Porting GCC

[Dandee Yuyo]

Would it be to complex to port GCC to my OS once it's finished?

Has anyone tried this? Tips? Hints? Suggestions?

I'm also considering SmallC as an option... ...but I do want C++

[Yexo]

That depends heavily on when you consider your os finished. Once you have a completed c library ported to your os, it should be relative easy.

[maverick777]

yeah getting a full gcc port would be a great achievement for a solo dev , good luck with it !

[Dandee Yuyo]

Well, that's why I'm asking for some input, as to have an idea of the implied cost. I read somewhere on this forum that it was easier to port newlib than gcc's libc, so someone might already have done this.

btw, DJ Delorie ported GCC to the Windows platform...

[AJ]

Hi,

Have you read OS Specific Toolchain? Its worth it if you are considering porting GCC.

Cheers,
Adam[/wiki]

[Dandee Yuyo]

Thanks AJ! That's exactly what I was looking for

[jnc100]

Have you read OS Specific Toolchain? Its worth it if you are considering porting GCC.

I'm glad you said that, I was thinking I'd have to promote myself again

The tutorial linked to will get you as far as creating a cygwin/linux hosted gcc/binutils/newlib that targets your os. Once you have that, you'd need to then use that toolchain to create native apps that actually run on your os. Of course one of these could be gcc, which in theory should compile and run with any standard c library (and you'll have just compiled newlib). Therefore, once you have finished the tutorial, using the same (modified) sources, you should be able to do something like

Code: Select all

../binutils/configure --target=i586-pc-myos --host=i586-pc-myos

and similarly for gcc. You'd need to make sure i586-pc-myos-gcc/as/ld etc are somewhere in your cygwin/linux $PATH. Obviously specify a different prefix to install the myos hosted apps in, then copy to whatever filesystem your os uses. This isn't in the wiki because I haven't verified that it works. Once you have that, all you need is an os that can load and execute programs and supports all the necessary syscalls.

Regards,
John.

[Solar]

I read somewhere on this forum that it was easier to port newlib than gcc's libc...

GCC doesn't have a libc. You are probably referring to the glibc, which isn't related to GCC (aside from being a GNU project).

[Dandee Yuyo]

You are probably referring to the glibc, which isn't related to GCC

Yes, you are right Solar. I was particulary referring to this thread:

http://www.osdev.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15089

[AJ]

I'm glad you said that, I was thinking I'd have to promote myself again

I'm quite happy to promote it having got it working with (relatively) little problem (just one question about it on the forum - not too bad )

Cheers,
Adam

[AndrewAPrice]

If you've ported a C standard library like Newlib, then it would be easy to get Binutils and GCC up and running.