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Re: BFD_ASSEMBLER, bignum questions


Stan Shebs <shebs@apple.com> writes:

> A couple random GAS questions that the current sources are not
> answering for me:
> 
> * Are there any non-BFD configurations still in use? It looks like
> configure can generate some, but they mostly seem really obscure,
> maybe they're no longer in use.

Do you mean non-BFD, or non-BFD_ASSEMBLER?

BFD_ASSEMBLER is always used for alpha, arm, i386, ia64, mips, ns32k,
pdp11, ppc, and sparc.  It is always used for elf, ecoff, and som.
What's left is a29k, h8300, h8500, i960, m68k, m88k, ns32k, or32, sh,
tahoe, tic80, vax, w65, z8k for COFF and aout targets.

BFD is used for all COFF targets, even those which do not use
BFD_ASSEMBLER (such targets define BFD_HEADERS).  There are some aout
targets which do not use BFD at all.  I do not know whether any of
these are in common use.

> * Is the bignum code actually needed? 64-bit values seem to depend
> on 64-bit BFD and do 64-bit arithmetic, so I don't see how bignum
> code would ever need to kick in.

The bignum code is not limited to 64-bit values.  For example, it is
used to support the .octa pseudo-op.

Ian


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