README for newlib-4.2.0 release (mostly cribbed from the README in the gdb-4.13 release) This is `newlib', a simple ANSI C library, math library, and collection of board support packages. Prior to the 3.0.0 release, newlib supported both ANSI and K&R-style compilers. As of 3.0.0, K&R is no longer supported. The newlib and libgloss subdirectories are a collection of software from several sources, each with their own copyright and license. See the file COPYING.NEWLIB for details. The rest of the release tree is under either the GNU GPL or LGPL licenses. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Unpacking and Installation -- quick overview ========================== When you unpack the newlib-4.2.0.tar.gz file, you'll find a directory called `newlib-4.2.0', which contains many files. Interesting ones: COPYING* - License files for the sources README - A common overview of all GNU development projects configure - The build script for configuring the source tree Makefile* - Inputs used by configure to generate the Makefile libgloss/ - The libgloss project newlib/ - The newlib project To build NEWLIB, you must follow the instructions in the section entitled "Compiling NEWLIB". This will configure and build all the libraries and crt0 (if one exists). If `configure' can't determine your host system type, specify one as its argument, e.g., sun4 or sun4sol2. NEWLIB is most often used in cross environments. NOTE THAT YOU MUST HAVE ALREADY BUILT AND INSTALLED GCC and BINUTILS. More Documentation ================== Newlib documentation is available on the net via: https://sourceware.org/newlib/docs.html All the documentation for NEWLIB comes as part of the machine-readable distribution. The documentation is written in Texinfo format, which is a documentation system that uses a single source file to produce both on-line information and a printed manual. You can use one of the Info formatting commands to create the on-line version of the documentation and TeX (or `texi2roff') to typeset the printed version. If you want to format these Info files yourself, you need one of the Info formatting programs, such as `texinfo-format-buffer' or `makeinfo'. If you want to typeset and print copies of this manual, you need TeX, a program to print its DVI output files, and `texinfo.tex', the Texinfo definitions file. TeX is a typesetting program; it does not print files directly, but produces output files called DVI files. To print a typeset document, you need a program to print DVI files. If your system has TeX installed, chances are it has such a program. The precise command to use depends on your system; `lpr -d' is common; another (for PostScript devices) is `dvips'. The DVI print command may require a file name without any extension or a `.dvi' extension. TeX also requires a macro definitions file called `texinfo.tex'. This file tells TeX how to typeset a document written in Texinfo format. On its own, TeX cannot read, much less typeset a Texinfo file. `texinfo.tex' is distributed with NEWLIB and is located in the `newlib-VERSION-NUMBER/texinfo' directory. Compiling NEWLIB ================ To compile NEWLIB, you must build it in a directory separate from the source directory. If you want to run NEWLIB versions for several host or target machines, you need a different `newlib' compiled for each combination of host and target. `configure' is designed to make this easy by allowing you to generate each configuration in a separate subdirectory. If your `make' program handles the `VPATH' feature correctly (like GNU `make') running `make' in each of these directories builds the `newlib' libraries specified there. To build `newlib' in a specific directory, run `configure' with the `--srcdir' option to specify where to find the source. (You also need to specify a path to find `configure' itself from your working directory. If the path to `configure' would be the same as the argument to `--srcdir', you can leave out the `--srcdir' option; it will be assumed.) For example, with version 4.2.0, you can build NEWLIB in a separate directory for a Sun 4 cross m68k-aout environment like this: cd newlib-4.2.0 mkdir ../newlib-m68k-aout cd ../newlib-m68k-aout ../newlib-4.2.0/configure --host=sun4 --target=m68k-aout make When `configure' builds a configuration using a remote source directory, it creates a tree for the binaries with the same structure (and using the same names) as the tree under the source directory. In the example, you'd find the Sun 4 library `libiberty.a' in the directory `newlib-m68k-aout/libiberty', and NEWLIB itself in `newlib-m68k-aout/newlib'. When you run `make' to build a program or library, you must run it in a configured directory--whatever directory you were in when you called `configure' (or one of its subdirectories). The `Makefile' that `configure' generates in each source directory also runs recursively. If you type `make' in a source directory such as `newlib-4.2.0' (or in a separate configured directory configured with `--srcdir=PATH/newlib-4.2.0'), you will build all the required libraries. When you have multiple hosts or targets configured in separate directories, you can run `make' on them in parallel (for example, if they are NFS-mounted on each of the hosts); they will not interfere with each other. By default, the execution of build rules in `make' is less verbose. To disable, run `make V=1'; or use the `--disable-silent-rules’ option of `./configure'. Specifying names for hosts and targets ====================================== The specifications used for hosts and targets in the `configure' script are based on a three-part naming scheme, but some short predefined aliases are also supported. The full naming scheme encodes three pieces of information in the following pattern: ARCHITECTURE-VENDOR-OS For example, you can use the alias `sun4' as a HOST argument or in a `--target=TARGET' option. The equivalent full name is `sparc-sun-sunos4'. The `configure' script accompanying NEWLIB does not provide any query facility to list all supported host and target names or aliases. `configure' calls the Bourne shell script `config.sub' to map abbreviations to full names; you can read the script, if you wish, or you can use it to test your guesses on abbreviations--for example: % sh config.sub sun4 sparc-sun-sunos4.1.1 % sh config.sub sun3 m68k-sun-sunos4.1.1 % sh config.sub decstation mips-dec-ultrix4.2 % sh config.sub hp300bsd m68k-hp-bsd % sh config.sub i386v i386-pc-sysv % sh config.sub i786v Invalid configuration `i786v': machine `i786v' not recognized The Build, Host and Target Concepts in newlib ============================================= The build, host and target concepts are defined for gcc as follows: build: the platform on which gcc is built. host: the platform on which gcc is run. target: the platform for which gcc generates code. Since newlib is a library, the target concept does not apply to it, and the build, host, and target options given to the top-level configure script must be changed for newlib's use. The build system shifts the options according to these correspondences: gcc's build platform has no equivalent in newlib. gcc's host platform is newlib's build platform. gcc's target platform is newlib's host platform. and as mentioned before, newlib has no concept of target. In summary: the --target=TARGET switch to the top-level configure script configures newlib's host platform. `configure' options =================== Here is a summary of the `configure' options and arguments that are most often useful for building NEWLIB. `configure' also has several other options not listed here. configure [--help] [--prefix=DIR] [--srcdir=PATH] [--target=TARGET] HOST You may introduce options with a single `-' rather than `--' if you prefer; but you may abbreviate option names if you use `--'. `--help' Display a quick summary of how to invoke `configure'. `--prefix=DIR' Configure the source to install programs and files in directory `DIR'. `--exec-prefix=DIR' Configure the source to install host-dependent files in directory `DIR'. `--srcdir=PATH' *Warning: using this option requires GNU `make', or another `make' that compatibly implements the `VPATH' feature. Use this option to make configurations in directories separate from the NEWLIB source directories. Among other things, you can use this to build (or maintain) several configurations simultaneously, in separate directories. `configure' writes configuration specific files in the current directory, but arranges for them to use the source in the directory PATH. `configure' will create directories under the working directory in parallel to the source directories below PATH. `--norecursion' Configure only the directory level where `configure' is executed; do not propagate configuration to subdirectories. `--target=TARGET' Configure NEWLIB for running on the specified TARGET. There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available targets. `HOST ...' Configure NEWLIB to be built using a cross compiler running on the specified HOST. There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available hosts. To fit diverse usage models, NEWLIB supports a group of configuration options so that library features can be turned on/off according to target system's requirements. One feature can be enabled by specifying `--enable-FEATURE=yes' or `--enable-FEATURE'. Or it can be disable by `--enable-FEATURE=no' or `--disable-FEATURE'. `--enable-newlib-io-pos-args' Enable printf-family positional arg support. Disabled by default, but some hosts enable it in configure.host. `--enable-newlib-io-c99-formats' Enable C99 