geekmaster's simple guide to tcc (tinycc)

[twobob]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

@twobob: Welcome to the 2600 club!

And here's a little history for the interested

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_box_%28phreaking%29

Cap'n crunch ftw!

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by twobob

And here's a little history for the interested

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_box_%28phreaking%29

Cap'n crunch ftw!

Click on "club" in my text that you quoted.

Interesting to know that the first product that the "two Steves" (who founded apple computer) manufactured and sold was an illegal blue box.

But then if you study history, you find that most obscene fortunes held by famous families were begun by trading in illegal goods or services (slavery, opium trade, etc.).

[NuPogodi]

I should apologize for a stupid question, but I'm totally confused. When I compile the simplest code with command line arguments, say

#include "stdio.h"
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
int count;
printf ("This program was called with \"%s\".\n", argv[0]);
if (argc > 1)
for (count = 1; count < argc; count++)
printf("argv[%d] = %s\n", count, argv[count]);
else
printf("The command had no other arguments.\n");
return 0;
}

and then run the compiled executable (no matter, with or without arguments) I ever obtain the same output

This program was called with "(null)".
The command had no other arguments.

Not to say about succeeding arguments, even the first one argv[0] is somewhere lost. May you reproduce such a bug in your kindle & tcc? Have you any ideas why it happens & what should i do to solve this problem?
Thanks for any suggestions.
PS. tcc => kindle-tcc-1.6a.tar.gz, kindle3 (fw 3.0.3)

[twobob]

Itś been a while but IIRC the script that GM did to call TCC in fact deals with this issue. Indeed I think I remember this from a README, but it may have a been a thread on this thingy.

In essence I think they get ditched unless specifically splattered into bin, I recall something about a limit of args as well. Sigh. Iĺl go and have a look.

EDIT: Nope, I searched every post on this thread and the info wasn´t specific to your problem, I was thinking of the args order passed for the libs.

one thing did occur though, I thought the -run was broken in this version. is not the args thing linked to -run? [-run infile args...]

anyways. perhaps GM will be able to shed light on this. apologies.

[geekmaster]

I just used the tcc executable that lrizzo had at his web site. I do not know how he built it.

I see by modifying your program to print argc that this build of tcc does not handle command-line parameters. When tested on my K5, it shows that argc has a large negative value that changes with each run, and argv[0] is a NULL pointer.

I had not noticed that behavior before, but I had noticed that the tcc "-run" parameter did not run C programs as a script, so it has more than one bug. I suppose we need to rebuild tcc from source to see if that fixes it.

It seems to work okay for things that do not need parameters. I do not recall what "splattered into bin" thing that twobob is talking about.

[twobob]

Okay well I am not 100% if it was for the emulator or the kindle but there is a version out there IIRC correctly that does support the run argument. This difference, I suspect, would fix your problem.

Here is the preamble https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...1&postcount=73 and here is the final thing https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...7&postcount=76

As is mentioned in the post though:

Edit:
What some users probably need is a build of this with SYSROOT=/mnt/us included in the configure; maybe even add /mnt/us/lib and /mnt/us/include into the tcc-static search paths. But those are documented options in the ./configure --help file and now anyone can do it with these two posts.

And perhaps more significantly

(armv6l:1) /home/tinycc # gcc --static --static-libgcc -o tcc-static tcc.o libtcc.a -lm -ldl
(armv6l:1) /home/tinycc # ldd tcc-static
    not a dynamic executable
(armv6l:1) /home/tinycc # strip --strip-unneeded tcc-static

Which disables the functioning of libdl but if you can live without the -run option ...
(The -run option causes this tcc-static to hang, it would take a bit of further tweaking to make -run work while libdl was statically linked).

so there may be some cooking involved

HTH.

@GM like I said. I was wrong.

[knc1]

Hmm...
The static build dynamic link of tcc-next-unreleased posted in the DIT-KeK thread:

(armv6l:1) /home # tcc -run un.c
This program was called with "un.c".
The command had no other arguments.
(armv6l:1) /home # tcc -run un.c junk
This program was called with "un.c".
argv[-1094246539] = argv[%d] = %s

But that build has some strange ideas about the standard libraries, the posted code needs to be changed to run under the DIY-KeK build:

(armv6l:1) /home # cat un.c
/* #include "stdio.h" */
/* #include <stdlib.h> */
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
int count;
printf ("This program was called with \"%s\".\n", argv[0]);
if (argc > 1)
for (count = 1; count < argc; count++)
printf("argv[%d] = %s\n", count, argv[count]);
else
printf("The command had no other arguments.\n");
return 0;
}

That first line change - I don't know why the author was expecting stdio.h to be in the current directory ;
The second line change - That is part of the changes required for tcc-next-release.

