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From: Stering Wolfram (wolfram.stering_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-01-11 02:36:08


Vladimir,

>recently I was put into task to cross compile boost for ARM platform
>with GCC.
>
>My building platform is i386 Linux with gcc and cross compiling to arm
>Linux.
>
>

I had the very same problem for my Coldfire cross-build (target
"m68k-elf"), working under Windows XP using Cygwin.
I didn't find a "standard way" of doing a cross-build of boost in its
build documentation.

>Standard way for this kind of compilation is, that name of cross
>compiler (running under i386 but producing arm code) and all cross
>binary utilities are prefixed by target plarform, so like arm-linux-gcc,
>arm-linux-g++, arm-linux-ar, arm-linux-objcopy for arm-linux.
>
>

This applies when using the GNU toolchain. But nowadays, most cross
compilers are gcc based.

>And this is causing a bit of problem with boost.
>
>I can force GCC and GXX, but still have a problem with ar and objcopy.
>
>I've tried to setup GCC_BIN_DIRECTORY but it didn't work.
>
>

I did basically the same thing to tools/build/v1/gcc-tools.jam as you
did, at least with respect to ar and objcopy being available as
variables that can be set on jam command line.
I then used "-sGXX=m68k-elf-g++ -sGCC=m68k-elf-gcc -sAR=m68k-elf-ar" on
my build command line.

Additionally, I added support for selecting the CPU model
(architecture/instruction-set) by adding the following:
(I don't know how/why this works, just imitated the respective block for
other architectures).
Perhaps, boost build system should support (kind of) multilib builds for
cross compilation, in a similar way that gcc/g++ does when
cross-compiling it for targets where this applies?

This enabled me to add
"-sBUILD=debug release <runtime-link>static <optimization>size
<architecture>m68k <instruction-set>5200"
to the build command line for a Coldfire cross-build. It even somehow
worked, as gcc got called with the correct -m option...

# Coldfire and other m68k (WS, Tue Dec 20 16:46:10 2005).
.ARCH = <architecture>m68k <architecture>native ;
flags gcc CFLAGS <architecture>m68k/<instruction-set>default : -m5200 ;
flags gcc CFLAGS <architecture>m68k/<instruction-set>68000 : -m68000 ;
flags gcc CFLAGS <architecture>m68k/<instruction-set>5200 : -m5200 ;
flags gcc CFLAGS <architecture>m68k/<instruction-set>5206e : -m5206e ;
flags gcc CFLAGS <architecture>m68k/<instruction-set>528x : -m528x ;
flags gcc CFLAGS <architecture>m68k/<instruction-set>5307 : -m5307 ;
flags gcc CFLAGS <architecture>m68k/<instruction-set>5407 : -m5407 ;
flags gcc CFLAGS <architecture>m68k/<instruction-set>cpu32 : -mcpu32 ;
flags gcc CFLAGS <architecture>m68k/<instruction-set>68040 : -m68040 ;
flags gcc CFLAGS <architecture>m68k/<instruction-set>68060 : -m68060 ;
flags gcc CFLAGS <architecture>m68k/<instruction-set>soft-float :
-msoft-float ;

>So I've done a small patch to tools/build/v1/gcc-tools.jam adding
>GCC_PREFIX variable, that if set up, will prefix names of all tools with
>that prefix.
>
>So I can compile boost with
>
>bjam -sTOOLS=gcc -sGCC_PREFIX=arm-linux- stage
>
>

Ah, your approach with using GCC_PREFIX is even better!
Perhaps call it "-sCROSS_TARGET=arm-linux" ?

>May be it will be useful to add the same functionality to
>gcc-stlport-tools.jam or mingw.
>
>So please find attached changes.
>
>It is possible to include them into next boost release?
>
>
I strongly vote for integrating cross-compilation support (at least
using GNU toolchain, after all that's what most use!) in the Boost build
system. But I don't know or use jam or bjam (other than building (parts
of) boost itself), so unfortunately I would be of little help... :-(
I replied to the post becuase somone else might find the information
helpful as well, I hope.

>By the way, the same problem appears when boost jam is used to compile
>some third-party libraries. Is this place good to talk about boost jam
>and its Jambase file?
>
>
Probably move to the boost-build list?

-wolfi

-- 
DI Wolfram Stering
(Entwicklung)
HALE electronic GmbH., Salzburg, Austria
  Tel: +43 (662) 439011 550
  Fax: +43 (662) 439011 9
Email: wolfram.stering_at_[hidden]

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