support in IO functions like printf/scanf. Disabled by default, but some hosts enable it in configure.host. `--enable-newlib-register-fini' Enable finalization function registration using atexit. Disabled by default. `--enable-newlib-io-long-long' Enable long long type support in IO functions like printf/scanf. Disabled by default, but many hosts enable it in configure.host. `--enable-newlib-io-long-double' Enable long double type support in IO functions printf/scanf. Disabled by default, but some hosts enable it in configure.host. `--enable-newlib-mb' Enable multibyte support. Disabled by default. `--enable-newlib-iconv-encodings' Enable specific comma-separated list of bidirectional iconv encodings to be built-in. Disabled by default. `--enable-newlib-iconv-from-encodings' Enable specific comma-separated list of \"from\" iconv encodings to be built-in. Disabled by default. `--enable-newlib-iconv-to-encodings' Enable specific comma-separated list of \"to\" iconv encodings to be built-in. Disabled by default. `--enable-newlib-iconv-external-ccs' Enable capabilities to load external CCS files for iconv. Disabled by default. `--disable-newlib-atexit-dynamic-alloc' Disable dynamic allocation of atexit entries. Most hosts and targets have it enabled in configure.host. `--enable-newlib-reent-small' Enable small reentrant struct support. Disabled by default. `--enable-newlib-reent-binary-compat' Enable backward binary compatibility for struct _reent. If enabled, then unused members in struct _reent are preserved to maintain the structure layout. Disabled by default. `--enable-newlib-reent-thread-local' Enable thread-local storage objects as a replacement for struct _reent members. If enabled, then struct _reent is not defined and dedicated thread-local storage objects are provided for each member of the default struct _reent. For statically linked executables only the objects required by the application are linked in. Disabled by default. `--disable-newlib-fvwrite-in-streamio' NEWLIB implements the vector buffer mechanism to support stream IO buffering required by C standard. This feature is possibly unnecessary for embedded systems which won't change file buffering with functions like `setbuf' or `setvbuf'. The buffering mechanism still acts as default for STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR even if this option is specified. Enabled by default. `--disable-newlib-fseek-optimization' Disable fseek optimization. It can decrease code size of application calling `fseek`. Enabled by default. `--disable-newlib-wide-orient' C99 states that each stream has an orientation, wide or byte. This feature is possibly unnecessary for embedded systems which only do byte input/output operations on stream. It can decrease code size by disable the feature. Enabled by default. `--enable-newlib-nano-malloc' NEWLIB has two implementations of malloc family's functions, one in `mallocr.c' and the other one in `nano-mallocr.c'. This options enables the nano-malloc implementation, which is for small systems with very limited memory. Note that this implementation does not support `--enable-malloc-debugging' any more. Disabled by default. `--disable-newlib-unbuf-stream-opt' NEWLIB does optimization when `fprintf to write only unbuffered unix file'. It creates a temorary buffer to do the optimization that increases stack consumption by about `BUFSIZ' bytes. This option disables the optimization and saves size of text and stack. Enabled by default. `--enable-newlib-long-time_t' Define time_t to long. On platforms with a 32-bit long type, this gives raise to the year 2038 problem. The default type for time_t is a signed 64-bit integer on most systems. Disabled by default. `--enable-newlib-use-gdtoa' Use gdtoa rather than legacy ldtoa. gdtoa privides more accurate output and faster conversion than legacy ldtoa, while it requires more heap memory. gdtoa sometimes requires 16KB heap memory, so if the platform does not have enough heap memory, consider disabling this option. Legacy ldtoa also use heap, however, only 1KB memory is malloc'ed. In addition, if malloc fails, it still works, with less conversion accuracy. Enabled by default. `--enable-multilib' Build many library versions. Enabled by default. `--enable-target-optspace' Optimize for space. Disabled by default. `--enable-malloc-debugging' Indicate malloc debugging requested. Disabled by default. `--enable-newlib-multithread' Enable support for multiple threads. Enabled by default. `--enable-newlib-iconv' Enable iconv library support. Disabled by default. `--enable-newlib-elix-level' Supply desired elix library level (1-4). Please refer to HOWTO for more information about this option. Set to level 0 by default. `--disable-newlib-io-float' Disable printf/scanf family float support. Enabled by