From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jul 1 04:09:13 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: current@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1CC9216A416 for ; Sat, 1 Jul 2006 04:09:13 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mi+kde@aldan.algebra.com) Received: from aldan.algebra.com (aldan.algebra.com [216.254.65.224]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9916F43D49 for ; Sat, 1 Jul 2006 04:09:12 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from mi+kde@aldan.algebra.com) Received: from aldan.algebra.com (aldan [127.0.0.1]) by aldan.algebra.com (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k61499O7088559 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Sat, 1 Jul 2006 00:09:11 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from mi+kde@aldan.algebra.com) Received: from localhost (localhost [[UNIX: localhost]]) by aldan.algebra.com (8.13.6/8.13.6/Submit) id k61499eT088558 for current@freebsd.org; Sat, 1 Jul 2006 00:09:09 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from mi+kde@aldan.algebra.com) From: Mikhail Teterin To: current@freebsd.org Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 00:09:08 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.1 X-Face: %UW#n0|w>ydeGt/b@1-.UFP=K^~-:0f#O:D7whJ5G_<5143Bb3kOIs9XpX+"V+~$adGP:J|SLieM31VIhqXeLBli" X-Mailman-Approved-At: Sat, 01 Jul 2006 11:17:59 +0000 Cc: Subject: weird limitation on the system's binutils X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 01 Jul 2006 04:09:13 -0000 Hello! I'm wondering, why the bfd and related bits and pieces of binutils are built to support only the architecture(s), that can natively run on the system? Why can't I use gdb or objdump on FreeBSD/i386 to analyze a core file, or a binary from another FreeBSD or even from a non-FreeBSD system? The tools themselves support that. The sources (bfd-vectors) for all other supported architectures are part of the tree (under contrib/). So, why not build them? If it really is SO much of a bloat, why do we install gdb, etc. in the first place? -mi P.S. What I also want is the /lib/libbfd.so and friends, so I (and the 15 devel/*binutils ports) can build my own tools linking with it. Unfortunately, that too remains impossible...