Subject: cross development tools

From: Kristof Vanbecelaere <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 15:19:37 +0100

Hi,

A while ago H.J. Lu adviced to use -march/-mtune instead of -mcpu
options. But I wonder which front-end you need to use? It looks like
gcc-3.0.2 lists the option as a target-specific one but does not
accept it when you pass it.

I then decided to track down the port H.J. made and found it on the
ftp server but only in rpm form. I run a debian host for
development. I assume/hope the binaries will probably run on my host
if only I could get to their content. I know about alien but the
version of rpm (3.0.3) on my host does not accept the rpm packages
from the ftp site:

only packages with major numbers <= 3 are supported by this version of
RPM

And a newer version of rpm is available but in rpm form. A bit of a
problem. Why this bias towards Red Hat? Why not just tar files?

Also, I notice the compiler in H.J.'s port is something like
gcc-2.96.something. Assuming this is also the version of the
cross-compiler, how come I don't see this release on the official gcc
web page? How do his tools relate to the gcc releases?

I may be missing some historical background here,
Kristof

---

From: Jim Paris <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 10:57:14 -0500

> accept it when you pass it.

I use gcc-3.0.2, which as you say does not support -march, but I found
that with the latest binutils + the new -march/-mipsN patch at
http://sources.redhat.com/ml/binutils/2001-10/msg00526.html
a GCCFLAGS of

     -mips2 -wa,-m4100,--trap

does a good job of letting the compiler generate mips2 while still
letting me use 4100-specific instructions in inline assembly (for
example).

> web page? How do his tools relate to the gcc releases?

I think the general background is something like this:
- GCC released gcc-2.95, so their CVS incremented to 2.96
- RedHat distributed the CVS version of GCC, and called it gcc-2.96
- GCC incremented their CVS version again to 2.97 to attempt to 
  clear up the confusion
- RedHat's version maybe incremented to 2.97 at some point?

RedHat always throws on a ton of patches on top of released stuff,
and H.J. added lots more MIPS-related patches, so his port is basically
a CVS snapshot + tons of general and MIPS-specific patches.

I once went through the trouble of extracting the RPM and building
a .tar.gz that included all of the patches, but it didn't seem to
behave any differently from my point of view than gcc-3.0.2, so I'm
using that instead.  I can send you this .tar.gz if you'd like.

-jim