Gcc 4.x crosscompiler running on cygwin

[Raphael Zulliger]

Hi!

What I need:
A gcc 4.x powerpc-eabi crosscompiler running natively under windows 
(with the use of cygwin) that will be distributed to our customers. The 
binaries (gcc, as,ar, ...), libraries and headers must reside in one 
directory structure on the windows file system. For example:
    c:\crosscomp_gcc_4\bin\gcc.exe
    c:\crosscomp_gcc_4\include\...
    ...
It is important to note, that some of our
customers may like to install the files below c:\crosscomp_gcc_4 to 
somewhere
else, say to:
    c:\program files\crosscomp_gcc_4 (note that the path may even 
include spaces in its name!).
Furthermore we are using newlib (the latest and gratest version) and the 
target
OS is a self made realtime os. Also important: The customer may or may 
not have
the cygwin environment installed (in fact: most do not have it installed 
- but some
may and in both situations, everything should work fine (e.g. the 
crosscompiler should really not use any headers of the cygwin 
installation)!)

Now I describe how I did understand the situation, how the best way to 
achieve could look like - then I hope to get some inputs from you, 
whether my understanding
is wrong or could be improved. I would also suggest to put the results 
of my email and
all your answers into a wiki page - as I was not able to find a site for 
this specific
problem (gcc crosscompiler @ cygwin & redistribution to customers/other 
computers with/without
an installed cygwin environment).

Building a crosscompiler should be done as described in the different 
docs/wikis/howtos. Let's assume we used:
    --prefix=/opt/mycompany/gcc4.0.2     (and thus are compiling gcc 4.0.2)
so after compiling everything (1. binutils, 2. bootstrap gcc, 3. newlib, 
4. gcc), a make install does copy all the files into 
/opt/mycompany/gcc-4.0.2/...
The perfect way to distribute this system to our customer is now to take 
over the
given file structure by performing a     cp -r /opt/mycompany/gcc-4.0.2 
/cygdrive/c/crosscomp_gcc_4
Now the first "problem" arieses: gcc & Co. did store the path defined by 
--prefix somewhere
in the binaries - therefore powerpc-eabi-gcc.exe is aware of the system 
include and other pathes - and therefore the compiler will automatically 
search for the system/stl/... header
in /opt/mycompany/gcc-4.0.2 - a path that most probably doesn't exist on 
the customers
computer...
To solve this situation, I thought that it may be a clever idea to just 
create a cygwin mount
point (by editing the windows registry). The mount point will look like 
this:
    mount c:\program files\customer dir\crosscomp_gcc_4 
/opt/mycompany/gcc-4.0.2
I think this is a good way to solve the problem - but I'm not sure 
whether there exist
a better way - or asking differently: How was it thought to solve this 
kind of problem
(I'm sure that I'm not the only person on the planet that has exactly a 
situation like
this)?


Again, in short, everything important:
please tell me if my statements are correct and inform me if there exist 
better ways to achieve the same

    - create the crosscompiler as described in third party doucments 
(assuming gcc 4.0.2, newlib an c/c++ languages activated)
    - choose a prefix that will not interfere with other pathes, so 
probably its best to include the company name within the path
    - after execution of "make install" of all the packages (binutil, 
gcc, newlib), everything needed is in the path defined by prefix
    - copy the content of this path to somewhere else on the windows 
filesystem. From now on refered to as [1]
    - distribute cygwin1.dll together with the whole directory structure 
[1] to the customers.
    - during the company-made setup procedure, modify the windows 
registry so that cygwin has a mountpoint with the name defined by prefix 
that points to [1] on the customers computer
    - now you should be able to compile c/c++ applications as usual

Thanks in advance!
Raphael