Linux From Scratch - Version 5.1

Chapter 5. Constructing a temporary system
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Binutils-2.14 - Pass 1

The Binutils package contains a linker, an assembler, and other tools for handling object files.

Approximate build time:  1.0 SBU
Required disk space:     170 MB

Binutils installation depends on: Bash, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Perl, Sed, Texinfo.

Installation of Binutils

It is important that Binutils be the first package to get compiled, because both Glibc and GCC perform various tests on the available linker and assembler to determine which of their own features to enable.

This package is known to behave badly when you change its default optimization flags (including the -march and -mcpu options). Therefore, if you have defined any environment variables that override default optimizations, such as CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, we recommend un-setting them when building Binutils.

The Binutils documentation recommends building Binutils outside of the source directory in a dedicated build directory:

mkdir ../binutils-build
cd ../binutils-build
[Note]

Note

If you want the SBU values listed in the rest of the book to be of any use, you will have to measure the time it takes to build this package -- from the configuration up to and including the first install. To achieve this easily, you could wrap the four commands in a time command like this: time { ./configure ... && ... && ... && make install; }.

Now prepare Binutils for compilation:

../binutils-2.14/configure --prefix=/tools --disable-nls

The meaning of the configure options:

  • --prefix=/tools: This tells the configure script to prepare to install the Binutils programs in the /tools directory.

  • --disable-nls: This disables internationalization (a word often shortened to i18n). We don't need this for our static programs and nls often causes problems when linking statically.

Continue with compiling the package:

make configure-host
make LDFLAGS="-all-static"

The meaning of the make parameters:

  • configure-host: This forces all the subdirectories to be configured immediately. A statically linked build will fail without it. We therefore use this option to work around the problem.

  • LDFLAGS="-all-static": This tells the linker that all the Binutils programs should be linked statically. However, strictly speaking, "-all-static" is passed to the libtool program, which then passes "-static" to the linker.

Compilation is complete. Normally we would now run the test suite, but at this early stage the test suite framework (Tcl, Expect and DejaGnu) is not yet in place. And there would be little point in running the tests anyhow, since the programs from this first pass will soon be replaced by those from the second.

Now install the package:

make install

Now prepare the linker for the “Adjusting” phase later on:

make -C ld clean
make -C ld LDFLAGS="-all-static" LIB_PATH=/tools/lib

The meaning of the make parameters:

  • -C ld clean: This tells the make program to remove all the compiled files in the ld subdirectory.

  • -C ld LDFLAGS="-all-static" LIB_PATH=/tools/lib: This option rebuilds everything in the ld subdirectory. Specifying the LIB_PATH makefile variable on the command line allows us to override the default value and have it point to our temporary tools location. The value of this variable specifies the linker's default library search path. You will see how this preparation is used later on in the chapter.

[Warning]

Warning

Do not yet remove the Binutils build and source directories. You will need them again in their current state a bit further on in this chapter.

The details on this package are found in the section called “Contents of Binutils”.

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