default. `--disable-newlib-supplied-syscalls' Disable newlib from supplying syscalls. Enabled by default. `--enable-lite-exit' Enable lite exit, a size-reduced implementation of exit that doesn't invoke clean-up functions such as _fini or global destructors. Disabled by default. `--enable-newlib-nano-formatted-io' This builds NEWLIB with a special implementation of formatted I/O functions, designed to lower the size of application on small systems with size constraint issues. This option does not affect wide-char formatted I/O functions. Some notes about the feature: 1) The non-wide-char formatted I/O functions only support the C89 standard. The only exception is the configuration option provides limited support for long double. Internally, the nano formatted I/O functions use double so accuracy is only guaranteed to double precision. 2) Floating-point support is split out of the formatted I/O code into weak functions which are not linked by default. Programs that need floating-point I/O support must explicitly request linking of one or both of the floating-point functions: _printf_float or _scanf_float. This can be done at link time using the -u option which can be passed to either gcc or ld. The -u option forces the link to resolve those function references. Floating-point format specifiers are recognized by default, but if the floating-point functions are not explicitly linked in, this may result in undefined behavior for programs that need floating-point I/O support. 3) Integer-only versions of the formatted I/O functions (the iprintf/ iscanf family) simply alias their regular counter-parts. The affected functions are: diprintf vdiprintf siprintf fiprintf iprintf sniprintf asiprintf asniprintf siscanf fiscanf iscanf viprintf vfiprintf vsiprintf vsniprintf vasiprintf vasniprintf viscanf vfiscanf vsiscanf _diprintf_r _vdiprintf_r _siprintf_r _fiprintf_r _iprintf_r _sniprintf_r _asiprintf_r _asniprintf_r _siscanf_r _fiscanf_r _iscanf_r _viprintf_r _vfiprintf_r _vsiprintf_r _asniprintf_r _vasiprintf_r _vasniprintf_r _viscanf_r _vfiscanf_r _vsiscanf_r 4) As mentioned, the option does not affect wide-char formatted I/O. The following configuration options are ignored for non-wide-char formatted I/O functions, and can be thought of as disabled. enable-newlib-io-pos-args enable-newlib-io-c99-formats enable-newlib-io-long-long enable-newlib-io-long-double enable-newlib-mb Additionally, "enable/disable-newlib-io-float" is supported in this specific implementation, one can use "disable-newlib-io-float" to further reduce code size. In this case, the floating-point specifiers will not be recognized or handled, and the -u option will not work either. 5) As a rule, no features from outside of C89 standard will be considered in this implementation. Disabled by default. Running the Testsuite ===================== To run newlib's testsuite, you'll need a site.exp in your home directory which points dejagnu to the proper baseboards directory and the proper exp file for your target. Before running make check-target-newlib, set the DEJAGNU environment variable to point to ~/site.exp. Here is a sample site.exp: # Make sure we look in the right place for the board description files. if ![info exists boards_dir] { set boards_dir {} } lappend boards_dir "your dejagnu/baseboards here" verbose "Global Config File: target_triplet is $target_triplet" 2 global target_list case "$target_triplet" in { { "mips-*elf*" } { set target_list "mips-sim" } default { set target_list { "unix" } } } mips-sim refers to an exp file in the baseboards directory. You'll need to add the other targets you're testing to the case statement. Now type make check-target-newlib in the top-level build directory to run the testsuite. Regenerating Configuration Files ================================ At times you will need to make changes to configure.ac, Makefile.am and Makefile.inc files. This will mean that configure and Makefile.in files will need to be regenerated. The easiest way to do so is by using the autoreconf tool in the newlib directory. autoreconf This will run a number of autotool programs for you. To see the individual steps, add the -v option. autoreconf -v It is strongly advised that you use an adequate version of autotools. For this latest release, the following were used: autoconf 2.69 and automake 1.15.1. Reporting Bugs ============== The correct address for reporting bugs found in NEWLIB is "newlib@sourceware.org". Please email all bug reports to that address. Please include the NEWLIB version number (e.g., newlib-4.2.0), and how you configured it (e.g., "sun4 host and m68k-aout target"). Since NEWLIB supports many different configurations, it is important that you be precise about this. Archives of the newlib mailing list are on-line, see https://sourceware.org/ml/newlib/