xref: /freebsd-11-stable/contrib/binutils/binutils/README

These are the GNU binutils.  These are utilities of use when dealing
with object files.

The linker (ld) is in a separate directory, which should be ../ld.
Linker-specific notes are in ../ld/README.

As of version 2.5, the assembler (as) is also included in this package, in
../gas.  Assembler-specific notes can be found in ../gas/README.

Recent changes are in ./NEWS, ../ld/NEWS, and ../gas/NEWS.

Unpacking and Installation -- quick overview
============================================

When you unpack the binutils-2.9.tar.gz file, you'll get a directory
called something like `binutils-2.9', which contains various files and
directories.  Most of the files in the top directory are for
information and for configuration.  The actual source code is in
subdirectories.

To build binutils, you can just do:

	cd binutils-2.9
	./configure [options]
	make
	make install # copies the programs files into /usr/local/bin
		     # by default.

This will configure and build all the libraries as well as the
assembler, the binutils, and the linker.

If you have GNU make, we recommend building in a different directory:

	mkdir objdir
	cd objdir
	../binutils-2.9/configure [options]
	make
	make install

This relies on the VPATH feature of GNU make.

By default, the binutils will be configured to support the system on
which they are built.  When doing cross development, use the --target
configure option to specify a different target.

The --enable-targets option adds support for more binary file formats
besides the default.  List them as the argument to --enable-targets,
separated by commas.  For example:

	./configure --enable-targets=sun3,rs6000-aix,decstation

The name 'all' compiles in support for all valid BFD targets (this was
the default in releases before 2.3):

	./configure --enable-targets=all

You can also specify the --enable-shared option when you run
configure.  This will build the BFD and opcodes libraries as shared
libraries.  You can use arguments with the --enable-shared option to
indicate that only certain libraries should be built shared; for
example, --enable-shared=bfd.  The only potential shared libraries in
a binutils release are bfd and opcodes.

The binutils will be linked against the shared libraries.  The build
step will attempt to place the correct library in the runtime search
path for the binaries.  However, in some cases, after you install the
binaries, you may have to set an environment variable, normally
LD_LIBRARY_PATH, so that the system can find the installed libbfd
shared library.

To build under openVMS/AXP, see the file makefile.vms in the top level
directory.

If you don't have ar
====================

If your system does not already have an ar program, the normal
binutils build process will not work.  In this case, run configure as
usual.  Before running make, run this script:

#!/bin/sh
MAKE=${MAKE-make}
${MAKE} $* AR=true all-libiberty
${MAKE} $* AR=true all-bfd
cd binutils
${MAKE} $* ADDL_DEPS='$(BULIBS)' ADDL_LIBS='$(BULIBS) ../bfd/*.o `cat ../libiberty/required-list ../libiberty/needed-list | sed -e "s,\([^ ][^ ]*\),../libiberty/\1,g"`' ar

This script will build an ar program in binutils/ar.  Move binutils/ar
into a directory on your PATH.  After doing this, you can run make as
usual to build the complete binutils distribution.  You do not need
the ranlib program in order to build the distribution.

Porting
=======

Binutils-2.9 supports many different architectures, but there
are many more not supported, including some that were supported
by earlier versions.  We are hoping for volunteers to
improve this situation.

The major effort in porting binutils to a new host and/or target
architecture involves the BFD library.  There is some documentation
in ../bfd/doc.  The file ../gdb/doc/gdbint.texinfo (distributed
with gdb-4.x) may also be of help.

Reporting bugs
==============

Send bug reports and patches to bug-gnu-utils@gnu.org.  Always mention
the version number you are running; this is printed by running any of
the binutils with the --version option.  We appreciate reports about
bugs, but we do not promise to fix them.

Testing
=======

Testing this release of the binutils requires an unreleased version of
dejagnu.  There is a dejagnu snapshot available at
    ftp://ftp.cygnus.com/pub/binutils
which may be used for testing.

Maintenance
===========

The configure and Makefile.in files in the subdirectories are
generated by autoconf and automake, respectively.  The libtool package
is also required.  In order to make the generation rules fire
automatically, you must configure with the --enable-maintainer-mode
option.  This option is not the default in order to avoid problems on
systems which have out of date versions of autoconf or automake
installed.  The generated files in this release were built with
unreleased versions of autoconf, automake, and libtool.  You can find
snapshots of the appropriate sources at
    ftp://ftp.cygnus.com/pub/binutils