## Welcome to GCCSDK GCC 4.1.1 Release 2 for RISC OS

If you have received this copy of GCC from a CD of fetched your copy from the Internet yourself some time ago, then it is likely there is a more up-to-date version obtainable from http://gccsdk.riscos.info/ which is also the homepage of this RISC OS GCC port.

### 1. Introduction

This is the RISC OS port of GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) and supporting binaries allowing you to start developing RISC OS applications and modules straight away. So you get a compiler for one or more languages, an linker, an assembler, a RISC OS module header and veneer generator, the UnixLib C runtime library and headers and stubs for the SharedCLibrary module (as found in the RISC OS ROMs).

This GCC port itself and the code produced using this GCC version is targeted and tested for RISC OS 4 (26-bit and 32-bit version), RISC OS 5 (32-bit version) and RISC OS 6 (26-bit and 32-bit version).

The RISC OS GNU Compiler Collection consists of a generic front end program `gcc' that provides a consistent interface to the compilers themselves. Currently compilers are supported for the C and C++ languages. Later releases of GCCSDK might have support for Ada, Fortran, Java, Pascal and/or Objective C/C++ but this will be largely dependant on available GCCSDK developer resources, interest and of course that all technical issues can be reasonably solved.

The following is a short introduction to GCC. It does not provide an introduction to programming, for that you will have to get a text book on the language you are interested in.

#### 1.1. Installation

To install GCC, copy the contents of !GCC onto your hard disc. Other compilers can be installed by copying the contents of their archives into the same directory as where you install GCC - RISC OS will automatically combine the !GCC directories together. Running !GCC will setup Run$Path to automatically search for the compiler tools.

As compilers are installed, sub-directories named according to the language they support will be placed within !GCC.docs. These sub-directories will contain specific information for the language compiler, including its usage and environment requirements.

This completes installation, and GCC may be used simply by typing 'gcc' at the CLI prompt. In order to verify which version of 'gcc' you are using, specify the --version switch:

       *gcc --version

#### 1.2. Simple compilations

The instructions below are generic and the ideas presented can be applied to all GNU compilers. The usage of C source files is merely for example purposes.

Source files are stored in the standard ASCII text format and kept in a directory that is relevant for the language of your program. For example, C programs are stored in directory 'c', C++ programs are stored in 'cc', assembler files in 's' and CMunge/CMHG files in 'cmhg'.

When specifying those source files for the compile, assembler or linker, it is recommended to use the 'my_c_program.c' syntax instead of the RISC OS file syntax 'c.my_c_program'.

For simple use, all that is needed is to set up a command line prompt and ensure there is enough free memory to run the compiler (details of memory requirements vary between compilers and can be found in the specific compiler documentation).

To compile a C program just type:

       *gcc hellow.c -o hellow

This will compile, assemble and link the source 'c.hellow' in one go to produce an ELF executable (filetype &E1F) called 'hellow'. An ELF executable can make use of static libraries and/or shared libraries (whom the UnixLib runtime library). By default, the shared libraries will be used (use link switch -static if you want static libraries to be used).

ELF executables need support of a loader module in order to be usable under RISC OS and this is provided by the '!SharedLibs' application which containing the SOManager RISC OS module. This means also that when ELF executables are distributed to users, they also need to have access to '!SharedLibs' application in order to be able to run the ELF based program.

It is possible to convert an ELF executable into a standalone AIF binary when the ELF executable is linked when only using static libraries (i.e. when -static link switch has been used). This removes the need to distribute the '!SharedLibs' application together with the produced program but of course defeats the point of using shared libraries. This is done by running:

       *elf2aif hellow

When distributing ELF executables you probably want to strip the ELF executables first as well as this will reduce program size by removing all non-essential information. This is done by adding the switch '-Wl,-s':

       *gcc hellow.c -Wl,-s -o hellow

It is possible to compile several sources at one go, mixing C sources in the same program, using a command line of:

       *gcc file1.c file2.c file3.c file4.c -o myprogram

Again, this will compile, assemble and link all the sources to produce the ELF 'myprogram' executable.