I haven't looked to see if it is an error in tcc or an intended feature to have (some) of the standard libraries built-in and blow up if the external libraries are used.

[NuPogodi]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

I see by modifying your program to print argc that this build of tcc does not handle command-line parameters. When tested on my K5, it shows that argc has a large negative value that changes with each run, and argv[0] is a NULL pointer.

twobob, geekmaster: Thanks for info. Despite it does not immediately solve a problem, it allows me at least to understand that the mentioned bug is reproducible and has nothing to do with my outdated firmware.
Well, I'll try to use config-file to send some parameters for my program(s) and to hope that someone could recover argv-feature. Unfortunately, my skills are not enough to do it by myself.

[knc1]

There are step-by-step directions in the DIY-KeK thread where tcc is posted.
All you have to do is follow the build instructions, only substitute cross-compile for glibc rather than do the native build under emulation for uClibc.

You might want to follow the DIY-KeK thread, where work is currently underway to provide a glibc based emulator image for building dynamically linked Kindle stuff.

The static build of tcc-next-unreleased does not implement the -run option due to the known problems of using libdl from a static build.

[twobob]

Originally Posted by knc1

There are step-by-step directions in the DIY-KeK thread where tcc is posted.
All you have to do is follow the build instructions, only substitute cross-compile for glibc rather than do the native build under emulation for uClibc.

You might want to follow the DIY-KeK thread, where work is currently underway to provide a glibc based emulator image for building dynamically linked Kindle stuff.

The static build of tcc-next-unreleased does not implement the -run option due to the known problems of using libdl from a static build.

^This

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by twobob

^This

Thanks. I tried building it from source a couple of times without success. Rob Landley (et al) were discussing building tcc to run on x86 with arm code generation, then building using that to build tcc again for arm executable tcc with arm code generation. They mentioned something about wrong floating-point endianness, requiring yet another build cycle to fix that. The threads at gnu.org leave a lot of unanswered questions, and any download links to compiled binaries are now dead.

I will check out the knc1 posts... Thanks.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

There are step-by-step directions in the DIY-KeK thread where tcc is posted.
All you have to do is follow the build instructions, only substitute cross-compile for glibc rather than do the native build under emulation for uClibc.

You might want to follow the DIY-KeK thread, where work is currently underway to provide a glibc based emulator image for building dynamically linked Kindle stuff.

The static build of tcc-next-unreleased does not implement the -run option due to the known problems of using libdl from a static build.

Thanks for the info. I will check this out when I get some more free time.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

There are step-by-step directions in the DIY-KeK thread where tcc is posted.
All you have to do is follow the build instructions, only substitute cross-compile for glibc rather than do the native build under emulation for uClibc.

You might want to follow the DIY-KeK thread, where work is currently underway to provide a glibc based emulator image for building dynamically linked Kindle stuff.

The static build of tcc-next-unreleased does not implement the -run option due to the known problems of using libdl from a static build.

Thanks. I got the static tcc from here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=2150107

If it builds programs that handle command line parms (better than the lrizzo build used now), I will repackage it into the first post in this thread.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Thanks for the info. I will check this out when I get some more free time.

Duh...
Check your post history for posts in that thread.

You replied to the suggestion about the next Kindle build including SYSROOT=/mnt/us in its configuration.

Ah, there, that will trigger your memory on this subject.
Too many subjects, too many posts, not enough time == "Life".

I, like all the rest of the hobbyists here, only work on what interests us at the moment.
All we need here is for someone (else) to get interested in doing it (a glibc build).

[geekmaster]

I ran it on my K5, and the ELF binary it built references uclibc (and will not run on the kindle). It may run in the QEMU environment, but needs a rebuild to work in the kindle.

Regarding memory triggers, my mind is so full of so many WORK projects right now that I cannot remember which is part of what. I have not been thinking about kindle stuff much lately. I need more time.

I have more than 3333 posts of my own here, and I cannot even remember half of those. My memory just is not what it used to be. I need a memory upgrade. This one is full.