source: BOOK/final-system/common/binutils.xml@ e247cb3

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<sect1 id="ch-system-binutils" role="wrap">
  <?dbhtml filename="binutils.html"?>

  <title>Binutils-&binutils-version;</title>

  <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils">
    <primary sortas="a-Binutils">Binutils</primary>
  </indexterm>

  <sect2 role="package">
    <title/>

    <para>The Binutils package contains a linker, an assembler, and other
    tools for handling object files.</para>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 role="installation">
    <title>Installation of Binutils</title>

    <para os="b">Verify that the PTYs are working properly inside the build
    environment. Check that everything is set up correctly by performing a
    simple test:</para>

<screen os="c" role="nodump"><userinput>expect -c "spawn ls"</userinput></screen>

    <para os="d">This command should give the following output:</para>

<screen os="e"><computeroutput>spawn ls</computeroutput></screen>

    <para os="f">If, instead, it gives a message saying to create more ptys,
    then the environment is not set up for proper PTY operation. This issue
    needs to be resolved before running the test suites for Binutils and GCC.</para>

<!-- Branch update patch area
    <para os="p1">The following patch contains a number of updates to the
    &binutils-version; branch by the Binutils developers:</para>

    <screen os="p2"><userinput>patch -Np1 -i ../&binutils-branch_update-patch;</userinput></screen>
-->

    <para os="g">The Binutils documentation recommends building Binutils outside of the
    source directory in a dedicated build directory:</para>

<screen os="h"><userinput>mkdir -v ../binutils-build
cd ../binutils-build</userinput></screen>

    <para os="i">Prepare Binutils for compilation:</para>

<screen os="ca"><userinput>CC="gcc -isystem /usr/include" \
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-rpath-link,/usr/lib:/lib" \
  ../binutils-&binutils-dir;/configure --prefix=/usr \
    --enable-shared</userinput></screen>

    <para os="j">Compile the package:</para>

<screen os="k"><userinput>make configure-host</userinput></screen>

    <important os="l">
      <para>During <command>make configure-host</command> you may receive the
      following error message. It is safe to ignore.</para>

<screen><computeroutput>WARNING: `flex' is missing on your system. You should only
need it if you modified a `.l' file. You may need the `Flex'
package in order for those modifications to take effect. You
can get `Flex' from any GNU archive site.</computeroutput></screen>
    </important>

<screen os="m"><userinput>make tooldir=/usr</userinput></screen>

    <variablelist os="n">
      <title>The meaning of the make parameter:</title>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><parameter>tooldir=/usr</parameter></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Normally, the tooldir (the directory where the executables
          will ultimately be located) is set to <filename
          class="directory">$(exec_prefix)/$(target_alias)</filename>. Because this
          is a custom system, this target-specific directory in <filename
          class="directory">/usr</filename> is not required.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>

    <important os="o">
      <para>The test suite for Binutils is considered critical.
      Do not skip it under any circumstance.</para>
    </important>

    <para os="p">Test the results:</para>

<screen os="q"><userinput>make check</userinput></screen>

    <para os="r">Install the package:</para>

<screen os="s"><userinput>make tooldir=/usr install</userinput></screen>

    <para os="t">Install the <filename class="headerfile">libiberty</filename> header
    file that is needed by some packages:</para>

<screen os="u"><userinput>cp -v ../binutils-&binutils-dir;/include/libiberty.h /usr/include</userinput></screen>

  </sect2>

  <sect2 id="contents-binutils" role="content">
    <title>Contents of Binutils</title>

    <segmentedlist>
      <segtitle>Installed programs</segtitle>
      <segtitle>Installed libraries</segtitle>
      <segtitle>Installed directory</segtitle>

      <seglistitem>
        <seg>addr2line, ar, as, c++filt, elfedit, gprof, ld, ld.bfd, nm, objcopy,
        objdump,
        ranlib, readelf, size, strings, and strip</seg>
        <seg>libiberty.a, libbfd.[a,so], and libopcodes.[a,so]</seg>
        <seg>/usr/lib/ldscripts</seg>
      </seglistitem>
    </segmentedlist>

