Subject: binutils 2.8.1.0.3 for linux is released. (fwd)

From: Philip Blundell <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 1 Jun 1997 01:02:05 +0100 (BST)

Hi guys.

Please check it out.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 16:49:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: "H.J. Lu" <[email-masked]>
To: Philip Blundell <[email-masked]>
Cc: Kenneth Albanowski <[email-masked]>,
    Kenneth Osterberg <[email-masked]>, [email-masked],
    Mat Hostetter <[email-masked]>,
    Andy Dougherty <[email-masked]>,
    Brian Bourgault <[email-masked]>,
    "John W. Christy" <[email-masked]>,
    Craig Groeschel <[email-masked]>, Warner Losh <[email-masked]>,
    Rob Farnum <[email-masked]>, Michael Meissner <[email-masked]>,
    Ron Guilmette <[email-masked]>, Thomas Roell <[email-masked]>,
    Craig Burley <[email-masked]>,
    John Polstra <[email-masked]>,
    Simon Shapiro <[email-masked]>,
    Galen Hazelwood <[email-masked]>, David Engel <[email-masked]>,
    linuxgcc <[email-masked]>,
    GNU C Library <[email-masked]>
Subject: binutils 2.8.1.0.3 for linux is released.

This is the beta release of binutils 2.8.1.0.3 for Linux, which is
based on the binutils 970531 snapshot plus Linux/ARM support. You also
need libc 5.4.25 to use the precompiled binaries for libc 5 or glibc
2.0.4 or above to use the precompiled binaries for glibc 2.

The Linux/ARM support is added in. Please test it as much as possible.

Please report any bugs related to binutils 2.8.1.0.3 to
[email-masked].

Changes from binutils 2.8.1.0.1:

1. Update from the binutils gas-970531.
2. Add Linux/ARM support.
3. Some Linux/Alpha change.

Please do remember to remove /usr/bin/encaps first. Please also
remove /usr/bin/nm first, which may be a symbolic link in some
Linux distributions.

The file list:

1. binutils-2.8.1.0.3.tar.gz. Source code.
2. binutils-2.8.1.0.1-2.8.1.0.3.diff.gz. Patch against the previous beta
   source code.
3. binutils-2.8.1.0.3.bin.tar.gz. Precompiled Linux/x86 binaries for
   libc 5.
4. binutils-2.8.1.0.3-glibc.bin.tar.gz. Precompiled Linux/x86 binaries
   for libc 6 (glibc 2.0.2 or above).

The primary ftp sites for the compiler/C library are tsx-11.mit.edu
under pub/linux/packages/GCC and sunsite.unc.edu under pub/Linux/GCC.
The beta directory is in private/tofu under the GCC directory.

Most of my stuff can also be found at

ftp://ftp.yggdrasil.com/private/hjl

To install this package, please follow the procedure very closely.
Please backup/save all the files you are instructed to delete and you
should do

	gzip -dc binutils-2.8.1.0.3.bin.tar.gz | tar tvvf -

or
	gzip -dc binutils-2.8.1.0.3-glibc.bin.tar.gz | tar tvvf -

to see what is in there.

Please do back up before you remove things.

To install for libc 5, PLEASE DO

1. su root
2. cd /
3. rm -f /usr/bin/encaps /usr/bin/nm
4. gzip -dc binutils-2.8.1.0.3.bin.tar.gz | tar xvvf -

To install for libc 6 (glibc 2.0.2 or above), PLEASE DO

1. su root
2. cd /
3. rm -f /usr/bin/encaps /usr/bin/nm
4. gzip -dc binutils-2.8.1.0.3-glibc.bin.tar.gz | tar xvvf -

Now you have the new gas/binutils under /usr/bin and
/usr/ix86-linuxaout/bin. You have to use

/usr/ix86-linuxaout/bin/as

and

/usr/ix86-linuxaout/bin/ld -m i386linux

if you want to use a.out as and ld directly.

I have changed the target names for Linux/x86 and Linux/x86 (a.out)
to ix86-linux and ix86-linuxaout respectively. The precompiled
binaries are installed under /usr/ix86-linux and /usr/ix86-linuxaout.
You should make appropriate symbolic links if you have a different
name for the Linux/x86 target, like i586-unknown-linux.

If you have an old linux library in the a.out format and you cannot
obtain the newer version in the ELF format for whatever reason, you
can try "objcopy --remove-leading-char" on the a.out library and see
if it can link with your code in ELF. For Sybase client libraries,
I did

# cd sybase/lib
# for f in *.a
do
  objcopy --remove-leading-char $f
done

It seems to compile/link fine with libc 5.4.2x. But I don't know
if it really works or not. The resulting binaries should work
if the libc ABI used by the old library is unchanged in the new
libc.

According to Bruce Milner <[email-masked]>:

Just a quick note about your example using objcopy for
sybase. The sybase a.out libraries "are" dependent on a changed
feature of the libc ABI.
 
The ctype macros changed to a byte order independent format
(little endian). In order to use the sybase libraries, one needs to
rename the the ctype table variables in the sybase library files
and link in an old version of the libc's "C-ctype.o ctype-info.o"
files.

[email-masked] put a ELF'ized version of these
libraries on 

ftp://mudshark.sunquest.com/pub/ctlib-linux-elf

Thanks.

H.J. Lu
[email-masked]
05/31/97