[LLVMdev] Native build clarification

[Hans Stimer]

It looks like someone got started on this project:

http://www.llvm.org/devmtg/2010-11/Spencer-ObjectFiles.pdf

Does anyone know what kind of progress has been made?

On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 9:10 AM, Reed Kotler <rkotler at mips.com> wrote:

>  It's not so easy to create a linker that has all the bells and whistles,
> especially on windows.
> You have to look at the totality of options, linker files, shared objects,
> etc.
> It's not a weekend project.
>
> If you want to read the elf manual and gnu ld and then write a new one you
> could do that. Clang can easily be fixed to incorporate it either as a
> default or as an optional linker. The GNU ld for mingw must know a lot about
> windows linking but probably not all.
>
> In some worlds Coff format is still relevant.
>
> Microsoft has their own form of Coff that they use even today.
>
> Back in the early days of Windows NT I wrote one for that OS because
> Microsoft stopped distributing one with the OS and spent a lot of time
> reverse engineering Microsofts until I could really do all that it could do.
> Traditionally the OS manufacturer wrote the linker and did not document
> things well enough for someone else to.
>
> Clang is not just for linux; people are going to build embedded bare metal
> apps and the OS itself (linux for example) and need many obscure features.
>
> I think writing a new elf linker for linux and bare metal is possible but I
> would forget about supporting COFF and Microsoft format and other OS's like
> BSD or at least leave that open for someone else to add that can really add
> all the bells and whistles for that OS.
>
> reed
>
>
> On 05/14/2011 07:35 AM, Justin Holewinski wrote:
>
> On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 2:20 PM, Hans Stimer <hans.stimer at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> It appears that when you link bitcode files into a native executable using
>> llvm-ld, that gcc is used for the final step.
>>
>>  I would like to create a tool that creates native executables without
>> requiring gcc/clang. Is that currently supported with llvm?
>>
>
>  To create executables, LLVM relies on the system linker (gcc, visual c,
> etc.).  Even Clang uses the system linker for the final link step.
>
>
>>
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>
>
> --
>
> Thanks,
>
>  Justin Holewinski
>
>
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