GCCSDK

Introduction

GCC

GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is a free collection of compilers that provide the user with a powerful tool for translating C, C++ and Fortran source into fast ARM code that is suitable for execution on RISC OS as application or module. GCC is the common shorthand term for the GNU Compiler Collection. This is both the most general name for the compiler and the name used when the emphasis is on compiling C programs.

There also exist front ends for other languages, such as Objective C, Ada 9X, Modula-3, Pascal, Cobol and Java, however these have not been ported to run on RISC OS.

GCCSDK

GCC Software Development Kit (GCCSDK) is a portable build environment for creating ARM executables to be run natively on RISC OS. The build environment is designed to be hosted on a Unix-like system, such as GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MacOS X or even Windows (under Cygwin). GCCSDK releases are tied-in with the corresponding GCC releases.

GCCSDK can be used to compile and develop GCC and UnixLib itself, or as the basis for a cross-compiling system, like the Autobuilder, for building programs and libraries that would be difficult to do on RISC OS.

Autobuilder

Using the GCCSDK build environment the Autobuiler is a set of wrapper scripts allowing you to easily cross-compile programs and libraries. Autobuilder scripts were developed as part of the Unix Porting Project and are now part of, and further developed in, the GCCSDK project.

Compiling on RISC OS

Setup

GCC is very easy to setup on RISC OS. The following is what you need to get started with a fully working C compiler.

• Download GCC base, C Compiler and GCC documentation.
• Unpack these 3 archives to the same place, to a !gcc application.
• Download system modules. You can drop this over your existing !System, but we strongly recommend using a system merge utility.
• Double-click on !gcc - if nothing untoward happens, you're ready to go.

Additional languages and tools

You may also wish to install one or more of the following components as well :

• C++ compiler
• Fortran compiler
• various utils (bison, make, zip, gzip, flex, diff, ...)
• CMunge, a module header creation tool (CMHG clone).

Tutorial

Now you can try the GCC tutorial or read the accompanying documentation inside the !gcc application, which shows you some simple examples of creating RISC OS applications and RISC OS modules.

Useful programs

The following list contains useful programs helping you to develop with GCC on RISC OS :

• Sourcery : Sourcery will manage the source code that makes up a project but it will also manage the various resources files that are required to produce a RISC OS application. These include Sprite, Message and Template files.

Cross-compiling for RISC OS

Cross-compiling for RISC OS is done by using GCCSDK on Unix-alike host system, such as GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MacOS X or even Windows (under Cygwin). You check-out the GCCSDK project and follow the instructions for cross-compilation in the gcc/README file.

GCCSDK GCC Releases

All recent GCCSDK GCC Releases can be found at [1]. Details on what is changed in each release can be found at GCCSDK Releases.

Mailing list

A mailing list exists for GCCSDK discussions. To join it, send mail to majordomo@gccsdk.riscos.info with the following content in the message body:

subscribe gcc

A complete archive of the list can be found here.

Bug reporting

To keep track of bugs in GCCSDK we are using a bug-tracking system. It is preferable to use this rather than e-mailing in order to avoid mails getting lost in our rather large inboxes and also in order to have an overview of any outstanding issues.

GCCSDK Source Repository

Until beginning of March 2006 all our GCCSDK source code was managed using CVS. At that point we converted our CVS repository into a Subversion repository and are no longer using CVS. Details how to access GCCSDK source repository can be found at our source repositories overview.