source: BOOK/final-system/common/binutils.xml@ 8d6b927

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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">If the following message shows up, the environment is not
    set up for proper PTY operation:</para>

<screen os="e"><computeroutput>The system has no more ptys.
Ask your system administrator to create more.</computeroutput></screen>

    <para os="f">This issue needs to be resolved before running the test suites
    for Binutils and GCC.</para>

    <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>../binutils-&binutils-version;/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-version;/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>

      <seglistitem>
        <seg>addr2line, ar, as, c++filt, gprof, ld, nm, objcopy, objdump,
        ranlib, readelf, size, strings, and strip</seg>
        <seg>libiberty.a, libbfd.[a,so], and libopcodes.[a,so]</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="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="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>