Am I crazy? Does newlib build nothing?

[Jeff Johnston]

On 08/04/2011 04:36 PM, Bryan Ischo wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I have had a very interesting time trying to get a gcc cross-compiler
> for mips built. I'm perhaps more frustrated than I have ever been in my
> 39 years of existence, so if my tone reflects that, I apologize in advance.
>
> I'll spare everyone on the list my long litany of complaints and
> problems getting anything at all to work with a gcc cross-compile; I'd
> like to focus on a particular problem that has be absolutely baffled.
>
> I have tried, as an experiment, to build newlib on a couple of different
> systems because the results I am getting are impossible for me to
> comprehend.
>
> Simply put, when I build newlib ... nothing happens. Well, almost nothing.
>
> I can download any old version of newlib you like from this location:
>
> ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/newlib/index.html
>
> (I've tried 1.19.0, 1.14.0, and 1.9.0).
>
> I unzip/untar the archive, make myself a newlib-build directory, and run
> the newlib configure to build a Makefile in my newlib-build directory.
>
> Then I run make and very little happens. Example:
>
> bji$ mkdir foo
> bji$ cd foo
> bji/foo$ wget --quiet
> ftp://sources.redhat.com/pub/newlib/newlib-1.19.0.tar.gz
> bji/foo$ tar zxf newlib-1.19.0.tar.gz
> bji/foo$ mkdir newlib-build
> cd bji/foo$ cd newlib-build
> bji/foo/newlib-build$ ../newlib-1.19.0/configure 2>&1> configure.out
> bji/foo/newlib-build$ make
> make[1]: Entering directory `/home/bji/foo/newlib-build'
> mkdir -p -- ./etc
> Configuring in ./etc
> configure: creating cache ./config.cache
> checking for a BSD-compatible install... /bin/install -c
> configure: updating cache ./config.cache
> configure: creating ./config.status
> config.status: creating Makefile
> make[2]: Entering directory `/home/bji/foo/newlib-build/etc'
> for f in standards.info configure.info; do \
> if test -f ../../newlib-1.19.0/etc/`echo $f | sed -e
> 's/.info$/.texi/'`; then \
> if make "MAKEINFO=makeinfo --split-size=5000000
> --split-size=5000000" $f; then \
> true; \
> else \
> exit 1; \
> fi; \
> fi; \
> done
> make[3]: Entering directory `/home/bji/foo/newlib-build/etc'
> makeinfo --split-size=5000000 --split-size=5000000 --no-split
> -I../../newlib-1.19.0/etc -o standards.info
> ../../newlib-1.19.0/etc/standards.texi
> make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/bji/foo/newlib-build/etc'
> make[3]: Entering directory `/home/bji/foo/newlib-build/etc'
> rm -f configdev.txt configbuild.txt
> cp ../../newlib-1.19.0/etc/configdev.tin configdev.txt
> cp ../../newlib-1.19.0/etc/configbuild.tin configbuild.txt
> makeinfo --split-size=5000000 --split-size=5000000
> -I../../newlib-1.19.0/etc -o configure.info
> ../../newlib-1.19.0/etc/configure.texi
> rm -f configdev.txt configbuild.txt
> make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/bji/foo/newlib-build/etc'
> make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/bji/foo/newlib-build/etc'
> make[1]: Nothing to be done for `all-target'.
> make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/bji/foo/newlib-build'
> bji/foo/newlib-build$
>
> I have elided the tar operation and also the configure above to keep the
> output readable; here is the output of the configure script just in case
> it indicates a problem:
>
> bji/foo/newlib-build$ cat configure.out
> checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
> checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
> checking target system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
> checking for a BSD-compatible install... /bin/install -c
> checking whether ln works... yes
> checking whether ln -s works... yes
> checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
> checking for gawk... gawk
> checking for gcc... gcc
> checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
> checking whether the C compiler works... yes
> checking whether we are cross compiling... no
> checking for suffix of executables...
> checking for suffix of object files... o
> checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
> checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
> checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
> checking for g++... g++
> checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
> checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
> checking for gnatbind... no
> checking for gnatmake... no
> checking whether compiler driver understands Ada... no
> checking how to compare bootstrapped objects... cmp --ignore-initial=16
> $$f1 $$f2
> checking for objdir... .libs
> checking for version 0.10 (or later revision) of PPL... yes
> checking for installed CLooG PPL Legacy... no
> checking for default BUILD_CONFIG...
> checking for bison... bison -y
> checking for bison... bison
> checking for gm4... no
> checking for gnum4... no
> checking for m4... m4
> checking for flex... flex
> checking for flex... flex
> checking for makeinfo... makeinfo
> checking for expect... expect
> checking for runtest... no
> checking for ar... ar
> checking for as... as
> checking for dlltool... no
> checking for ld... ld
> checking for lipo... no
> checking for nm... nm
> checking for ranlib... ranlib
> checking for strip... strip
> checking for windres... no
> checking for windmc... no
> checking for objcopy... objcopy
> checking for objdump... objdump
> checking for cc... cc
> checking for c++... c++
> checking for gcc... gcc
> checking for gcj... no
> checking for gfortran... no
> checking for gccgo... no
> checking for ar... ar
> checking for as... as
> checking for dlltool... no
> checking for ld... ld
> checking for lipo... no
> checking for nm... nm
> checking for objdump... objdump
> checking for ranlib... ranlib
> checking for strip... strip
> checking for windres... no
> checking for windmc... no
> checking where to find the target ar... host tool
> checking where to find the target as... host tool
> checking where to find the target cc... host tool
> checking where to find the target c++... host tool
> checking where to find the target c++ for libstdc++... host tool
> checking where to find the target dlltool... host tool
> checking where to find the target gcc... host tool
> checking where to find the target gcj... host tool
> checking where to find the target gfortran... host tool
> checking where to find the target gccgo... host tool
> checking where to find the target ld... host tool
> checking where to find the target lipo... host tool
> checking where to find the target nm... host tool
> checking where to find the target objdump... host tool
> checking where to find the target ranlib... host tool
> checking where to find the target strip... host tool
> checking where to find the target windres... host tool
> checking where to find the target windmc... host tool
> checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
> checking whether -fkeep-inline-functions is supported... yes
> configure: creating ./config.status
> config.status: creating Makefile
>
>
> I have done this on three separate systems:
>
> 1. A 64 bit x86 Linux system with gcc 4.6.0
> 2. A 32 bit x86 Linux system with gcc 4.6.0
> 3. A 32 bit x86 Linux system with gcc 4.3.2
>
> I am extremely baffled about why newlib build just doesn't do anything
> interesting; I mean it builds its "etc" but doesn't actually build any
> libc library of any kind.
>
> For what it's worth, I've tried building gcc with the newlib sources
> copied into it and with --with-newlib but that doesn't seem to build
> newlib either.
>
> Any help at all would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Bryan
>

By default, newlib isn't configured to be built natively.  That is 
glibc's domain.

That said, you can build newlib on a 32-bit x86 Linux system if you 
specify --with-newlib on the configuration with
--target=i686-pc-linux-gnu

x86_64 linux won't work at this time.  I think it might work if the code 
were set up to allow the configuration and then force newlib to use the 
x86 machine sub-directories (there are no x86_64 machine subdirectories 
in newlib/libc/sys/linux).

-- Jeff J.