Bare Metal ARM Cortex-M GDC Cross Compiler

GDC > Cross Compiler

Introduction

These instructions will describe how to build a bare metal ARM Cortex-M (arm-none-eabi) GDC cross compiler for a Linux host. All commands were tested on an Arch Linux 64 host. If you encounter any problems while following these instructions, you may be able to get help at the D.GNU forum. If you can improve these instructions, please do so by making an account on this wiki and authoring changes.

A C library will not be built as this toolchain is intended for building all software in D. The D Runtime and Phobos (the D standard library) also will not be built as these libraries have not yet been ported to the ARM Cortex-M platform. However, this toolchain should give one the tools needed to do so.

For now, these instructions will use GCC 4.8.2 and the corresponding GDC branch from the GDC source code repository.

Specifying a target and installation folder

export TARGET=arm-none-eabi
export PREFIX={installation folder}

Replace {installation folder} with the absolute path to the folder the toolchain should be installed in.

GNU Binutils

# Delete existing binutils source archive and download a new one
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
export BINUTILS_NAME=binutils-2.24
export BINUTILS_SOURCE_ARCHIVE=$BINUTILS_NAME.tar.bz2
rm -f $BINUTILS_SOURCE_ARCHIVE
rm -rf $BINUTILS_NAME
wget http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/binutils/$BINUTILS_SOURCE_ARCHIVE

# Extract binutils
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
tar xjfv $BINUTILS_SOURCE_ARCHIVE

# Create binutils build directory
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
export BINUTILS_BUILD_DIR=binutils-build
rm -rf $BINUTILS_BUILD_DIR
mkdir $BINUTILS_BUILD_DIR

# Configure and build binutils
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
cd $BINUTILS_BUILD_DIR
../$BINUTILS_NAME/configure \
  --target=$TARGET   \
  --prefix=$PREFIX   \
  --disable-nls      \
  --disable-multilib \
  --with-gnu-as      \
  --with-gnu-ld      \
  --disable-libssp   
make -j4 all
make install
cd ..

For information on what GNU Binutils is and what features of the toolchain it provides see their website here.

Download GDC

# Download GDC
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
rm -rf gdc
mkdir gdc
git clone https://github.com/D-Programming-GDC/GDC.git gdc
cd gdc
git checkout gdc-4.8
cd ..

Download GCC

# Delete existing GCC source archive and download a new one
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
export GCC_NAME=gcc-4.8.2
export GCC_SOURCE_ARCHIVE=$GCC_NAME.tar.bz2
rm -f $GCC_SOURCE_ARCHIVE
rm -rf $GCC_NAME
wget http://ftp.tsukuba.wide.ad.jp/software/gcc/releases/$GCC_NAME/$GCC_SOURCE_ARCHIVE

# Extract GCC
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
tar xjfv $GCC_SOURCE_ARCHIVE

Add GDC to GCC

# Add GDC to GCC
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
cd gdc
./setup-gcc.sh ../$GCC_NAME
cd ..

Build GCC

# Create GDC build directory
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
export GCC_BUILD_DIR=gcc-build
rm -rf $GCC_BUILD_DIR
mkdir $GCC_BUILD_DIR

# Configure and build GDC
#-------------------------------------------------------------------
cd $GCC_BUILD_DIR
../$GCC_NAME/configure --target=$TARGET --prefix=$PREFIX \
  --enable-languages=d     \
  --disable-bootstrap      \
  --disable-libssp         \
  --disable-libgomp        \
  --disable-libmudflap     \
  --disable-multilib       \
  --disable-libphobos      \
  --disable-decimal-float  \
  --disable-libffi         \
  --disable-libmudflap     \
  --disable-libquadmath    \
  --disable-libssp         \
  --disable-libstdcxx-pch  \
  --disable-nls            \
  --disable-shared         \
  --disable-threads        \
  --disable-tls            \
  --with-gnu-as            \
  --with-gnu-ld            \
  --with-mode=thumb        \
  --without-headers
make -j4 all-gcc
make -j4 all-target-libgcc

--disable-libphobos disables the D Runtime and Phobos (the D standard library) as these have not yet been ported to the ARM Cortex-M platform.

make all-gcc and make all-target-libgcc are used instead of make in order to limit the build to just the necessary components.

Install GDC

make install-gcc
make install-target-libgcc
cd ..

Testing the toolchain

The toolchain can be tested with the minimal semihosted "Hello World!" program documented here.

Additional Information

These instructions were modeled after the instructions and build scripts at GNU Tools for ARM Embedded Processors. The GCC cross compiler instructions on OSDev.org were also quite helpful. Documentation on the various configure options can be found in GCC's documentation here