My preferred system is a 686 Linux distro based on uClibc. No ghc binaries available yet there. I'd like to remedy that. I have ghc 7.4.2 running on an 686 Linux distro based on glibc (and also on two different versions of Mac OS X, but they seem more distant and so less likely to be helpful). In fact, ghc 7.6.2 binaries are also available for that system, but I'd like to keep in synch with the last released Haskell platform (which is what I've got on the Macs). That's supposed to be updated in May, so if it's only possible to port ghg >= 7.6.x to my target system, that won't be so terrible. I'm hoping though to be able to port a ghc < 7.8.x, because I don't expect to see that version in any soon-to-be-released Haskell platform. (I mention this because http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/CrossCompilation says: "Support for cross-compilation works reasonably well in 7.8.1. Previous versions had various issues which are usually work-aroundable.") Ok, so I'm getting stuck trying to build a version of ghc that will run on the target, uClibc-based system. I have a working cross-compiler. (In fact, I have two, one built using crosstools-NG, the other built using buildroot.) My target identifier is "i686-buildroot-linux-uclibc". I've tried the method for cross-compiling ghc posted here: http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Building/CrossCompiling I had to tweak the configure script to not complain about the "buildroot" vendor id. Here is the content of my mk/build.mk file: BuildFlavour = unreg ... ifeq "$(BuildFlavour)" "unreg" GhcUnregisterised = YES GhcWithNativeCodeGen = NO # SRC_HC_OPTS = -O -H64m # GhcStage1HcOpts = -O # GhcStage2HcOpts = -O2 # GhcLibHcOpts = -O2 SRC_HC_OPTS = -O -H64m -fasm GhcStage1HcOpts = -O -fasm GhcStage2HcOpts = -O2 -fasm GhcHcOpts = -Rghc-timing GhcLibHcOpts = -O2 -fasm SplitObjs = NO HADDOCK_DOCS = NO BUILD_DOCBOOK_HTML = NO BUILD_DOCBOOK_PS = NO BUILD_DOCBOOK_PDF = NO endif Using the following commands: $ export PATH=${PATH}:/path/to/my/cross/compiler $ make clean $ ./configure --target=i686-buildroot-linux-uclibc $ make will successfully build ghc. However, the inplace/lib/ghc-stage2 it generates won't run on the target system. (Neither will the utils/ghc-pkg/dist/build/ghc-pkg, this will be relevant later.) Checking these with ldd says "not a dynamic executable." Checking them with objdump -p gives NEEDED lines like this: ... NEEDED libc.so.6 ... which indicates that they're linking against the glibc on my host, rather than the uClibc of my cross-compiler toolchain. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, or perhaps the build system distributed with ghc 7.4.2 just doesn't yet properly support cross-compiling. It's strange though that the build completes without any errors. grepping the Makefiles doesn't show any evidence that it's using my cross-compiler. Do I need to make links using the target identifier "i386-unknown-linux-..." to my actual tools "i686-buildroot-linux-uclibc-..."? The web instructions say: If you need to specify the tools explicitly, then you can say $ ./configure --target=<target> --with-gcc=<gcc> \ --with-ld=<ld> --with-nm=<nm> --with-objdump=<objdump> However, if I specify my cross-compiler tools in this way, the build breaks already at the configure step, because the binaries generated won't run on the host. Alright, that isn't working. I also tried instead to use the older instructions at http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/Building/Porting This requires some tweaking, then at a certain point in this process I also get stuck. What I had to tweak: * The instructions say to copy an executable pwd to utils/ghc-pwd/ghc-pwd on the target, then run: $ perl boot $ ./configure --enable-hc-boot --build=<plat> \ --host=<plat> --target=<plat> However, the configure process still tries to build ghc-pwd and of course fails, since there's no ghc on the target to build it with. I comment out the line in the configure script which tries to build ghc-pwd and make sure that GHC_PWD points to my replacement pwd (which can't be at the location the configure script tries to make GHC_PWD point to, since that keeps getting clobbered). * Ok, so we get past the ghc-pwd issue and the configure continues. But then I get stuck with ghc-pkg: $ ./configure --enable-hc-boot --build=i386-unknown-linux \ --host=i386-unknown-linux --target=i386-unknown-linux ... checking for ghc... no checking build system type... i386-unknown-linux-gnu checking host system type... i386-unknown-linux-gnu checking target system type... i386-unknown-linux-gnu GHC build : i386-unknown-linux GHC host : i386-unknown-linux GHC target : i386-unknown-linux configure: Building in-tree ghc-pwd checking for path to top of build tree... /home/jim/ghc-7.4.2 checking for gcc... /usr/bin/gcc ... checking for i386-unknown-linux-gcc... /usr/bin/gcc checking whether the C compiler works... yes ... checking whether we are cross compiling... no ... checking version of gcc... 4.7.2 ... checking for ghc-pkg matching ... configure: error: Cannot find matching ghc-pkg Well of course there's no ghc-pkg, because I'm trying to port ghc to this system! I checked the ghc-pkg I (tried to) build with the cross-compiler toolchain, earlier, but this (contrary to my intention) links against the libc on its host, and so won't run on the target either. * Ok, so let's hack the configure script to skip building ghc-pkg too. Then configure completes successfully on the target. The next step is to: $ cd libraries/integer-gmp $ ./configure $ cd .. $ make bootstrapping-files However, this fails at the following point: "" -fno-stack-protector -DNO_REGS -DUSE_MINIINTERPRETER -D__GLASGOW_HASKELL__=704 -Iincludes -DNO_REGS -DUSE_MINIINTERPRETER -Iincludes -Iincludes/dist-derivedconstants/header -Iincludes/dist-ghcconstants/header -Irts -DNOSMP -c includes/mkDerivedConstants.c -o includes/dist-derivedconstants/build/mkDerivedConstants.o /bin/sh: : Permission denied make[1]: *** [includes/dist-derivedconstants/build/mkDerivedConstants.o] Error 127 make: *** [bootstrapping-files] Error 2 I don't know if it's a variable that's supposed to point to $CC that's coming up "", or one that's supposed to point to ghc. I'm guessing the latter. I can't proceed with the porting instructions at this point because includes/dist-derivedconstants is empty (just an empty build dir), and includes/dist-ghcconstants doesn't exist yet. Any advice on how to proceed further using either of the strategies I described (cross-compiling, or bootstrapping using using unregisterised intermediate C files), would be welcomed. -- Dubiousjim dubiousjim@gmail.com -- dubiousjim@gmail.com