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diff --git a/docs/1 - Introduction.txt b/docs/1 - Introduction.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ae0b0af1..00000000 --- a/docs/1 - Introduction.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,111 +0,0 @@ -File.........: 1 - Introduction.txt -Copyright....: (C) 2010 Yann E. MORIN <yann.morin.1998@free.fr> -License......: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC-by-sa), v2.5 - - -Introduction / -_____________/ - - -crosstool-NG aims at building toolchains. Toolchains are an essential component -in a software development project. It will compile, assemble and link the code -that is being developed. Some pieces of the toolchain will eventually end up -in the resulting binary/ies: static libraries are but an example. - -So, a toolchain is a very sensitive piece of software, as any bug in one of the -components, or a poorly configured component, can lead to execution problems, -ranging from poor performance, to applications ending unexpectedly, to -mis-behaving software (which more than often is hard to detect), to hardware -damage, or even to human risks (which is more than regrettable). - -Toolchains are made of different piece of software, each being quite complex -and requiring specially crafted options to build and work seamlessly. This -is usually not that easy, even in the not-so-trivial case of native toolchains. -The work reaches a higher degree of complexity when it comes to cross- -compilation, where it can become quite a nightmare... - -Some cross-toolchains exist on the internet, and can be used for general -development, but they have a number of limitations: - - they can be general purpose, in that they are configured for the majority: - no optimisation for your specific target, - - they can be prepared for a specific target and thus are not easy to use, - nor optimised for, or even supporting your target, - - they often are using aging components (compiler, C library, etc...) not - supporting special features of your shiny new processor; -On the other side, these toolchain offer some advantages: - - they are ready to use and quite easy to install and setup, - - they are proven if used by a wide community. - -But once you want to get all the juice out of your specific hardware, you will -want to build your own toolchain. This is where crosstool-NG comes into play. - -There are also a number of tools that build toolchains for specific needs, -which are not really scalable. Examples are: - - buildroot (buildroot.uclibc.org) whose main purpose is to build root file - systems, hence the name. But once you have your toolchain with buildroot, - part of it is installed in the root-to-be, so if you want to build a whole - new root, you either have to save the existing one as a template and - restore it later, or restart again from scratch. This is not convenient, - - ptxdist (www.pengutronix.de/software/ptxdist), whose purpose is very - similar to buildroot, - - other projects (openembedded.org for example), which are again used to - build root file systems. - -crosstool-NG is really targeted at building toolchains, and only toolchains. -It is then up to you to use it the way you want. - - -History | ---------+ - -crosstool was first 'conceived' by Dan Kegel, who offered it to the community -as a set of scripts, a repository of patches, and some pre-configured, general -purpose setup files to be used to configure crosstool. This is available at -http://www.kegel.com/crosstool, and the subversion repository is hosted on -google at http://code.google.com/p/crosstool/. - -Yann E. MORIN once managed to add support for uClibc-based toolchains, but it -did not make into mainline, mostly because Yann didn't have time to port the -patch forward to the new versions, due in part to the big effort it was taking. - -So Yann decided to clean up crosstool in the state it was, re-order the things -in place, add appropriate support for what Yann needed, that is uClibc support -and a menu-driven configuration, named the new implementation crosstool-NG, -(standing for crosstool Next Generation, as many other community projects do, -and as a wink at the TV series "Star Trek: The Next Generation" ;-) ) and -made it available to the community, in case it was of interest to any one. - -In late 2014, Yann became very busy with buildroot and other projects, and so -Bryan Hundven opted to become the new maintainer for crosstool-NG. - - -Referring to crosstool-NG | ---------------------------+ - -The long name of the project is crosstool-NG: - * no leading uppercase (except as first word in a sentence) - * crosstool and NG separated with a hyphen (dash) - * NG in uppercase - -Crosstool-NG can also be referred to by its short name CT-NG: - * all in uppercase - * CT and NG separated with a hyphen (dash) - -The long name is preferred over the short name, except in mail subjects, where -the short name is a better fit. - -When referring to a specific version of crosstool-NG, append the version number -either as: - * crosstool-NG X.Y.Z - - the long name, a space, and the version string - * crosstool-ng-X.Y.Z - - the long name in lowercase, a hyphen (dash), and the version string - - this is used to name the release tarballs - * crosstool-ng-X.Y.Z+hg_id - - the long name in lowercase, a hyphen, the version string, and the Hg id - (as returned by: ct-ng version) - - this is used to differentiate between releases and snapshots - -The frontend to crosstool-NG is the command ct-ng: - * all in lowercase - * ct and ng separated by a hyphen (dash) |