To compile to the object form, use the -c switch. i.e.

       *gcc -c file.c

or

       *gcc -c file.c -o file.o

will compile and assemble 'c.file' to 'o.file'.

Support has been provided for both RISC OS and UNIX format filenames and we recommend to use the UNIX format style as this is more cross-platform compatible. For example:

       UNIX format (preferred)	RISC OS format

       ../include/stdio.h		^.include.h.stdio
       /work/gcc/hello.c		$.work.gcc.c.hello
       stdlib.h			h.stdlib

but note that

       tree.def			tree/def

For further examples of compilation procedures, please look at `Examples' inside !GCC.

#### 1.3. More advanced compilations

##### 1.3.1. SharedCLibrary

By default UnixLib is used as runtime library. In case it is important to use RISC OS' SharedCLibrary and at expense of a much more reduced API, you can do that by specifying the switch -mlibscl at compile and link time. The linker will produce an Absolute (filetype &FF8) file having an AIF header straight away instead of producing an ELF executable (filetype &E1F):

       *gcc -mlibscl -o file.o -c file.c
       *gcc -mlibscl -o mybinary file.o

##### 1.3.2. RISC OS module support

When C based modules are created, you can only make use of the SharedCLibrary as runtime library or no runtime library at all. UnixLib is not suited as runtime library for modules. When you do not make use of SharedCLibrary in your module you're on your own to implement all your memory management, I/O, etc. (when needed) yourself (possibly using RISC OS' or third party modules' SWIs).

CMunge is used to create a RISC OS module header and the necessary setup code for each of the user required module entries, like initialisation, finalisation, service calls, command implementations etc. It can also be used to create veneer code acting as glue code for RISC OS callbacks into your C coded module.

At runtime the module will automatically get a private workspace holding internal state data (currently 3 words) but also all non-constant global variables used in your code. Initial non-zero non-constant global variables are stored in the module code itself and those get copied at startup in the module's private workspace where they can change during runtime. Initial zero global variables are not part of the module code but get a place in the private workspace as well. Constant global variables remain in the module and are not copied to the private workspace.

###### 1.3.2.1. CMunge

The requirements for CMunge are formulated in a .cmhg file which gets parsed by 'cmunge' to create an ELF object file and a header file. The generated header file contains all C prototypes of the user supplied routines used by the routines in the generated ELF object file.

Typically this is done by:

      *cmunge -tgcc -32bit -d modheader.h module.cmhg
      *cmunge -tgcc -32bit -o modheader.o module.cmhg

The generated modheader.h header file is included by all C code implementing the C functions specified in given .cmhg file.

See CMunge documentation for more information.

###### 1.3.2.2. Module support with SharedCLibrary

For all C compilations and final linking the switch -mmodule needs to be specified. For compiling this is required to make sure that global data can be properly relocated at runtime. For linking this will make sure the output is a valid RISC OS module containing the necessary relocations needed at start up time.

Specifying -mmodule implicitly specifies -mlibscl so it is not really necessary to specify it yourself. However if you want your build script (or Makefile) to be backwards compatible with GCCSDK 3.4 you have to specify -mlibscl as well as it was not done by default before.

In this example 'modheader.o' is already generated by CMunge before.

       *gcc -mlibscl -mmodule -O2 -c module.c -o module.o
       *gcc -mlibscl -mmodule module.o modheader.o -o mymodule

Module code executed in SVC or IRQ mode does not need to do any APCS stack checking (as the RISC OS R13 SVC and IRQ stacks are not chunked) so the switch -mmodule implicitly selects the -mno-apcs-stack-check switch as well. However some pieces of module code can also run in USR mode as e.g. module start code (hence, as application) so the -mapcs-stack-check switch is then exclicitly needed to enforce chunk stack checking for those module object files containing code which is executed in USR mode.

