source: clfs-embedded/BOOK/cross-tools/common/binutils.xml@ 422ad1f

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<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
  %general-entities;
]>

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

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

  <indexterm zone="ch-cross-tools-binutils">
    <primary sortas="a-Binutils">Binutils</primary>
    <secondary>cross tools</secondary>
  </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 Cross Binutils</title>

    <para os="a">It is important that Binutils be the first package compiled
    because both the C library and GCC perform various tests on the available
    linker and assembler to determine which of their own features to
    enable.</para>

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

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

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

<screen os="e"><userinput>../binutils-&binutils-version;/configure \
   --prefix=${CLFS}/cross-tools \
   --target=${CLFS_TARGET} \
   --with-sysroot=${CLFS}/cross-tools/${CLFS_TARGET} \
   --disable-nls \
   --disable-multilib</userinput></screen>

    <variablelist os="f">
      <title>The meaning of the configure options:</title>

      <varlistentry os="f1">
        <term><parameter>--prefix=${CLFS}/cross-tools</parameter></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>This tells the configure script to prepare to install the
          package in the <filename class="directory">${CLFS}/cross-tools</filename>
          directory.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry os="f3">
        <term><parameter>--target=${CLFS_TARGET}</parameter></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>This creates a cross-architecture executable that creates files
            for ${CLFS_TARGET} but runs on the host system.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry os="f4">
        <term><parameter>--with-sysroot=${CLFS}/cross-tools/${CLFS_TARGET}</parameter></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>This tells configure that ${CLFS} is going to be the root
          of our system. It will now use the specified sysroot, ${CLFS}, as
          a prefix of the default search paths.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry os="f5">
        <term><parameter>--disable-nls</parameter></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>This disables internationalization as i18n is not needed for the
          cross-compile tools.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry os="f7">
        <term><parameter>--disable-multilib</parameter></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>This option disables the building of a multilib
          capable binutils.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

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

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

    <variablelist os="i">
      <title>The meaning of the make options:</title>

      <varlistentry os="i1">
        <term><parameter>configure-host</parameter></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>This checks the host environment and makes sure all the
          necessary tools are available to compile Binutils.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

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

<screen os="k"><userinput>make install</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, elfedit, 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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-binutils c-filt">
            <primary sortas="b-c++filt">c++filt</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="elfedit">
        <term><command>elfedit</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Examine and modify ELF metadata within an ELF object</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-binutils nm">
            <primary sortas="b-nm">nm</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry id="objcopy">
        <term><command>objcopy</command></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Copy the contents of one object file to another</para>
          <indexterm zone="ch-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-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-cross-tools-binutils libopcodes">
            <primary sortas="c-libopcodes">libopcodes</primary>
          </indexterm>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

  </sect2>

</sect1>