binutils/README

   1 This is a beta release of a completely rewritten binutils distribution.
   2 The linker (ld) has been moved into a separate directory,
   3 which should be ../ld.  Linker-specific notes are in ../ld/README.
   4
   5 These programs have been tested on various architectures.
   6 Most recently tested are sun3 and sun4s running sunos4,
   7 as well as Sony News running newsos3.
   8 However, since this is a beta release taken directly from an
   9 evolving source tree, there might be some problems.  In particular,
  10 the programs have not been ported to as many machines as the
  11 old binutils.  There are also features of the old versions
  12 that are missing on the new programs.  We would appreciate
  13 patches to make things run on other machines; especially welcome
  14 are fixes for what used to work on the old programs!
  15 (See ./TODO, as well a ../bfd/TODO and ../ld/TODO.)
  16
  17 Recent changes are in ./NEWS.
  18
  19 Unpacking and Installation -- quick overview
  20 ==========================
  21
  22 In this release, the binary utilities, the linker, the generic GNU include
  23 files, the BFD ("binary file description") library, gprof, and getopt all
  24 have directories of their own underneath the binutils-2.1 directory.
  25 The idea is that a variety of GNU tools can
  26 share a common copy of these things.  Configuration scripts and
  27 makefiles exist to cruise up and down this directory tree and
  28 automatically build all the pieces in the right order.
  29
  30 When you unpack the binutils-2.1.tar.Z file, you'll get a directory called
  31 something like `binutils-2.1', which contains:
  32
  33         DOC.configure  README         config/        configure*     ld/
  34         Makefile       bfd/           config.status* configure.in   libiberty/
  35         Makefile.in    binutils/      config.sub     include/       texinfo/
  36
  37 To build binutils, you can just do:
  38
  39         cd binutils-2.1
  40         ./configure [ --with-minimal-bfd=yes ]
  41         make
  42         make install # copies the programs files into /usr/local/bin by default.
  43
  44 The --with-minimal-bfd-yes flag is a temporary kludge.  Using it makes
  45 the executables smaller, at the price of only being able to handle
  46 the default binary file format.  A more flexible mechanism is planned.
  47
  48 This will configure and build all the libraries as well as binutils
  49 and the linker.
  50
  51 The binutils can be used in a cross-development environment.
  52 The file DOC.configure contains more information.
  53
  54 Porting
  55 =======
  56 Binutils-2.1 supports many different architectures, but there
  57 are many more not supported, including some that were supported
  58 by earlier versions.  We are hoping for volunteers to
  59 improve this situation.
  60
  61 The major effort in porting binutils to a new host and/or target
  62 architecture involves the BFD library.  There is some documentation
  63 in ../bfd/doc.  The file ../gdb/doc/gdbint.texinfo (distributed
  64 with gdb-4.x) may also be of help.
  65
  66 If your system uses some variant of old-style a.out-format,
  67 you can start with a copy of bfd/newsos3.c, and edit it to fit.
  68 (You may also need to tweak bfd/aout-target.h.)
  69 Alternatively, you could use the host-aout.c target.  This is a
  70 special kludge that only works for native (non-cross) configurations.
  71
  72 Reporting bugs
  73 ==============
  74 If you can't track down a bug and send suggestions/patches
  75 for fixes, you should probably *not* be using this release.
  76 We have little time to spend tracking down whatever random bugs you
  77 may run into (except for configurations that Cygnus supports for
  78 its customers).  The general place to send bug reports or patches
  79 is to bug-gnu-utils@ai.mit.edu; you can also send them directly to
  80 bothner@cygnus.com or sac@cygnus.com.
  81
  82