###### 1.3.2.3. Module support without SharedCLibrary

Modules created without using SharedCLibrary have the advantage to not be dependent on the SharedCLibrary and have typically a smaller footprint. They are created by specifying the extra CMunge switch "-znoscl" (specifying not to generate code to interface with SharedCLibrary but generate code instead to setup the runtime stack itself) and by the extra linker switches "-nostdlib -lgcc" (specifying not to use any standard library, whom the SharedCLibrary, except the GCC library which contains helper routines possibly used by its generated code).

Note you can still include the standard headers (like stdbool.h, limits.h, stdlib.h, etc) to get some useful type definitions or constants but that does not mean you can make use of any of the functions with their prototypes being defined there. If you want to avoid including any of the standard headers (for whatever reason), you can specify the extra compile switch "-nostdinc".

It might be that GCC generates code which contains memcmp, memset, memcpy and memmove calls. In such a case you need to provide those routines yourself (they are the same routines as the ones defined in standard C).

Calling RISC OS SWIs can be done via inline assembler calls, custom assembler routines or making use of a C library providing SWI level access like OSLib. Note that such libraries can not use the SharedCLibrary as well.

###### 1.3.2.4. Module resource data

Modules often have their data (Messages, Sprites, etc) stored in ResourceFS. mkresfs can be used to create a C file representing the intended ResourceFS data allowing easy (de)registration with ResourceFS. In GCCSDK 3.4 this functionality was covered with the 'resgen' program but as its code was very tightly AOF based, a new program (and approach) was chosen.

##### 1.3.3. Static UnixLib

When UnixLib is selected as runtime library, by default it will be the shared UnixLib library. It is possible to use the static UnixLib at link time by specifying the linker switch -static.

       *gcc -o file.o -c file.c
       *gcc -static -o mybinary file.o

#### 1.4. Switches

This is a list of the simpler, standard switches for GCC. Full details can be obtained from the GNU C/C++ manual. Please see below for the ARM specific switches since these have altered from the original GCC version.

##### 1.4.1. General switches

The switches described below are useable with any GNU compiler.

-c
  Compile and assemble the source to the object file
-S
  Compile the source to assembler code
-E
  Pre-process the source file
-o <file>
  Put the resulting output into <file>
-O
  Apply some optimizations to the output
-O2
  Apply full optimization.
-O3
  Full optimization and inline small functions as well.
-static
  Use static instead of shared UnixLib runtime library. This switch is implicitly implied when the SharedCLibrary runtime library is used (by using -mlibscl or -mmodule switches).

##### 1.4.2. ARM specific switches

The ARM specific switches are documented in GNU C/C++ manual, section "ARM Options". The most important ones are:

-mpoke-function-name (default) / -mno-poke-function-name
  Place the name of the current function before the start of the function to allow the post mortem debugger to print a readable backtrace.

  Turning this switch on can increase code size by about 3.5% for C programs and as much as 10% for C++. However, it should be noted that the performance of the generated application will not be slower. It is useful to turn this switch on when developing applications as it can lead to a clear indication of where a program is failing when a backtrace is generated.

-msoft-float (default for when UnixLib runtime library is used)
  Select soft-float routines to be used and generated when floating point operations are needed. Unless you have hardware FP support in your ARM processor, soft-float routines result in faster executables.
-mhard-float (default when SharedCLibrary runtime library is used)
  Makes that floating point (FP) ARM instructions will be used in the generated code.

In the RISC OS port, switches -msoft-float and -mhard-float are mutually exclusive.

##### 1.4.3. RISC OS specific switches

-mthrowback / -mno-throwback (default)
  Send errors to a text editor capable of receiving 'throwbacks'. Error throwbacks will only occur when the DDEUtils module has previously been loaded.
-munixlib (default)
  Builds and links source code against the UnixLib headers and library files. Note that when used, this needs to be specified during compiling and linking. This defines the preprocessor define __TARGET_UNIXLIB__.
-mlibscl
  Builds and links source code against the SharedCLibrary headers and library files. Note that when used, this needs to be specified during compiling and linking. This defines the preprocessor define __TARGET_SCL__.

  Switch -mmodule will implicitly select -mlibscl as well.

