Maybe you can help...

[Laura Spoldi]

I realize that this problem is outside the realm
of EGCS, but since you are working on updating the
GNU tools with the idea of shared resources, I
thought that you might be able to provide some
advice or point me to an area where I might obtain
further information.

We are working on modifying the GNU toolset,
including GAS (possibly GCC) and GDB, to use for
development work on a PC running Linux and
targeted for a MIPS-like processor.   This
processor is based on the MIPS architecture with a
few added instructions, a few expanded
instructions, and a few removed instructions.  We
have already made the initial changes to GAS with
a good deal of success.  

However, when moving on to GDB we have hit a
stumbling block in that the current release of GDB
(4.16) does not support the MIPS target.  When
trying to build GDB for this target, I get an
error indicating: "*** BFD does not support target
mips-mips-none".  This is the target type which I
specified in build GAS without problems.  Upon
further inspection I found that the current
release of GDB is significantly older than the
current release of GAS (2.8.1) ... and many of the
shared files between GDB and GAS have been updated
in the GAS version which we have.  In particular
the version of BFD which we got with GAS will
handle the mips target.  I am considering trying
to take the newer "GAS" versions of these shared
files and build them with the GDB code from the
last GDB release.  Can you give me any indication
if I have any chance of this working?   Or am I in
for a large amount of changes to the GDB code to
get a "baseline" version of the code before I even
start making my modifications to the code.  

The original idea to use the GNU toolset was to
save time in developing some internal tools for
our own use.  However, if extensive modifications
must be made to the original code to make it work
for a MIPS before we customize it for our use,
then it may not be a timely solution to our
problem.  

As I stated at the beginning of this message I
understand that this is not really what you are
doing, but if you can provide me with any
information or point me in an appropriate
direction to get the information elsewhere I would
really appreciate it.

Thank you for your attention,

Laura Spoldi