(top posting as summarising)
It's funny how things happen at the same time. I've been asked a few times about how to compile Linaro GCC so I started this page a few days ago: https://wiki.linaro.org/WorkingGroups/ToolChain/Using
The goal is to describe how to build the toolchain outputs such as GCC and GDB in common configurations such as native or cross.
I see four classes of users: 1. Toolchain hackers who know how to build the product and start from source 2. Mid-level engineers who have experience with Unix tools and want to know how to build from source 3. Integrators who want a supported build script that automates everything but that they can customise 4. End users who just want a binary
(1) is fine as they look after themselves. (2) will be covered by the 'Using' pages. (3) is along the lines of my cross-build[1] Makefile. (4) is in Marcin's queue[2], but there's no technical reason that Linaro couldn't use the scripts from Marcin or item 3 to do an official binary tarball that targets the Linaro evaluation builds. Note that we're not set up to support end users directly so having a product like ARM's DS-5 between the working group and end users would be good.
This is all new, unplanned work. I'm going to do (3) in the background and turn it into a product as it will save me time overall, but we should discuss 2, 3, and 4 for the next cycle. Yves, can I suggest you bring this up at the next TSC meeting?
-- Michael
[1] https://code.launchpad.net/~michaelh1/+junk/cross-build [2] https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/other-linaro-n-cross-compilers
On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 7:08 AM, Vandervennet Yves-R55763 R55763@freescale.com wrote:
I agree with Nicolas' proposal to deliver a cross-compiler. A lot of people request this
Yves
-----Original Message----- From: linaro-toolchain-bounces@lists.linaro.org [mailto:linaro-toolchain-bounces@lists.linaro.org] On Behalf Of Nicolas Pitre Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 11:52 AM To: Dave Martin Cc: linaro-toolchain Subject: Re: Getting linaro toolchain binaries
On Wed, 2 Mar 2011, Dave Martin wrote:
On the other hand, the cross toolchain packages are likely to be of interest to such visitors, but aren't obviously advertised -- maybe I'm looking in the wrong place, but if so then new visitors to the linaro pages are likely to look in the wrong place too.
Would it make sense to explain the situation more prominently so that visitors know what to expect?
I would think so.
Something along the lines of "if you use distro x revision y, these cross-compiler packages are available" and "if you need the tools for some other environment, you need to download the source and build it for yourself".
Building a cross-compiler is already a challenge in itself. Would be better to build a version that can be installed anywhere like the CodeSourcery releases and offer that as a tar download.