-mmodule
  Generates code suitable for a RISC OS module. This will implicitly select -mlibscl. This also defines the preprocessor define __TARGET_MODULE__.

The -munixlib and -mlibscl switches are mutually exclusive.

##### 1.4.4. Obsolete or not implemented GCCSDK specific switches

-mapcs-26 / -mapcs-32
  From GCCSDK 3.3.3 release onwards, APCS-32 became default and APCS-R deprecated. With the releases before you could select between those two ABI's using respectively the mutually exclusive -mapcs-32 and -mapcs-26 switches.

  From GCCSDK 4 onwards we don't have any APCS-R support and made the switches -mapcs-32 and -mapcs-26 obsolete.

-mamu
  Generates the file !Depend which contains a list of all the source files that the produced object depends on. This is intended for use with Acorn's Make Utility (AMU), which edits the makefile to include these after the '# Dynamic Dependencies' line.

  The use of GNU make is preferred as it allows to write more expressive Makefiles and ensures a better compatibility with or require less differences than Makefiles for cross-compiling.

-mclient-static-data-offset (default)
  Only relevant when compiling a RISC OS module (switch -mmodule set). This specifies to use the client static data offset (at sl-536) instead of the library static data offset (sl-540).

  The -mclient-static-data-offset and -mlibrary-static-data-offset switches are mutually exclusive.

-mlibrary-static-data-offset
  Only relevant when compiling a RISC OS module (switch -mmodule set). This specifies to use the library static data offset (at sl-540) instead of the client static data offset (sl-536). This is only to be used in very rare cases.

  The -mclient-static-data-offset and -mlibrary-static-data-offset switches are mutually exclusive.

#### 1.5. Binary configurations

As an overview, the following configurations are possible with the native RISC OS release :

- Softfloat with shared UnixLib as runtime library: default configuration.
- Softfloat with static UnixLib as runtime library: use '-static' switch when linking.
- Hardfloat with static UnixLib as runtime library: use '-mhard-float' when compiling and '-mhard-float -static' when linking.
- Hardfloat with SharedCLibrary as runtime library: use '-mlibscl' when compiling and '-mlibscl' when linking. When creating a RISC OS module you specify '-mmodule' instead for both complication and linking.

In a cross-compile environment you can have "hardfloat with shared UnixLib as runtime library" configuration as well but seen that softfloat configuration has significant advantages for floating point intensive code, this is not relevant and not included in the native RISC OS release.

#### 1.6. Predefines

This is a short list of the most interesting and useful predefines set:

__arm
__arm__
  Always defined in the RISC OS port and can be used to make a difference between ARM specific vs non-ARM code.
__riscos
__riscos__
  Always defined in the RISC OS port and can be used to make a difference between RISC OS specific vs non-RISC OS code.
__ELF__
  Always defined as GCCSDK 4 is now ELF based.
__SOFTFP__
  Defined when soft-float routines are used in the to be generated code in contrast with using floating point (FP) instructions. FP instructions will be used when the SharedCLibrary runtime library is selected (switch -mlibscl and/or -mmodule is selected). When UnixLib runtime library is used, by default soft-float routines are used unless you have -mhard-float specified.
__TARGET_SCL__
  Defined when targeting the SharedCLibrary runtime library, i.e. when -mlibscl or -mmodule switches are supplied.
__TARGET_MODULE__
  Defined when module code is being generated, i.e. when -mmodule switch is supplied.
__TARGET_UNIXLIB__
  Defined when targeting the UnixLib runtime library, i.e. when -mlibscl nor -mmodule switches are supplied (as -munixlib is default switch).

GCCSDK 3 defines the predefine __aof__ which is no longer the case in GCCSDK 4 as it is now fully ELF based. So this can be used to distinguish between AOF and ELF compilations.

More common predefines are documented in the section "Common Predefined Macros" of the GNU C preprocessor manual.

