Return to README CVS log

Up to [Early binutils] / binutils

Annotation of binutils/README, revision 1.1.1.3

1.1       root        1: These files are some GNU utilities for operating on binary files.
1.1.1.3 ! root        2: GNU make, which used to be included here, is now distributed
1.1       root        3: in a separate tar file.
                      4: 
1.1.1.3 ! root        5: Report bugs in these programs to [email protected].
        !             6: Please note in the bug report which version of the binutils you are
        !             7: using.  Prior to version 1.7, the versions were identified by the top
        !             8: line of the ChangeLog.
1.1.1.2   root        9: 
                     10: Define USG with `-DUSG' when compiling these programs to run on system V.
                     11: 
                     12: COFF is not supported, but we do support a way of encapsulating GNU
                     13: executable files with COFF headers.  Use -DCOFF_ENCAPSULATE when you
                     14: compile, to enable this feature.
                     15: 
                     16: In order to use encapsulation, you must use entirely GNU tools,
                     17: including these plus GAS, GCC and GDB.  You will need to convert the
                     18: system libraries to BSD object file format.  Use the shell script
                     19: libconvert (which uses robotussin) for that.
                     20: 
                     21: The GNU version of ld has some interesting features:
1.1       root       22: 
                     23: 1. Undefined and multiply-defined global symbol errors
                     24: are now associated with specific source files and line numbers,
                     25: and printed in a format M-x next-error can parse.
                     26: 
                     27: 2. Normally no output is written if there are serious errors.
                     28: Use the option `-noinhibit-exec' if you want an output file anyway.
                     29: 
                     30: 3. Global symbols can be defined by indirection to other symbols.
                     31: See comments at definition of N_INDR in ld.c
                     32: 
                     33: 4. LD can accumulate sets of related values from all the object files
                     34: that are being linked together, and put them into a vector that can
                     35: be accessed at run time.  Thus, you can arrange for each file to have
                     36: initializations to be run when your `main' function sees fit, without
                     37: having to know the names of all the files that are linked together.
                     38: See comments at definition of N_SETA, etc., in ld.c.

This archive runs on limited infrastructure. Preserving old code on modern bandwidth. Automated agents are requested to crawl responsibly.