questions about adding target to Binutils source

[Nick Clifton]

Hi Jesse,

> 1. What's the benefit to add a new target to Binutils
> source?

The benefits are hard to quantify but they include such things as:

   * Allowing a wider audience than you might be able to otherwise be 
able to reach to have access to free tools for that particular target. 
This can encourage people to use that target which might result in 
sales, commissions or work for you.

   * Kudos for having created the port, and peer review of your work.

   * Contributing to the overall quality of the binutils project, and by 
extension free software in general.


Note - contributing a target to binutils does involve a cost.  In this 
case it is giving up the copyright on the files that you contribute and 
agreeing to sign this copyright over to the FSF.  This allows other 
people to see and modify the files that you contribute.


> 2. Is it allowable that modifying non-porting files
> such as \gas\write.c?

Yes, but you need to be able to justify such changes.  If the change is 
not a bug-fix but rather to support some feature required by your 
particular target then it is preferable to keep the changes to these 
generic files as small as possible.  This usually means adding a hook 
which will default to the current behaviour but which can be overridden 
on a per-target basis.


> 3. I work on a lower Binutils version(2.14). which cvs
> version should i check in the patches to?

The current sources in the mainline of the binutils CVS repository. 
(Which are effectively at version 2.16.91).


> Does future version support the new target?

Yes and no.  Whilst a target is maintained in a working condition it 
will be retained in binutils releases.  If a target is not maintained 
then it is likely that it will become obsolescent over time and 
eventually it will be removed from the mainline binutils sources.  It 
will still be in the CVS archive however so the sources will still be 
available should anyone be interested.


 > 4. Why should I look for someone to maintain the new
 > target? What is the job of the maintainer I should
 > look for?

Usually when a new target is contributed to binutils the contributer 
volunteers to be a maintainer for that target.  See the file 
binutils/MAINTAINERS for a list of such people.  A maintainer's duty is 
to make sure that their target continues to work as the sources change 
and new features are added, fix any target-specific bugs discovered by 
themselves or reported on the mailing lists, and if they wish, to 
improve the target support.

Cheers
   Nick