Note that these predefines can also be used in handwritten assembler code when making sure that the preprocessor is firstly invoked before the assembling faze:

       *gcc -xassembler-with-cpp -o file.o -c file.s

with e.g. file.s:

    	@ Returns 1 when running with UnixLib, 0 when running with SharedCLibrary.
    	.global	using_unixlib
    	.type	using_unixlib, %function
    using_unixlib:
    #ifdef __TARGET_UNIXLIB__
    	MOV	r0, #1
    #else
    	MOV	r0, #0
    #endif
    	MOV	pc, r14
    	.size	using_unixlib, . - using_unixlib

#### 1.7. Migrating projects to GCCSDK 4

The GCCSDK 4 release contains a significant number of changes compared to its previous stable GCCSDK 3.4.6 release and this might require some changes to your project when you want to build it with GCCSDK 4.

- Object format is ELF

  Pre GCCSDK 4 releases had as object format AOF (Acorn Object Format) and the AOF based libraries came as ALF (Acorn Library Format). RISC OS Absolute programs (filetype &FF8) came in an AIF file format (Acorn Image Format).

  As those formats are not supported by GNU binutils' assembler 'gas' nor linker 'ld', this means that your projects needs to be completely rebuilt as you can not use previously made (or supplied) AOF/ALF files. In case of C or C++ files this is most probably just a case of recompiling. In case of assembler files, the sources need to be changes to make them 'gas' compatible (read further on). In case of creating library, the process can be slightly different (read further on).

  Both object files, shared library files and resulting fully linked binary files are in ELF file format (filetype &E1F). There is no native RISC OS support for loading shared libraries and ELF linked binary files so that's why you need an ELF loader such like 'SOManager' (currently part of !SharedLibs application).

  There are two ways to create AIF based program files which of course do not need the use of 'SOManager' to run those programs:

  - Use elf2aif program to convert an ELF binary not using any shared library into AIF. This means you need to specify '-static' linker switch when making ELF binary.
  - Use the SharedCLibrary instead of UnixLib as runtime library, i.e. use '-mlibscl' during compilation and linking. In this case the linker will automatically create an AIF application program so no explicit elf2aif invocation is needed.

  Aside: when creating a module (i.e. using '-mmodule' during compilation and linking), the intermediate object files are ELF based but the final binary produced by the linker is a valid RISC OS module which of course does not need the 'SOManager' ELF loader.

- Assembler code

  As the object format is ELF you need to make use of an assembler outputing ELF. There are two options:

  - You use asasm (previously known as 'as' which was originally written by Niklas Röjemo). 'asasm' got significantly updated to behave more like Acorn objasm and will by default output ELF object format.
  - You use GNU assembler as but this means that your assembler code needs to be tuned for 'gas' assembler syntax.
- 'gas' assembler syntax

  The syntax used for 'gas' is slightly different and the most important differences are:

  - Labels : 'as' assembler labels start at the beginning of a line can be optionally be pre- and postfixed with a '|' character like "mylabel" or "|mylabel|". 'gas' does not support the optional '|' character and requires that a label gets terminated with a column ':'.

    So, 'as' assembler code like:

        |mylabel1|
        	ADD	r0, r0, #1
        mylabel2
        	MOV	pc, r14

    needs to be changed to:

        mylabel1:
        	ADD	r0, r0, #1
        mylabel2:
        	MOV	pc, r14

  - Comments : 'as' assembler used semi-column ';' to mark the start of a comment line. 'gas' syntax is using the '@' character. You can also use the C style comments "/* ... */" if you enable preprocessing before assembling your code (use filename.S instead of filename.s)
  - IMPORT : the IMPORT statement followed by a symbol name is no longer needed unless you want to import a symbol 'weakly'.

