, and running again on this exact same machine. You have
to build such a toolchain when you want to use an updated component, such
as a newer gcc for example.
crosstool-NG calls it "native".
2) build == host != target
This is a classic cross-toolchain, which is expected to be run on the same
machine it is compiled on, and generate code to run on a second machine,
the target.
crosstool-NG calls it "cross".
3) build != host == target
Such a toolchain is also a native toolchain, as it targets the same machine
as it runs on. But it is build on another machine. You want such a
toolchain when porting to a new architecture, or if the build machine is
much faster than the host machine.
crosstool-NG calls it "cross-native".
4) build != host != target
This one is called a canadian-toolchain (*), and is tricky. The three
machines in play are different. You might want such a toolchain if you
have a fast build machine, but the users will use it on another machine,
and will produce code to run on a third machine.
crosstool-NG calls it "canadian".
crosstool-NG can build all these kinds of toolchains (or is aiming at it,
anyway!)
(*) The term Canadian Cross came about because at the time that these issues
were all being hashed out, Canada had three national political parties.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_compiler

226
docs/7 - Contributing to crosstool-NG.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,226 @@
File.........: 7 - Contributing to crosstool-NG.txt
Copyrigth....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
Contributing to crosstool-NG /
_____________________________/
Sending a bug report |
---------------------+
If you need to send a bug report, please send a mail with subject
prefixed with "[CT_NG]" with to following destinations:
TO: yann.morin.1998 (at) anciens.enib.fr
CC: crossgcc (at) sourceware.org
Sending patches |
----------------+
If you want to enhance crosstool-NG, there's a to-do list in the TODO file.
Patches should come with the appropriate SoB line. A SoB line is typically
something like:
Signed-off-by: John DOE <john.doe@somewhere.net>
The SoB line is clearly described in Documentation/SubmittingPatches , section
12, of your favourite Linux kernel source tree.
How to Use Mercurial |
---------------------+
For larger or more frequent contributions, mercurial should be used.
PREREQUISITES:
Configuring Mercurial:
You need mercurial with the following extensions:
- mq : http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/MqExtension
- patchbomb : http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/PatchbombExtension
Usually, these two extensions are already part of the installation package.
The mq extension maintains a separate queue of your local changes
that you can change at any later time.
With the patchbomb extension you can email those patches directly
from your local repo.
Your configuration file for mercurial, e.g. ~/.hgrc should contain
at least the following sections (but have a look at `man hgrc`):
# ---
[email]
# configure sending patches directly via Mercurial
from = "Your Name" <your@email.address>
# How to send email:
method = smtp
[smtp]
# SMTP configuration (only for method=smtp)
host = localhost
tls = true
username =
password =
[extensions]
# The following lines enable the two extensions:
hgext.mq =
hgext.patchbomb =
# ----
Create your local repository as a clone:
hg clone http://ymorin.is-a-geek.org/hg/crosstool-ng crosstool-ng
Setting up the mq extension in your local copy:
cd crosstool-ng
hg qinit
CREATING PATCHES:
Recording your changes in the patch queue maintained by mq:
# First, create a new patch entry in the patch queue:
hg qnew -D -U -e short_patch_name1
<edit patch description as commit message (see below for an example)>
<now edit the ct-ng sources and check them>
# if you execute `hg status` here, your modifications of the working
# copy should show up.
# Now the following command takes your modifications from the working copy
# into the patch entry
hg qrefresh -D [-e]
<reedit patch description [-e] if desired>
# Now your changes are recorded, and `hg status` should show a clean
# working copy
Repeat the above steps for all your modifications.
The command `hg qseries` informs you about the content of your patch queue.
CONTRIBUTING YOUR PATCHES:
Once you are satisfied with your patch series, you can (you should!)
contribute them back to upstream.