    <variablelist>
      <bridgehead renderas="sect3">Short Descriptions</bridgehead>
      <?dbfo list-presentation="list"?>
      <?dbhtml list-presentation="table"?>

      <varlistentry id="addr2line">
        <term><command>addr2line</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Translates program addresses to file names and line numbers;
          given an address and the name of an executable, it uses the debugging
          information in the executable to determine which source file and line
          number are associated with the address</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils addr2line">
            <primary sortas="b-addr2line">addr2line</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="ar">
        <term><command>ar</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Creates, modifies, and extracts from archives</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils ar">
            <primary sortas="b-ar">ar</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="as">
        <term><command>as</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>An assembler that assembles the output of <command>gcc</command>
          into object files</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils as">
            <primary sortas="b-as">as</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="c-filt">
        <term><command>c++filt</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Used by the linker to de-mangle C++ and Java symbols and to keep
          overloaded functions from clashing</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils c-filt">
            <primary sortas="b-c++filt">c++filt</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="elfedit">
        <term><command>elfedit</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Updates the ELF header of ELF files</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils elfedit">
            <primary sortas="b-elfedit">elfedit</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="gprof">
        <term><command>gprof</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Displays call graph profile data</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils gprof">
            <primary sortas="b-gprof">gprof</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="ld">
        <term><command>ld</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>A linker that combines a number of object and archive files
          into a single file, relocating their data and tying up symbol
          references</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils ld">
            <primary sortas="b-ld">ld</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="ld.bfd">
        <term><command>ld.bfd</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Hard link to <command>ld</command></para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils ld.bfd">
            <primary sortas="b-ld.bfd">ld.bfd</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="nm">
        <term><command>nm</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Lists the symbols occurring in a given object file</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils nm">
            <primary sortas="b-nm">nm</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="objcopy">
        <term><command>objcopy</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Translates one type of object file into another</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils objcopy">
            <primary sortas="b-objcopy">objcopy</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="objdump">
        <term><command>objdump</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Displays information about the given object file, with options
          controlling the particular information to display; the information
          shown is useful to programmers who are working on the compilation
          tools</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils objdump">
            <primary sortas="b-objdump">objdump</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="ranlib">
        <term><command>ranlib</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Generates an index of the contents of an archive and stores it
          in the archive; the index lists all of the symbols defined by archive
          members that are relocatable object files</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils ranlib">
            <primary sortas="b-ranlib">ranlib</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="readelf">
        <term><command>readelf</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Displays information about ELF type binaries</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils readelf">
            <primary sortas="b-readelf">readelf</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="size">
        <term><command>size</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Lists the section sizes and the total size for the given
          object files</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils size">
            <primary sortas="b-size">size</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="strings">
        <term><command>strings</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Outputs, for each given file, the sequences of printable
          characters that are of at least the specified length (defaulting to
          four); for object files, it prints, by default, only the strings from
          the initializing and loading sections while for other types of files,
          it scans the entire file</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils strings">
            <primary sortas="b-strings">strings</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="strip">
        <term><command>strip</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Discards symbols from object files</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils strip">
            <primary sortas="b-strip">strip</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libiberty">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libiberty</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Contains routines used by various GNU programs, including
          <command>getopt</command>, <command>obstack</command>,
          <command>strerror</command>, <command>strtol</command>, and
          <command>strtoul</command></para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils libiberty">
            <primary sortas="c-libiberty">libiberty</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libbfd">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libbfd</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>The Binary File Descriptor library</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils libbfd">
            <primary sortas="c-libbfd">libbfd</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="libopcodes">
        <term><filename class="libraryfile">libopcodes</filename></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>A library for dealing with opcodes&mdash;the <quote>readable
          text</quote> versions of instructions for the processor;
          it is used for building utilities like
          <command>objdump</command>.</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-system-binutils libopcodes">
            <primary sortas="c-libopcodes">libopcodes</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

  </sect2>

</sect1>