        	IMPORT	|mylabel1|
        	IMPORT	|mylabel2|, WEAK

    needs to be changed to:

        	.weak	mylabel2

  - Variable setting:

        abc	* 0
        def	* &1234

    needs to be changed to:

        .set abc, 0
        .set def, 0x1234

    Or:

        abc	EQU 0
        def	EQU &1234

    needs to be changed to:

        #define	abc	0
        #define	def	0x1234

    and you assemble the code using:

        gcc -xassembler-with-cpp -o file.o -c file.s

    so that the pre-processor can expand the #define definitions.
  - Space claiming:

        	% 256

    needs to be changed to:

        	.space 256

    Or:

        	^	0, ip
        parentprogname	#	4	; Ptr to program name
        editname	#	12	; Edit name
        WSSize		*       :INDEX:

        	LDR	r0, parentprogname
        	ADR	r2, editname
        	MOV	r3, #WSSize

    needs to be changed to:

                .struct	0
        parentprogname	: .skip   4	@ Ptr to program name
        editname	: .skip   12	@ Edit name
        WSSize		:

        	LDR	r0, [ip, #parentprogname]
        	ADD	r2, ip, #editname
        	MOV	r3, #WSSize

  - Constant notation:

        	TEQ	r1, #"R"

    needs to be changed to:

        	TEQ	r1, #'R'

    Integer notation:

        	TST	r0, #2_0101	; Binary value
        	TEQ	r0, #8_12	; Octal value
        	TEQ	r0, #&100	; Hex value

    needs to be changed to:

        	TST	r0, #0b0101	@ Binary value (or 0B0101 can be used)
        	TEQ	r0, #012	@ Octal value, notice the extra digit 0 as first character
        	TEQ	r0, #0x100	@ Hex value (or 0X100 can be used)

  - EXPORT : the EXPORT statement is to be replaced by '.global'.

        	EXPORT	|mylabel|

    needs to be changed to:

        	.global	mylabel

  - Other directives:

        	AREA	bla_data, DATA
        	AREA	bla_data_noinit, DATA, NOINIT
        	AREA	bla_code, CODE
        	DCB	&12
        	DCD	&12345678
        	=	"test"
        	=	" and another test", 0
        	END

    needs to be changed to:

        	.data	@ A short form of .section + arguments
        	.bss
        	.text	@ A short form of .section + arguments
        	.byte	0x12
        	.word	0x12345678
        	.ascii	"test"
        	.asciz	" and another test"
        	.end	@ ".end" can be left out and is not required.

  - Macros are quite different and there are no mechanical easy rules for translation. Refer to GNU assembler as for full description on '.macro' and '.mend'.

  More information can be found in GNU assembler as.

- Specifying how to link with libraries : the 'drlink' linker used in pre-GCCSDK 4 releases was quite liberal dealing with object and library files and didn't need any special handling to make a difference between those two file formats so in pre-GCCSDK 4 projects you could see link lines like:

      *gcc -o myapp object1.o object2.o OSLib:o.OSLib32

  which links the object1.o and object2.o object files with the RISC OS OSLib library found as OSLib:o.OSLib32. The binutils' linker needs to have its libraries specified with '-l' switch and further assumes that all libraries filenames on disc start with 'lib' (but omitted when specified) and have an 'a' extension instead of 'o' which was usually used in pre-GCCSDK 4 projects. Also it is preferred to specify the directory where the library can be found using an extra switch '-L' (in fact, this specifies an additional search directory for the '-l' libraries). So above example needs to be changed for GCCSDK 4 as:

      *gcc -o myapp object1.o object2.o -LOSLib: -lOSLib32

  and this with the file "libOSLib32/a" stored in the directory defined by the 'OSLib:' path. Note we don't do suffix swapping for 'a' extensions. Of course, it is expected that ELF releases of libraries already have the 'lib' prefix and '/a' extension of the library filename.

- APCS-R / APCS-32 : when switch '-mapcs-32' is used, you have to remove this from the command line as this is default now and there isn't any APCS-R support foreseen. When your project is still APCS-R, you need to drag it into the 21st century and make it APCS-32 compliant. When you don't have any assembler code in your project, this is just a matter of recompiling your project.
- Softfloat & hardfloat: the default configuration is now softfloat which means that there is no use of floating point instructions which are most of times emulated with a significant overhead. The floating point implementation is done using built-in library support not requiring the FPEmulator module in RISC OS.