This is easily done using the `hg email` command.
`hg email` sends your new changesets to a specified list of recipients,
each patch in its own email, all ordered in the way you entered them (oldest
first). The command line flag --outgoing selects all changesets that are in
your local but not yet in the upstream repository. Here, these are exactly
the ones you entered into your local patch queue in the section above, so
--outgoing is what you want.
Each email gets the subject set to: "[PATCH x of n] <series summary>"
where 'x' is the serial number in the email series, and 'n' is the total number
of patches in the series. The body of the email is the complete patch, plus
a handful of metadata, that helps properly apply the patch, keeping the log
message, attribution and date, tracking file changes (move, delete, modes...)
`hg email` also threads all outgoing patch emails below an introductory
message. You should use the introductory message (command line flag --intro)
to describe the scope and motivation for the whole patch series. The subject
for the introductory message gets set to: "[PATCH 0 of n] <series summary>"
and you get the chance to set the <series summary>.
Here is a sample `hg email` complete command line:
Note: replace " (at) " with "@"
hg email --outgoing --intro \
--to '"Yann E. MORIN" <yann.morin.1998 (at) anciens.enib.fr>' \
--cc 'crossgcc (at) sourceware.org'
# It then opens an editor and lets you enter the subject
# and the body for the introductory message.
Use `hg email` with the additional command line switch -n to
first have a look at the email(s) without actually sending them.
MAINTAINING YOUR PATCHES:
When the patches are refined by discussing them on the mailing list,
you may want to finalize and resend them.
The mq extension has the idiosyncrasy of imposing a stack onto the queue:
You can always reedit/refresh only the patch on top of stack.
The queue consists of applied and unapplied patches
(if you reached here via the above steps, all of your patches are applied),
where the 'stack' consists of the applied patches, and 'top of stack'
is the latest applied patch.
The following output of `hg qseries` is now used as an example:
0 A short_patch_name1
1 A short_patch_name2
2 A short_patch_name3
3 A short_patch_name4
You are now able to edit patch 'short_patch_name4' (which is top of stack):
<Edit the sources>
# and execute again
hg qrefresh -D [-e]
<and optionally [-e] reedit the commit message>
If you want to edit e.g. patch short_patch_name2, you have to modify
mq's stack so this patch gets top of stack.
For this purpose see `hg help qgoto`, `hg help qpop`, and `hg help qpush`.
hg qgoto short_patch_name2
# The patch queue should now look like
hg qseries
0 A short_patch_name1
1 A short_patch_name2
2 U short_patch_name3
3 U short_patch_name4
# so patch # 1 (short_patch_name2) is top of stack.
<now reedit the sources for short_patch_name2>
# and execute again
hg qrefresh -D [-e]
<and optionally [-e] reedit the commit message>
# the following command reapplies the now unapplied two patches:
hg qpush -a
# you can also use `hg qgoto short_patch_name4` to get there again.
RESENDING YOUR REEDITED PATCHES:
By mailing list policy, please resend your complete patch series.
--> Go back to section "CONTRIBUTING YOUR PATCHES" and resubmit the full set.
SYNCING WITH UPSTREAM AGAIN:
You can sync your repo with upstream at any time by executing
# first unapply all your patches:
hg qpop -a
# next fetch new changesets from upstream
hg pull
# then update your working copy
hg up
# optionally remove already upstream integrated patches (see below)
hg qdelete <short_name_of_already_applied_patch>
# and reapply your patches if any non upstream-integrated left (but see below)
hg qpush -a
Eventually, your patches get included into the upstream repository
which you initially cloned.
In this case, before executing the hg qpush -a from above
you should manually "hg qdelete" the patches that are already integrated upstream.
HOW TO FORMAT COMMIT MESSAGES (aka patch desciptions):
Commit messages should look like (without leading pipes):
|component: short, one-line description
|
|optional longer description
|on multiple lines if needed
Here is an example commit message (see revision a53a5e1d61db):
|comp-libs/cloog: fix building
|
|For CLooG/PPL 0.15.3, the directory name was simply cloog-ppl.
|For any later versions, the directory name does have the version, such as
|cloog-ppl-0.15.4.

