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How can I get started as a GCC developer
- From: Anonymous User <user4294967291 at gmail dot com>
- To: gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 18:30:54 +0800
- Subject: How can I get started as a GCC developer
- Authentication-results: sourceware.org; auth=none
Hello everyone,
I'd like to help with the modularization of GCC.
I've visited the getting started page at the official wiki but its
contents seem too old. I'm fairly new to GCC and and I'm bewildered by
its huge code base with lengthy and complicated makefiles and
sophisticated internal mechanisms. I don't know how to figure out the
exact process GCC is built and feel incompetent to make changes to
existing code for fear of breaking the underlying mechanisms. Also, it
seems to me that the documentation on GCC internals at the official wiki
and various resources the wiki points to are not enough to help a
newcomer to make significant contribution, since they are largely
incomplete and outdated.
However, I do have rudimentary knowledge about the structure of the code
base and have successfully built a frontend that merely emits a main
function that returns 0 for GCC 4.9.0. But I have no idea how I can make
further progress other than by aimlessly browsing through the source code.
So how can I gain a systematic understanding of the internals of GCC in
order to get started with some serious work?