The GNU toolchain is a broad collection of
programming tools produced by the
GNU Project. These tools form a
toolchain (a suite of tools used in a serial manner) used for developing software
applications
Application may refer to:
Mathematics and computing
* Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks
** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...
and
operating systems.
The GNU toolchain plays a vital role in development of
Linux, some
BSD
The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berke ...
systems, and software for
embedded system
An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded'' ...
s. Parts of the GNU toolchain are also directly used with or
ported
In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...
to other platforms such as
Solaris,
macOS,
Microsoft Windows (via
Cygwin
Cygwin ( ) is a POSIX-compatible programming and runtime environment that runs natively on Microsoft Windows. Under Cygwin, source code designed for Unix-like operating systems may be compiled with minimal modification and executed.
The Cygwin i ...
and
MinGW/MSYS),
Sony PlayStation Portable (used by
PSP modding scene) and
Sony PlayStation 3.
Components
Projects included in the GNU toolchain are:
*
GNU make
In software development, Make is a build automation tool that automatically builds executable programs and libraries from source code by reading files called ''Makefiles'' which specify how to derive the target program. Though integrated d ...
: an automation tool for compilation and build
*
GNU Compiler Collection
The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is an optimizing compiler produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages, hardware architectures and operating systems. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) distributes GCC as free softwa ...
(GCC): a suite of compilers for several programming languages
*
GNU C Library
The GNU C Library, commonly known as glibc, is the GNU Project's implementation of the C standard library. Despite its name, it now also directly supports C++ (and, indirectly, other programming languages). It was started in the 1980s by ...
(glibc): core C library including headers, libraries, and dynamic loader
*
GNU Binutils: a suite of tools including linker, assembler and other tools
*
GNU Bison: a
parser generator
In computer science, a compiler-compiler or compiler generator is a programming tool that creates a parser, interpreter, or compiler from some form of formal description of a programming language and machine.
The most common type of compiler ...
, often used with the
Flex lexical analyser
*
GNU m4: an
m4 macro processor
A general-purpose macro processor or general purpose preprocessor is a macro processor that is not tied to or integrated with a particular language or piece of software.
A macro processor is a program that copies a stream of text from one place ...
*
GNU Debugger (GDB): a code debugging tool
*
GNU Autotools (GNU Build System):
Autoconf
GNU Autoconf is a tool for producing configure scripts for building, installing, and packaging software on computer systems where a Bourne shell is available.
Autoconf is agnostic about the programming languages used, but it is often used for ...
,
Automake
In software development, GNU Automake is a programming tool to automate parts of the compilation process. It eases usual compilation problems. For example, it points to needed dependencies.
It automatically generates one or more ''Makefile.in'' ...
and
Libtool
In computer programming, GNU Libtool is a software development tool, part of the GNU build system, consisting of a shell script created to address the software portability problem when compiling shared libraries from source code.
It hides th ...
See also
*
GNU Classpath
GNU Classpath is a free software implementation of the standard class library for the Java programming language. Most classes from J2SE 1.4 and 5.0 are implemented. Classpath can thus be used to run Java-based applications. GNU Classpath is a p ...
*
GNU Core Utilities
The GNU Core Utilities or coreutils is a package of GNU software containing implementations for many of the basic tools, such as cat, ls, and rm, which are used on Unix-like operating systems.
In September 2002, the ''GNU coreutils'' were ...
*
CVS and
Git
Git () is a distributed version control system: tracking changes in any set of files, usually used for coordinating work among programmers collaboratively developing source code during software development. Its goals include speed, data inte ...
*
MinGW and
Cygwin
Cygwin ( ) is a POSIX-compatible programming and runtime environment that runs natively on Microsoft Windows. Under Cygwin, source code designed for Unix-like operating systems may be compiled with minimal modification and executed.
The Cygwin i ...
*
Cross compiler
A cross compiler is a compiler capable of creating executable code for a platform other than the one on which the compiler is running. For example, a compiler that runs on a PC but generates code that runs on an Android smartphone is a cross ...
*
LLVM
LLVM is a set of compiler and toolchain technologies that can be used to develop a front end for any programming language and a back end for any instruction set architecture. LLVM is designed around a language-independent intermediate represe ...
References
External links
GCC, the GNU Compiler CollectionPrebuilt Win32 GNU Toolchains for various embedded platforms
Programming tools
toolchain
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