Re: gcc 3.3.4 cross build for mipsel mischooses the `as' to run

[James E Wilson <wilson at specifixinc dot com>]

Dave Korn wrote:
>   I don't know why the configure/build process doesn't think to look in
> ${prefix}/bin, since it's a documented requirement that ${prefix} is
> specified the same for gcc as for the requisite binutils.

Partly because the path is irrelevant here, and partly because it is 
wrong to make assumptions about the path in configure, and probably also 
partly because of other reasons.

Also, you are mistaken about the implications of setting the path here.

It is necessary to set the path to where binutils is installed before 
building gcc.  But it isn't because of as.  It is because of ar.

gcc knows how to find subprograms.  It has to, in order to find cc1.  It 
also knows how to find the binutils subprograms, assuming you configured 
binutils the same way as gcc.  Thus gcc will find as regardless of 
whether you have $prefix/bin on your path.

However, the Makefile calls ar directly, not via gcc, and hence we will 
find ar only if $prefix/bin is on the path.

So if a build fails because $target-ar wasn't found, that implies that 
$prefix/bin is not on the path.

If a build fails because the wrong target assembler was used, that 
implies that binutils was configured differently than gcc.
--
Jim Wilson, GNU Tools Support, http://www.SpecifixInc.com