294
docs/8 - Internals.txt Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,294 @@
File.........: 8 - Internals.txt
Copyrigth....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
Internals /
__________/
Internally, crosstool-NG is script-based. To ease usage, the frontend is
Makefile-based.
Makefile front-end |
-------------------+
The entry point to crosstool-NG is the Makefile script "ct-ng". Calling this
script with an action will act exactly as if the Makefile was in the current
working directory and make was called with the action as rule. Thus:
ct-ng menuconfig
is equivalent to having the Makefile in CWD, and calling:
make menuconfig
Having ct-ng as it is avoids copying the Makefile everywhere, and acts as a
traditional command.
ct-ng loads sub- Makefiles from the library directory $(CT_LIB_DIR), as set up
at configuration time with ./configure.
ct-ng also searches for config files, sub-tools, samples, scripts and patches in
that library directory.
Because of a stupid make behavior/bug I was unable to track down, implicit make
rules are disabled: installing with --local would triger those rules, and mconf
was unbuildable.
Kconfig parser |
---------------+
The kconfig language is a hacked version, vampirised from the Linux kernel
(http://www.kernel.org/), and (heavily) adapted to my needs.
The list of the most notable changes (at least the ones I remember) follows:
- the CONFIG_ prefix has been replaced with CT_
- a leading | in prompts is skipped, and subsequent leading spaces are not
trimmed; otherwise leading spaces are silently trimmed
- removed the warning about undefined environment variable
The kconfig parsers (conf and mconf) are not installed pre-built, but as
source files. Thus you can have the directory where crosstool-NG is installed,
exported (via NFS or whatever) and have clients with different architectures
use the same crosstool-NG installation, and most notably, the same set of
patches.
Architecture-specific |
----------------------+
Note: this chapter is not really well written, and might thus be a little bit
complex to understand. To get a better grasp of what an architecture is, the
reader is kindly encouraged to look at the "arch/" sub-directory, and to the
existing architectures to see how things are laid out.
An architecture is defined by:
- a human-readable name, in lower case letters, with numbers as appropriate.
The underscore is allowed; space and special characters are not.
Eg.: arm, x86_64
- a file in "config/arch/", named after the architecture's name, and suffixed
with ".in".
Eg.: config/arch/arm.in
- a file in "scripts/build/arch/", named after the architecture's name, and
suffixed with ".sh".
Eg.: scripts/build/arch/arm.sh
The architecture's ".in" file API:
> the config option "ARCH_%arch%" (where %arch% is to be replaced with the
actual architecture name).
That config option must have *neither* a type, *nor* a prompt! Also, it can
*not* depend on any other config option (EXPERIMENTAL is managed as above).
Eg.:
config ARCH_arm
+ mandatory:
defines a (terse) help entry for this architecture:
Eg.:
config ARCH_arm
help
The ARM architecture.
+ optional:
selects adequate associated config options.
Note: 64-bit architectures *shall* select ARCH_64
Eg.:
config ARCH_arm
select ARCH_SUPPORTS_BOTH_ENDIAN
select ARCH_DEFAULT_LE
help
The ARM architecture.
Eg.:
config ARCH_x86_64
select ARCH_64
help
The x86_64 architecture.
> other target-specific options, at your discretion. Note however that to
avoid name-clashing, such options shall be prefixed with "ARCH_%arch%",
where %arch% is again replaced by the actual architecture name.
(Note: due to historical reasons, and lack of time to clean up the code,
I may have left some config options that do not completely conform to
this, as the architecture name was written all upper case. However, the
prefix is unique among architectures, and does not cause harm).
The architecture's ".sh" file API:
> the function "CT_DoArchTupleValues"
+ parameters: none
+ environment:
- all variables from the ".config" file,
- the two variables "target_endian_eb" and "target_endian_el" which are
the endianness suffixes
+ return value: 0 upon success, !0 upon failure
+ provides:
- mandatory
- the environment variable CT_TARGET_ARCH
- contains:
the architecture part of the target tuple.
Eg.: "armeb" for big endian ARM
"i386" for an i386
+ provides:
- optional
- the environment variable CT_TARGET_SYS
- contains:
the sytem part of the target tuple.
Eg.: "gnu" for glibc on most architectures
"gnueabi" for glibc on an ARM EABI
- defaults to:
- for glibc-based toolchain: "gnu"
- for uClibc-based toolchain: "uclibc"
+ provides:
- optional
- the environment variables to configure the cross-gcc (defaults)
- CT_ARCH_WITH_ARCH : the gcc ./configure switch to select architecture level ( "--with-arch=${CT_ARCH_ARCH}" )
- CT_ARCH_WITH_ABI : the gcc ./configure switch to select ABI level ( "--with-abi=${CT_ARCH_ABI}" )
- CT_ARCH_WITH_CPU : the gcc ./configure switch to select CPU instruction set ( "--with-cpu=${CT_ARCH_CPU}" )
- CT_ARCH_WITH_TUNE : the gcc ./configure switch to select scheduling ( "--with-tune=${CT_ARCH_TUNE}" )
- CT_ARCH_WITH_FPU : the gcc ./configure switch to select FPU type ( "--with-fpu=${CT_ARCH_FPU}" )
- CT_ARCH_WITH_FLOAT : the gcc ./configure switch to select floating point arithmetics ( "--with-float=soft" or /empty/ )
+ provides:
- optional
- the environment variables to pass to the cross-gcc to build target binaries (defaults)
- CT_ARCH_ARCH_CFLAG : the gcc switch to select architecture level ( "-march=${CT_ARCH_ARCH}" )
