Details on this package are located in Section 10.15.2, “Contents of Binutils.”
The Binutils package contains a linker, an assembler, and other tools for handling object files.
It is important that Binutils be compiled before Glibc and GCC because both Glibc and GCC perform various tests on the available linker and assembler to determine which of their own features to enable.
The Binutils documentation recommends building Binutils outside of the source directory in a dedicated build directory:
mkdir -v ../binutils-build cd ../binutils-build
Prepare Binutils for compilation:
AR=ar AS=as ../binutils-2.21.1/configure \
--prefix=/cross-tools --host=${CLFS_HOST} --target=${CLFS_TARGET} \
--with-sysroot=${CLFS} --with-lib-path=/tools/lib --disable-nls --enable-shared \
--disable-multilib
The meaning of the configure options:
AR=ar
AS=as
This prevents Binutils from compiling with ${CLFS_HOST}-ar and ${CLFS_HOST}-as as they are provided by this package and therefore not installed yet.
--prefix=/cross-tools
This tells the configure script to prepare to install the
package in the /cross-tools
directory.
--host=${CLFS_HOST}
When used with --target, this creates a cross-architecture executable that creates files for ${CLFS_TARGET} but runs on ${CLFS_HOST}.
--target=${CLFS_TARGET}
When used with --host, this creates a cross-architecture executable that creates files for ${CLFS_TARGET} but runs on ${CLFS_HOST}.
--with-lib-path=/tools/lib
This tells the configure script to specify the library search
path during the compilation of Binutils, resulting in
/tools/lib being passed to the
linker. This prevents the linker from searching through
library directories on the host.
--disable-nls
This disables internationalization as i18n is not needed for the cross-compile tools.
--enable-shared
Enable the creation of the shared libraries.
--disable-multilib
This option disables the building of a multilib capable Binutils.
Compile the package:
make configure-host make
The meaning of the make options:
configure-host
This checks the host environment and makes sure all the necessary tools are available to compile Binutils.
Install the package:
make install
Copy libiberty.h to /tools/include directory:
cp -v ../binutils-2.21.1/include/libiberty.h /tools/include
Details on this package are located in Section 10.15.2, “Contents of Binutils.”