  This change has hardly any effect on your project when you migrate to GCCSDK 4 except for the improved runtime speed for floating point intensive code.

#### 1.8. Distributing your programs

When you want to distribute your compiled program it might be necessary to accompany it with an ELF loader and possibly also a set of shared libraries used by your program. This is not necessary when your program is a static ELF binary which has been converted with elf2aif or when it is using SharedCLibrary as runtime library (as for both cases your program is an Absolute (filetype &FF8) file with AIF header) or when it is a RISC OS module (filetype &FFA).

The ELF loader and the default set of shared libraries (UnixLib, libgcc and the dynamic loader) are bundled in the form of the !SharedLibs application. In the download section of the GCC page there is separate 'core' !SharedLibs ZIP file available which can be downloaded by the users of your program. You will also need the C support and possibly also the C++ support additions.

We strongly recommend that you instruct your users to download !SharedLibs ZIP file(s) themselves instead of providing a copy of a possibly outdated version together with your program.

#### 1.9. Troubleshooting

Here are described some common problems users have with gcc and the GNU compilers. Possible solutions are provided for the known problems.

- Double clicking on !GCC filer icon results in an error "There are still SharedUnixLibrary clients active".

  GCCSDK 4 requires at least SharedUnixLibrary version 1.11. This error is because you have a version loaded in memory which is prior to that version and still currently in use by one or more UnixLib compiled programs.

  Loading a newer version of the SharedUnixLibrary is not possible until all those UnixLib compiled programs have been stopped.

  You should quit all those UnixLib compiled programs and again double click on !GCC filer icon.

- Double clicking on !GCC filer icon results in an error "GCCSDK 4 requires SharedUnixLibrary 1.11 or later".

  You have no or a not up-to-date version of the SharedUnixLibrary module in your !System. Use the GCCSDK supplied !System and use the System merge utility provided by Configure to merge this with your !System.

- The compiler fails to compile anything but no error message is reported.

  This is usually caused by a lack of memory. To see how far through compilation a file has gone, try compiling with the '-v' switch. '-v' gives verbose output and will show the programs gcc is executing.

  A lack of memory will be shown up by an almost instantaneous return from any program executed. If this happens, try increasing the wimpslot, using *wimpslot -min 6000K.

  When the compiler runs out of memory during compilation, an error 'virtual memory exhausted' is usually reported.

- The error 'No writable memory at this address' is returned.

  This is caused by insufficient memory memory and can be fixed by increasing the wimpslot to similar values as above.

### 2. Known issues or unsupported GCCSDK 3.4.6 features

List of known problems or missing features compared to GCCSDK 3.4.6:

- native RISC OS build: not all RISC OS specific switches are implemented yet, like -mamu, -mlibrary-static-data-offset, -mclient-static-data-offset.
- libscl: the GCCSDK support code in libscl is not yet fully enabled as libscl requires some cleanup first and have support for network API builtin.
- libscl: no C++ support.

### 3. Changes

GCCSDK 4 produces ELF object files, libraries and binaries while in GCCSDK 3 this was AOF/AIF based. Currently there is no support to mix AOF object or library files with ELF object files.

For each GCCSDK release an overview of the most important changes are made in its Changes file.

More details on the changes made in particular areas can be found in:

- UnixLib ChangeLog
- SharedCLibrary ChangeLog
- asasm ChangeLog
- CMunge official history and its specific GCCSDK changes which haven't made in an official release yet.
- elf2aif ChangeLog
- mkresfs ChangeLog

### 4. Further documentation

GNU GCC/binutils documentation:

- GNU C/C++ compiler
- GNU C preprocessor
- GNU assembler as
- GNU linker ld
- GNU Binary Utilities: a large set of utilities for creating, inspecting and modifying binary object files.
- GNU libiberty: a collection of subroutines used by various GNU programs. It is available under the Library General Public License.

