path: root/chapter06/binutils.xml

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<sect1 id="ch-system-binutils" role="wrap">
<title>Binutils-&binutils-version;</title>
<?dbhtml filename="binutils.html"?>

<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>

<segmentedlist>
<segtitle>&buildtime;</segtitle>
<segtitle>&diskspace;</segtitle>
<seglistitem><seg>1.4 SBU</seg><seg>167 MB</seg></seglistitem>
</segmentedlist>

<segmentedlist>
<segtitle>Binutils installation depends on</segtitle>
<seglistitem><seg>Bash, Bison, Coreutils, Diffutils, Flex, GCC, Gettext,
Glibc, Grep, M4, Make, Perl, Sed, and Texinfo</seg></seglistitem>
</segmentedlist>
</sect2>

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

<para>This package is known to have issues when its default
optimization flags (including the <parameter>-march</parameter> and
<parameter>-mcpu</parameter> options) are changed. If any environment
variables that override default optimizations have been defined, such
as <envar>CFLAGS</envar> and <envar>CXXFLAGS</envar>,
unset them when building Binutils.</para>

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

<screen><userinput>expect -c "spawn ls"</userinput></screen>

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

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

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

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

<screen><userinput>mkdir ../binutils-build
cd ../binutils-build</userinput></screen>

<para>Prepare Binutils for compilation:</para>

<screen><userinput>../binutils-&binutils-version;/configure --prefix=/usr \
    --enable-shared</userinput></screen>

<para>Compile the package:</para>

<screen><userinput>make tooldir=/usr</userinput></screen>

<para>Normally, the tooldir (the directory where the executables will
ultimately be located) is set to <filename
class="directory">$(exec_prefix)/$(target_alias)</filename>, which
expands into <phrase condition="html"><filename
class="directory">/usr/i686-pc-linux-gnu</filename></phrase><phrase
condition="pdf"><filename class="directory">/usr/i686-pc-
linux-gnu</filename></phrase>. Because this is a custom system, this
target-specific directory in <filename
class="directory">/usr</filename> is not required. This setup would be
used if the system was used to cross-compile (for example, compiling a
package on an Intel machine that generates code that can be executed
on PowerPC machines).</para>

<important><para>The test suite for Binutils in this section is
considered critical. Do not skip it under any
circumstances.</para></important>

<para>Test the results:</para>

<screen><userinput>make check</userinput></screen>

<para>Install the package:</para>

<screen><userinput>make tooldir=/usr install</userinput></screen>

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

<screen><userinput>cp ../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"?>

<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>