libbackend.a

[Andi Hellmund]

Hey Kevin,
> Can someone familiar with libbackend.a comment on what is in it?
The libbackend.a contains the middle-end and back-end part of GCC. The 
name of this library might be a bit misleading, but this library isn't 
just the pure back-end.

> There
> are hooks for the backend, right?
The hooks are already resolved in this static library.
> The machine description also has to
> be in there ... in some representation?
Yes, a kind of. The machine description is transformed into C code 
during the build process and this C code is in libbackend.a
> I am thinking about fiddling with making this a dynamic library. I
> won't bother if the access patterns will cause the performance to
> plummet.
If I remember correctly, as part of the GCC Modularization project 
(gcc.gnu.org/wiki/ModularGCC), each back-end should at some point in 
time become a shared library so that GCC might choose the back-end at 
runtime and NOT at build-time. But that's the future ...

Andi*
*