GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain 2020-q4-major Pre-built GNU toolchain for Arm Cortex-A/R and Cortex-M processors GCC Version: 10.2 Table of Contents * Installing executables on Linux * Installing executables on Mac OS X * Installing executables on Windows * Invoking GCC * Architecture options usage * Available multilibs * C Libraries usage * Linker scripts & startup code * Samples * GDB Server for CMSIS-DAP based hardware debugger * Centos 6 / RHEL 6 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) support * Installing executables on Linux * Unpack the tarball to the install directory, like this: $ cd ${install_dir} && tar xjf gcc-arm-none-eabi-_version_-linux.tar.bz2 If you want to use gdb python build (arm-none-eabi-gdb-py), then install python2.7. For some Ubuntu releases, the toolchain can also be installed via Launchpad PPA at https://launchpad.net/~team-gcc-arm-embedded/+archive/ubuntu/ppa. * Installing executables on Mac OS X * Unpack the tarball to the install directory, like this: $ cd ${install_dir} && tar xjf gcc-arm-none-eabi-_version_-mac.tar.bz2 * Installing executables on Windows * Run the installer (gcc-arm-none-eabi-_version_-win32.exe) and follow the instructions. The installer can also be run on the command line. When run on the command-line, the following options can be set: - /S Run in silent mode - /P Adds the installation bin directory to the system PATH - /R Adds an InstallFolder registry entry for the install. For example, to install the tools silently, amend users PATH and add registry entry: > gcc-arm-none-eabi-_version_-win32.exe /S /P /R The toolchain in Windows zip package is a backup to Windows installer for those who cannot run the installer. You must decompress the zip package and then invoke it following instructions in the next section. To use gdb python build (arm-none-eabi-gdb-py), you must install 32 bit python2.7 irrespective of 32 or 64 bit Windows. Please get the package from https://www.python.org/download/. * Invoking GCC * On Linux and Mac OS X, either invoke with the complete path like this: $ ${install_dir}/gcc-arm-none-eabi-*/bin/arm-none-eabi-gcc Or set path like this: $ export PATH=$PATH:${install_dir}/gcc-arm-none-eabi-*/bin $ arm-none-eabi-gcc --version On Windows (although the above approaches also work), it can be more convenient to either have the installer register environment variables, or run INSTALL_DIR\bin\gccvar.bat to set environment variables for the current cmd. For Windows zip package, after decompression we can invoke the toolchain either with complete path like this: TOOLCHAIN_UNZIP_DIR\bin\arm-none-eabi-gcc or run TOOLCHAIN_UNZIP_DIR\bin\gccvar.bat to set environment variables for the current cmd. * Architecture options usage * This toolchain is built and optimized for Cortex-A/R/M embedded development. This section describes how to invoke GCC/G++ with the correct command line options for variants of Cortex-A/R and Cortex-M architectures. $ arm-none-eabi-gcc [-mthumb] -mcpu=CPU[+extension...] -mfloat-abi=ABI -mcpu: For the permissible CPU names and extensions, see the GCC online manual: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-10.2.0/gcc/ARM-Options.html#index-mcpu-2 Use the optional extension name with -mcpu to disable the extensions that are not present in your CPU implementation. By default, -mfpu=auto and this enables the compiler to automatically select the floating-pointing and Advanced SIMD instructions based on the -mcpu option and extension. -mfloat-abi: If floating-point or Advanced SIMD instructions are present, then use the -mfloat-abi option to control the floating-point ABI, or use -mfloat-abi=soft to disable floating-point and Advanced SIMD instructions. For the permissible values of -mfloat-abi, see the GCC online manual: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-10.2.0/gcc/ARM-Options.html#index-mfloat-abi -mthumb: When using processors that can execute in Arm state and Thumb state, use -mthumb to generate code for Thumb state. Examples with no floating-point and Advanced SIMD instructions: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-m7+nofp $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-r5+nofp -mthumb $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-a53+nofp -mthumb $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-a57 -mfloat-abi=soft -mthumb Examples with single-precision floating-point with soft-float ABI: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-m7+nofp.dp -mfloat-abi=softfp $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-r5+nofp.dp -mfloat-abi=softfp -mthumb Examples with single-precision floating-point with hard-float ABI: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-m7+nofp.dp -mfloat-abi=hard $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-r5+nofp.dp -mfloat-abi=hard -mthumb Examples with double-precision floating-point with soft-float ABI: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-m7 -mfloat-abi=softfp $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-r5 -mfloat-abi=softfp -mthumb Examples with double-precision floating-point with hard-float ABI: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-m7 -mfloat-abi=hard $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-r5 -mfloat-abi=hard -mthumb Example with floating-point and Advanced SIMD instructions with soft-float ABI: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-a53 -mfloat-abi=softfp -mthumb Example with floating-point and Advanced SIMD instructions with hard-float ABI: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-a53 -mfloat-abi=hard -mthumb Example with MVE and floating-point with soft-float ABI: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-m55 -mfloat-abi=softfp Example with MVE and floating-point with hard-float ABI: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-m55 -mfloat-abi=hard * Available multilibs * Currently GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain 2020-q4-major offers both rmprofile and aprofile set of multilibs. How to list all multilibs supported by the toolchain: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc --print-multi-lib How to check which multilib is selected by toolchain based on -mthumb, -mcpu, -mfpu and -mfloat-abi with --print-multi-dir command line option: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc [-mthumb] -mcpu=CPU -mfpu=FPU -mfloat-abi=ABI --print-multi-dir For examples: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-a55 -mfpu=auto -mfloat-abi=hard --print-multi-dir thumb/v8-a+simd/hard $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-r5 -mfpu=auto -mfloat-abi=softfp --print-multi-dir thumb/v7+fp/softfp $ arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-m0 -mfpu=auto -mfloat-abi=soft --print-multi-dir thumb/v6-m/nofp * C Libraries usage * This toolchain is released with two prebuilt C libraries based on newlib: one is the standard newlib and the other is newlib-nano for code size. To distinguish them, we rename the size optimized libraries as: libc.a --> libc_nano.a libg.a --> libg_nano.a To use newlib-nano, users should provide additional gcc compile and link time option: --specs=nano.specs At compile time, a 'newlib.h' header file especially configured for newlib-nano will be used if --specs=nano.specs is passed to the compiler. nano.specs also handles two additional gcc libraries: libstdc++_nano.a and libsupc++_nano.a, which are optimized for code size. For example: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc src.c --specs=nano.specs ${OTHER_OPTIONS} This option can also work together with other specs options like: --specs=rdimon.specs Please note that --specs=nano.specs is both a compiler and linker option. Be sure to include in both compiler and linker options if compiling and linking are separated. ** additional newlib-nano libraries usage Newlib-nano is different from newlib in addition to the libraries' name. Formatted input/output of floating-point number are implemented as weak symbol. If you want to use %f, you have to pull in the symbol by explicitly specifying "-u" command option. -u _scanf_float -u _printf_float e.g. to output a float, the command line is like: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc --specs=nano.specs -u _printf_float ${OTHER_LINK_OPTIONS} For more about the difference and usage, please refer the README.nano in the source package. Users can choose to use or not use semihosting by following instructions. ** semihosting If you need semihosting, linking like: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc --specs=rdimon.specs ${OTHER_LINK_OPTIONS} ** non-semihosting/retarget If you are using retarget, linking like: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc --specs=nosys.specs ${OTHER_LINK_OPTIONS} * Linker scripts & startup code * Latest update of linker scripts template and startup code is available on https://developer.arm.com/embedded/cmsis * Samples * Examples of all above usages are available at: ${install_dir}/gcc-arm-none-eabi-*/share/gcc-arm-none-eabi/samples Read readme.txt under it for further information. * GDB Server for CMSIS-DAP based hardware debugger * CMSIS-DAP is the interface firmware for a Debug Unit that connects the Debug Port to USB. More detailed information can be found at http://www.keil.com/support/man/docs/dapdebug/. A software GDB server is required for GDB to communicate with CMSIS-DAP based hardware debugger. The pyOCD is an implementation of such GDB server that is written in Python and under Apache License. For those who are using this toolchain and have board with CMSIS-DAP based debugger, the pyOCD is our recommended gdb server. More information can be found at https://github.com/mbedmicro/pyOCD. * Centos 6 / RHEL 6 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) support * GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain 2020-q4-major x86_64/Linux toolchain flavor will support Centos 7 / RHEL 7 onward as it supports host OSs with Glibc (The GNU C Library) 2.14 onward. For hosts with older Glibc version users must provide Glibc 2.14 as Linux shared library for example by using LD_LIBRARY_PATH search path environment variable. For host OSs without required Glibc version users will experience the following error: $ arm-none-eabi-gcc --version arm-none-eabi-gcc: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.14' not found (required by arm-none-eabi-gcc) Below example demonstrates how to custom build Glibc 2.14 and use it as Linux shared library with GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain. First, build Glibc 2.14 from sources to /opt/glibc-2.14: $ cd /tmp $ wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/glibc/glibc-2.14.tar.gz $ tar zxvf glibc-2.14.tar.gz $ cd glibc-2.14 $ mkdir build $ cd build $ ../configure --prefix=/opt/glibc-2.14 $ make $ sudo make install Second, add newly built Glibc to LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable and execute toolchain binary: $ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/opt/glibc-2.14/lib${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH}" $ arm-none-eabi-gcc --version