Re: [PATCH] Workaround ARM VFP issue

[Kyle Tinker <ktinker at workforcesoftware dot com>]

Chung-Lin,

First of all, THANK you for even looking at this.  I know the toolchain 
is pretty^H^H^H^H^H^H *really* old.

I will definitely try to compile this and let you know the results. 
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of control over the toolchain, as it's 
not mine--I'm using one provided by a vendor.  I'll see what I can do to 
update or get binutils updated.  I know that I've hit a number of 
compiler issues (in both this project and others) due to the toolchain 
being ancient. :(

Give me a few hours/days and I'll get the results back to you.

Thanks,
*Kyle Tinker* *|* *Software Developer* *|* *WorkForce Software*
*|* P: (734) 742-2616 *|* F: (734) 542-0635
*|* ktinker@workforcesoftware.com <mailto:ktinker@workforcesoftware.com>

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From: Chung-Lin Tang <cltang@codesourcery.com>
Sent: Tue, Mar 06, 2012 7:37 AM
To: libffi-discuss@sourceware.org <libffi-discuss@sourceware.org>
CC: "green@moxielogic.com" <green@moxielogic.com>, Kyle Tinker 
<ktinker@workforcesoftware.com>
Subject: [PATCH] Workaround ARM VFP issue


> This is patch to workaround the issue mentioned in this thread:
> http://sourceware.org/ml/libffi-discuss/2012/msg00038.html
>
> The issue is not really that soft-float is broken, but rather the
> toolchain used is simply too old, not really because it is old-ABI, but
> too old a version of binutils; the .fpu directive, nor VFP instructions
> are supported in the assembler, hence even building of the VFP
> call/closure shims fail.
>
> This patch is sort of a least attempt to shield away the VFP stuff when
> __ARM_EABI__ is not defined. I apologize for such a token workaround, as
> it can probably be optimized a bit more, but I just feel it's not
> worthwhile; even GCC (recent versions) assumes such assembler features.
>
> Kyle, can you please see if the patch can work for you? If in case it
> doesn't, I might also suggest that you try to rebuild your toolchain
> with a newer binutils version (at least post circa 2005), which should
> at least not fail to build the library.
>
> Thanks,
> Chung-Lin
>
> 2012-03-06  Chung-Lin Tang<cltang@codesourcery.com>
>
> 	* src/arm/ffi.c (ffi_call): Add __ARM_EABI__ guard around call
> 	to ffi_call_VFP().
> 	(ffi_prep_closure_loc): Add __ARM_EABI__ guard around use of
> 	ffi_closure_VFP.
> 	* src/arm/sysv.S: Add __ARM_EABI__ guard around VFP code.