Cross Compiling, Target String, etc...

[Jim Wilson]

Jakub Sadowski wrote:
> What is the significance of the host string that follows target=<host> (sometimes
> CROSS_COMPILE=<host>)? 

If you have access to the target, running the config.guess script there 
will give you the recommended string.  Otherwise, you have to guess, but 
most of them are pretty obvious.  If you are building a native, you 
don't need to specify the host/target, they will be set automatically by 
configure, which will run config.guess to generate them.

Some targets have various alternative strings for special cases.  There 
is a general consensus on how to name them, but there is no clear 
pattern that is easy to document.  If you are familiar with a target, 
you can generally figure them out.  And if you aren't familiar with a 
target, then you shouldn't be worrying about special situations.  Just 
use the simple default names.

Jim