Subject: Re: gcc-ada/gnat for Sparc64 ?
To: Seth Kurtzberg <seth@cql.com>
From: Mehul Sanghvi <mehul.sanghvi@gmail.com>
List: port-sparc64
Date: 02/11/2005 09:56:40
On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 20:09:19 -0700, Seth Kurtzberg <seth@cql.com> wrote:
> Hopefully you can find what you are looking for in binary form.
> Certainly, if it weren't for the Ada requirement, you would find them
> easily.  In case you can't find the binaries you need, the following
> information may be helpful.
> 

So far I haven't found any binaries for NetBSD-2.0/sparc64.  I might have
to tap you for that information on cross-compiling.

> 
> First, one caution, gcc-3.4 had at that time (which was a few months
> ago) some serious problems.  There was a minor release to gcc-4 that
> fixed a lot, but not all, of the problems.  If you do have to jump
> through these hoops to get a working compiler that includes ada, I would
> work with gcc 3.3.3.  Then, you can always use gcc-3.3.3 with ada
> support to build gcc-3.4.x.
>

Actually I don't care which version of gcc-3 it is.  What I'm trying to do
is make use of an U2 system that I have, by utilising it for doing gcc-4 builds
from the gcc cvs tree.  At least something "unofficial" for now, and once I am
familiar with things enough make it a contribution to the GCC folks as well
as the NetBSD pkgsrc folks.

Looking in pkgsrc, the dependencies for gcc3-ada and gcc34-ada are completely
wrong.  According to those dependencies, all you need is gcc and glibc.  There
is no dependency on gnat/Ada itself.  Of course I know better :)

 
> Ada support is a PITA (as you've obviously discovered) because you have
> to use the native version of gnat, and the cross compiled version of
> gnat, and to do that requires some monkeying around with the execution
> search path to use the version of gnat that gets you where you need to
> go.  It isn't really difficult, it is just poorly documented.
> 

So you compile on some other platform (a NetBSD platform obviously), creating
a whole cross-compiling toolchain, then using the cross-compiling toolchain,
you build the compilers, move them over to target system (netbsd-sparc64),
and then probably just for kicks, use the cross-compiled binaries to generate
the native binaries.  Did I get the jist of it correct ? 

I've not cross-compiled before, but could I build on a solaris-sparc system
so that I can run on a netbsd-sparc64 system ?  I don't have any other
netbsd-sparc64 systems nor any other netbsd systems.

> If you are unable to get there the easy way (by finding some binaries
> that have already been created, including Ada support) I have a
> reasonably detailed procedure that can be used to get where you need to
> go.  Since it is lengthy I won't eat up list bandwidth for it;  should
> you need it, drop me an email and I'll send the procedure to you.  (Or
> to anyone else, of course, burdened with Ada.)  Hopefully the binaries
> you need will be available.
> 

I'll ping you and let you know whether I need it or not.  It sure as heck
would make life easier if gnat was written in C :)  It could then go to any
platform that GCC goes to without worrying about anything too much.


cheers,

      mehul

-- 
Mehul N. Sanghvi
email: mehul.sanghvi@gmail.com