Runtime documentation:

- UnixLib: the default runtime library used when compiling programs with GCC. The UnixLib's intend is to provide, as much as possible, a fully POSIX-compatible runtime library for RISC OS in order to compile and run most (but not all) POSIX-compatible code that avoids OS specific code.
- SharedCLibrary: this is an alternative runtime library which is using the SharedCLibrary RISC OS module. It has the advantage that those applications are usually smaller in size but does not have a rich API as UnixLib. When building modules, this is the only runtime library you can use.

Shared library support on RISC OS:

- RISC OS shared library documentation for the developer.
- Advanced RISC OS shared library documentation (for GCCSDK developers).

RISC OS related documentation:

- asasm: an Acorn objasm clone outputing AOF and ELF files and previously known as 'as' and originally written by Niklas Röjemo. This also contains the AIF, ALF, AOF, APCS and ASDTF specifications.
- CMunge: a tool to generates a suitable veneer to allow RISC OS modules to be developed in C or C++.
- elf2aif: a tool to convert static ELF binaries into AIF Absolute files avoiding the need for ELF loader at runtime.
- ln: a tool to create symlink files for use with the dynamic linking GCC, although they can be used with any UnixLib compiled program.
- mkresfs: a tool to generate C code that creates and removes files from ResourceFS in your RISC OS modules.

### 5. GCCSDK website, bug reporting & mailing list

The GCCSDK website contains more information like how you can log bugs, addressing the GCCSDK development itself and related RISC OS development aspects. Currently the GCCSDK website is Wiki based so your input in the form of changes and/or additional input is greatly appreciated.

Most importantly, you can also find details how you can join the GCCSDK mailing which has been setup for discussions on GCCSDK, including its development work. We strongly recommend to join this mailing list.

### 6. Licenses and warranty

This port of GCC is:

    Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Nick Burrett
    Copyright (c) 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 GCCSDK Developers

The GCCSDK releases made by the GCCSDK Developers consists of several binaries and sources which do not necessary have the same licenses. The following overview can help to identify those licenses more easily but is in no way an authoritative statement on behalf of the GCCSDK Developers:

- binutils (and all its associated files) : See its manual.
- asasm : See !GCC.docs.asasm.COPYING.
- cmunge : See !GCC.docs.cmunge.Copyright.
- elf2aif : See !GCC.docs.elf2aif.COPYING.
- gcc (and all its associated files) : See its manual.
- ln : See !GCC.docs.ln.COPYING.
- mkresfs : See !GCC.docs.mkresfs.COPYING.
- libscl : See !GCC.docs.libscl.COPYING.
- UnixLib : See !GCC.docs.libunixlib.COPYING.

As with all GNU programs, THERE IS NO WARRANTY OF ANY SORT.

### 7. Credits

Primary GCCSDK Developers today are:

- John Tytgat - Release management, module support, multilib, libscl integration and allround GCCSDK hacking.
- Lee Noar - Shared library development including ELF loader.
- Peter Naulls - UnixLib (all areas, especially glibc compatibility).
- Alex Waugh - UnixLib (especially signals, pthreads, file handling).

An enormous amount of porting and testing work was done by Nick Burrett. Without his past contribution GCCSDK wouldn't exist.

The following people have also made contributions over the last four years (in alphabetic order) :

Ben Avison, John-Mark Bell, Stefan Bellon, Alan Buckley, James Bursa, Steve Ellacott, Rich Hudson, Rob Kendrick, Jeffrey Lee, Adrian Lees, Christian Ludlam, Alex Macfarlane Smith, Theo Markettos, David Marston, Philip Pemberton, Graham Shaw, Tony van der Hoff, Simon Wilson, Martin Wuerthner.

Special thanks to the following people having written programs which are used in the GCCSDK project :

- Justin Fletcher and Robin Watts for 'CMunge', a free alternative to CMHG.
- Rob Kendrick for his 'mkresgen', a C code generator to add/remove files to/from ResourceFS.
- All UnixLib Developers for providing a run-time library which is essential for GCCSDK and ported programs using GCCSDK.

Thanks also to all the testers and bug reporters.

And last but not least, all the GCC and binutils contributers.