This is the beta release of binutils 2.7.0.2 for Linux, which is based on binutils 2.7. You also need libc 5.4.4 and gcc 2.7.2 or above. Main changes from binutils 2.7 are: 1. encaps and objdump changes are added for linux kernels. They may not be necessary for newer kernels. But they are needed for older ones. 2. A weak/global change is made to work around a gcc bug. I also include the cross assembler and cross linker binaries for SunOS and Solaris under Sparc, m68k/ELF and m68k/linuxaout. To use the cross assembler and linker binaries without any changes, you have to configure your cross compiler with a. Sparc/SunOS: # configure --prefix=/usr --local-prefix=/usr/local \ --gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/g++ \ --with-gnu-ld --with-gnu-as \ --host=i486-linux --target=sparc-sun-sunos4.1 b. Sparc/Solaris: # configure --prefix=/usr --local-prefix=/usr/local \ --gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/g++ \ --with-gnu-ld --with-gnu-as \ --host=i486-linux --target=sparc-sun-solaris2 c. m68k/ELF: # configure --prefix=/usr --local-prefix=/usr/local \ --gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/g++ \ --with-gnu-ld --with-gnu-as \ --host=i486-linux --target=m68k-linux d. m68k/a.out: # configure --prefix=/usr --local-prefix=/usr/local \ --gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/g++ \ --with-gnu-ld --with-gnu-as \ --host=i486-linux --target=m68k-linuxaout This release contains "encaps" and a modified "objdump" by Ross. They are used to compile the Linux kernel in ELF. The primary ftp sites for the compiler/C library are tsx-11.mit.edu under pub/linux/packages/GCC and sunsite.unc.edu under pub/Linux/GCC. The beta directory is in private/tofu under the GCC directory. To install this package, please follow the procedure very closely. Please backup/save all the files you are instructed to delete and you should do gzip -dc binutils-2.7.0.2.bin.tar.gz | tar tvvf - to see what is in there. The binary file is binutils-2.7.0.2.bin.tar.gz. The source code is binutils-2.7.0.2.tar.gz. binutils-2.7.0.1-2.7.0.2.diff.gz is provided for binutils 2.7.0.2. Please do back up before you remove things. To install, PLEASE DO 1. su root 2. cd / 3. gzip -dc binutils-2.7.0.2.bin.tar.gz | tar xvvf - Now you have the new gas/binutils under /usr/bin and /usr/i486-linuxaout/bin. You have to do /usr/i486-linuxaout/bin/as and /usr/i486-linuxaout/bin/ld -m i386linux if you want to use a.out as and ld directly. If you don't need the cross assemblers/linkers for m68k-linux, m68k-linuxaout, sparc-sun-solaris2 nor sparc-sun-sunos4.1, please do 1. su root 2. cd /usr 3. rm -rf m68k-linux m68k-linuxaout sparc-sun-solaris2 sparc-sun-sunos4.1 Thanks. H.J. Lu hjl@gnu.ai.mit.edu 07/22/96