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# Installing Binutils-2.14 - Pass 1

    Estimated build time:           1.0 SBU
    Estimated required disk space:  160 MB

## Contents of Binutils

(Last checked against version 2.12.1.)

Binutils is a collection of software development tools containing a linker, assembler and other tools to work with object files and archives.

Binutils installs the following files:

### Program Files

addr2line, ar, as, gprof, ld, nm, objcopy, objdump, ranlib, readelf, size, strings and strip

### Library Files

libbfd.[a,so] and libopcodes.[a,so]

##

## Binutils Installation Dependencies

(Last checked against version 2.11.2.)

Bash: sh
Binutils: ar, as, ld, nm, ranlib, strip
Coreutils: basename, cat, chmod, cp, echo, expr, hostname, ln, ls, mkdir
mv, rm, rmdir, sleep, sort, touch, tr, true, uname, uniq
Diffutils: cmp
Gawk: gawk
GCC: cc, cc1, collect2, cpp0, gcc
Glibc: ldconfig
Grep: egrep, fgrep, grep
Make: make
Sed: sed
Texinfo: install-info, makeinfo

##

## Installation of Binutils

It is important that Binutils be the first package to get compiled, because both Glibc and GCC perform various tests on the available linker and assembler to determine which of their own features to enable.

> Note: Even though Binutils is an important toolchain package, we are not going to run the test suite at this early stage. First, the test suite framework is not yet in place and second, the programs from this first pass will soon be overwritten by those installed in the second pass.

This package is known to behave badly when you have changed its default optimization flags (including the -march and -mcpu options). Therefore, if you have defined any environment variables that override default optimizations, such as CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, we recommend unsetting or modifying them when building Binutils.

The Binutils documentation recommends building Binutils outside of the source directory in a dedicated build directory:

    mkdir ../binutils-build
    cd ../binutils-build

Next, prepare Binutils to be compiled:

    ../binutils-2.14/configure \
        --prefix=/tools --disable-nls

The meaning of the configure options:

- `--prefix=/tools`: This tells the configure script to prepare to install the Binutils programs in the `/tools` directory.

- `--disable-nls`: This disables internationalization (a word often shortened to i18n). We don't need this for our static programs and nls often causes problems when linking statically.

Continue with compiling the package:

    make configure-host
    make LDFLAGS="-all-static"

The meaning of the make option:

- `LDFLAGS="-all-static"`: This tells the linker that all the Binutils programs should be linked statically. However, strictly speaking, `"-all-static"` is first passed to the libtool program which then passes `"-static"` on to the linker.

And install the package:

    make install

Now prepare the linker for the "locking in" of Glibc later on:

    make -C ld clean
    make -C ld LIB_PATH=/tools/lib

The meaning of the make options:

- `-C ld clean`: This tells the make program to remove all the compiled files, but only in the `ld` subdirectory.

- `-C ld LIB_PATH=/tools/lib`: This option rebuilds everything in the `ld` subdirectory. Specifying the LIB_PATH makefile variable on the command line allows us to override the default value and have it point to our temporary tools location. The value of this variable specifies the linker's default library search path. You'll see how this preparation is utilised later on in the chapter.

Caution
Do not yet remove the Binutils build and source directories. You will need them again in their current state a bit further on in this chapter.

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