Re: [ANNOUNCE] OSELAS.Toolchain() 1.1.0 released

[Robert Schwebel <robert at schwebel dot de>]

Hi Kai,

On Tue, Mar 06, 2007 at 01:10:36PM +0200, Kai Ruottu wrote:
> > Hildesheim, Germany - Pengutronix has released version 1.1.0 of the
> > Open Source GNU toolchain build system OSELAS.Toolchain(). It can be
> > used to build cross compilers for a variety of embedded Linux
> > systems,
>
> Can you elaborate this? Is for instance the OpenWRT an "embedded
> Linux system"?

Yes, sure. OSELAS.Toolchain() just produces "standard" cross gcc
toolchains, and you can do whatever you want with it. Even build
OpenWRT, if that works with a normal gcc cross toolchain :-)

> And can producing fully working apps using crosscompiling to this
> already existing Linux be possible in any way?

I don't know OpenWRT, but what you basically need to do is to build a
toolchain which is compatible to your kernel, i.e. if your kernel is
only capable to running OABI binaries, you need an OABI toolchain; dito
with softfloat etc. But that's nothing specific to OSELAS.Toolchain().

> For me this looks being one of these "Linux from scratch" approaches,
> not producing crosstools for any existing systems! 

Well, it depends on what you think of as "existing systems". Please
don't mix up OSELAS.Toolchain() with PTXdist; the latter one is a tool
which builds Linux systems in a well defined way (think "executable
documentation", not distribution), and it uses the toolchains from
OSELAS.Toolchain() (which also happens to be built with PTXdist).

> That it really isn't aimed for cases where the target system already
> exists and the toolchain builder has no aims to replace any runtime
> parts (kernel, glibc, GUI-runtimes,...) on the target, should be
> CLEARLY told so that no misunderstandings about the purpose of the
> "toolchain build system" would appear!

OSELAS.Toolchain() is a system to build cross toolchains, not more and
not less. If your special target distribution has problems with certain
standard GNU toolchains, it is a problem of that specific target distro.

> > As we don't want to split the community in any way, we suggest that
> > for discussions related to OSELAS.Toolchain() the crosstool mailing
> > list is used, being the main community ressource for cross toolchain
> > related topics. Please check the OSELAS.Toolchain() project page for
> > how to find the crosstool mailing list.
>
> Nothing like a separate maillist for 'crosstool' was seen !  Instead
> there was :
> 
> -------- clip ------------------
> 
> This project has no own mailing list. Please use the crossgcc mailing 
> list for all OSELAS.Toolchain() related questions.
> 
>       http://sources.redhat.com/ml/crossgcc/
> -------- clip ------------------
>
> The "crossgcc" maillist purpose is told to be :
> 
>    It is a list for discussing embedded ('cross') programming using
>    the GNU tools.

Historically, this list has been used for cross toolchain building
related topics, so I think the discussions belong here. If the list
owners think otherwhise, just let us know and I'll remove the above
statement (I'll change the text to be more precise wrt. crossgcc vs.
crosstool).

> Nothing hints about any "crosstool-only" purposes! Traditionally the
> crossgcc maillist has been for discussion about "toolchains for
> embedded systems", and my thought is that it could be better to
> remain being that. 

Where do you see the difference?

> Now all this discussion about cross GCCs seems to have moved to the
> 'gcc-help' maillist and somewhere else, even the discussion for those
> "newlib based" crosstoolchains, which still by the definition at
> 'sources.redhat.com', should be the main subject on the crossgcc
> maillist!

I didn't even know the gcc-help mailing list until now; it also may be
an adequate forum. It's just that this list has historically always been
the "crosstool" discussion list, and we see OSELAS.Toolchain() aiming at
the same topic.

Robert
-- 
 Dipl.-Ing. Robert Schwebel | http://www.pengutronix.de
 Pengutronix - Linux Solutions for Science and Industry
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