- CT_ARCH_ABI_CFLAG : the gcc switch to select ABI level ( "-mabi=${CT_ARCH_ABI}" )
- CT_ARCH_CPU_CFLAG : the gcc switch to select CPU instruction set ( "-mcpu=${CT_ARCH_CPU}" )
- CT_ARCH_TUNE_CFLAG : the gcc switch to select scheduling ( "-mtune=${CT_ARCH_TUNE}" )
- CT_ARCH_FPU_CFLAG : the gcc switch to select FPU type ( "-mfpu=${CT_ARCH_FPU}" )
- CT_ARCH_FLOAT_CFLAG : the gcc switch to choose floating point arithmetics ( "-msoft-float" or /empty/ )
- CT_ARCH_ENDIAN_CFLAG : the gcc switch to choose big or little endian ( "-mbig-endian" or "-mlittle-endian" )
- default to:
see above.
+ provides:
- optional
- the environement variables to configure the core and final compiler, specific to this architecture:
- CT_ARCH_CC_CORE_EXTRA_CONFIG : additional, architecture specific core gcc ./configure flags
- CT_ARCH_CC_EXTRA_CONFIG : additional, architecture specific final gcc ./configure flags
- default to:
- all empty
+ provides:
- optional
- the architecture-specific CFLAGS and LDFLAGS:
- CT_ARCH_TARGET_CLFAGS
- CT_ARCH_TARGET_LDFLAGS
- default to:
- all empty
You can have a look at "config/arch/arm.in" and "scripts/build/arch/arm.sh" for
a quite complete example of what an actual architecture description looks like.
Kernel specific |
----------------+
A kernel is defined by:
- a human-readable name, in lower case letters, with numbers as appropriate.
The underscore is allowed; space and special characters are not (although
they are internally replaced with underscores.
Eg.: linux, bare-metal
- a file in "config/kernel/", named after the kernel name, and suffixed with
".in".
Eg.: config/kernel/linux.in, config/kernel/bare-metal.in
- a file in "scripts/build/kernel/", named after the kernel name, and suffixed
with ".sh".
Eg.: scripts/build/kernel/linux.sh, scripts/build/kernel/bare-metal.sh
The kernel's ".in" file must contain:
> an optional lines containing exactly "# EXPERIMENTAL", starting on the
first column, and without any following space or other character.
If this line is present, then this kernel is considered EXPERIMENTAL,
and correct dependency on EXPERIMENTAL will be set.
> the config option "KERNEL_%kernel_name%" (where %kernel_name% is to be
replaced with the actual kernel name, with all special characters and
spaces replaced by underscores).
That config option must have *neither* a type, *nor* a prompt! Also, it can
*not* depends on EXPERIMENTAL.
Eg.: KERNEL_linux, KERNEL_bare_metal
+ mandatory:
defines a (terse) help entry for this kernel.
Eg.:
config KERNEL_bare_metal
help
Build a compiler for use without any kernel.
+ optional:
selects adequate associated config options.
Eg.:
config KERNEL_bare_metal
select BARE_METAL
help
Build a compiler for use without any kernel.
> other kernel specific options, at your discretion. Note however that, to
avoid name-clashing, such options should be prefixed with
"KERNEL_%kernel_name%", where %kernel_name% is again tp be replaced with
the actual kernel name.
(Note: due to historical reasons, and lack of time to clean up the code,
I may have left some config options that do not completely conform to
this, as the kernel name was written all upper case. However, the prefix
is unique among kernels, and does not cause harm).
The kernel's ".sh" file API:
> is a bash script fragment
> defines the function CT_DoKernelTupleValues
+ see the architecture's CT_DoArchTupleValues, except for:
+ set the environment variable CT_TARGET_KERNEL, the kernel part of the
target tuple
+ return value: ignored
> defines the function "do_kernel_get":
+ parameters: none
+ environment:
- all variables from the ".config" file.
+ return value: 0 for success, !0 for failure.
+ behavior: download the kernel's sources, and store the tarball into
"${CT_TARBALLS_DIR}". To this end, a functions is available, that
abstracts downloading tarballs:
- CT_DoGet <tarball_base_name> <URL1 [URL...]>
Eg.: CT_DoGet linux-2.6.26.5 ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6
Note: retrieving sources from svn, cvs, git and the likes is not supported
by CT_DoGet. You'll have to do this by hand, as it is done for eglibc in
"scripts/build/libc/eglibc.sh"
> defines the function "do_kernel_extract":
+ parameters: none
+ environment:
- all variables from the ".config" file,
+ return value: 0 for success, !0 for failure.
+ behavior: extract the kernel's tarball into "${CT_SRC_DIR}", and apply
required patches. To this end, a function is available, that abstracts
extracting tarballs:
- CT_ExtractAndPatch <tarball_base_name>
Eg.: CT_ExtractAndPatch linux-2.6.26.5
> defines the function "do_kernel_headers":
+ parameters: none
+ environment:
- all variables from the ".config" file,
+ return value: 0 for success, !0 for failure.
+ behavior: install the kernel headers (if any) in "${CT_SYSROOT_DIR}/usr/include"
> defines any kernel-specific helper functions
These functions, if any, must be prefixed with "do_kernel_%CT_KERNEL%_",
where '%CT_KERNEL%' is to be replaced with the actual kernel name, to avoid
any name-clashing.
You can have a look at "config/kernel/linux.in" and "scripts/build/kernel/linux.sh"
as an example of what a complex kernel description looks like.
Adding a new version of a component |
------------------------------------+
When a new component, such as the Linux kernel, gcc or any other is released,
adding the new version to crosstool-NG is quite easy. There is a script that
will do all that for you:
scripts/addToolVersion.sh
Run it with no option to get some help.
Build scripts |
--------------+
To Be Written later...

9
docs/CREDITS → docs/A - Credits.txt
View File

@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
File.........: A - Credits.txt
Copyrigth....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
Credits /
________/
I would like to thank these fine people for making crosstool-NG possible:
Dan KEGEL, the original author of crosstool: http://www.kegel.com/

9
docs/known-issues.txt → docs/B - Known issues.txt
View File

@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
File.........: B - Known issues.txt
Copyrigth....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
Known issues /
_____________/
This files lists the known issues encountered while developping crosstool-NG,
but that could not be addressed before the release.

45
docs/README.macos.txt → docs/C - Misc. tutorials.txt
View File

@ -1,4 +1,47 @@
22 May 2010 - Titus
File.........: C - Misc. tutorials.txt
Copyrigth....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@anciens.enib.fr>
License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5
Misc. tutorials /
________________/
Using crosstool-NG on FreeBSD (and other *BSD) |
-----------------------------------------------+
Contributed by: Titus von Boxberg
Prerequisites and instructions for using ct-ng for building a cross toolchain on FreeBSD as host.
0) Tested on FreeBSD 8.0
1) Install (at least) the following ports
archivers/lzma
textproc/gsed
devel/gmake
devel/patch
shells/bash
devel/bison
lang/gawk
devel/automake110
ftp/wget
Of course, you should have /usr/local/bin in your PATH.
2) run ct-ng's configure with the following tool configuration:
./configure --with-sed=/usr/local/bin/gsed --with-make=/usr/local/bin/gmake \
--with-patch=/usr/local/bin/gpatch
[...other configure parameters as you like...]
3) proceed as described in general documentation
but use gmake instead of make
Using crosstool-NG on MacOS-X |
------------------------------+
Contributed by: Titus von Boxberg
Prerequisites and instructions for using crosstool-NG for building a cross
toolchain on MacOS as host.

26
docs/README.freebsd.txt
View File

@ -1,26 +0,0 @@
22 May 2010 - Titus von Boxberg
Prerequisites and instructions for using ct-ng for building a cross toolchain on FreeBSD as host.
0) Tested on FreeBSD 8.0
1) Install (at least) the following ports
archivers/lzma
textproc/gsed
devel/gmake
devel/patch
shells/bash
devel/bison
lang/gawk
devel/automake110
ftp/wget
Of course, you should have /usr/local/bin in your PATH.
2) run ct-ng's configure with the following tool configuration:
./configure --with-sed=/usr/local/bin/gsed --with-make=/usr/local/bin/gmake \
--with-patch=/usr/local/bin/gpatch
[...other configure parameters as you like...]
3) proceed as described in general documentation
but use gmake instead of make

1172
docs/overview.txt
View File

File diff suppressed because it is too large Load Diff