i386 bsp issues

[Quality Quorum]

On Thu, 2 Aug 2001 lange92 at 2067.resnet.uni.edu wrote:

> This time I'll answer my own question, and pose another.
> 
> On Thu, 2 Aug 2001 lange92 at 2067.resnet.uni.edu wrote:
> 
> > /users/lange92/illinoiscentral/rtems-4.5.0-gnat-3.12p-gcc-2.8.1-i386-rtemscoff/bin/i386-rtemscoff-gcc --pipe -B../../../../../../../../pc386/lib/ -specs bsp_specs -qrtems -g -Wall -ansi -fasm        -c  -O4 -o o-optimize/bspstart.o ../../../../../../../../../rtems-4.5.0/c/src/lib/libbsp/i386/pc386/startup/bspstart.c
> > ../../../../../../../../../rtems-4.5.0/c/src/lib/libbsp/i386/pc386/startup/bspstart.c:215: warning: alias definitions not supported in this configuration; ignored
> 
> Turns out the "alias" attribute is not supported in COFF binaries, but is
> supported in ELF, according to the documentation on gnu.gcc.org in the
> section about attributes for functions.

So, why would you use COFF ??? As far as I understand rtems-4.5.0 uses 
ELF by default.

 
> My simple recourse was to refer back to rtems-4.0.0 and do a diff on the
> bspstart.c files from the two versions of RTEMS, and then simply rename
> the function bsp_start_default to bsp_start instead of using the
> alias--just like in 4.0. As a result, `make all' finally succeeded.
> 
> So my next question is, what sort of side effects should I expect from
> that change? I would imagine the difference would be the same as going
> from 4.0 to 4.5 otherwise, at least in regards to this particular
> function.. Any ideas, from anyone who's used both versions and had a need
> to use a different bsp_start?

How does it suppose to work ? 

bsp_start_default is a WEAK alias for bsp_start.

So, you can include into your application your own custom version of 
bsp_start without a need to rebuild whole BSP. Becaue bsp_start_default
is a WEAK alias this custom bsp_start will be used instead of
bsp_start_default(). 

bsp_start() is in the 
core of system configuration process so you can

1. Do run time configuration.
2. Build very diffent system off the same BSP
3. Makes binry distirbutions feasible.
4. Allows to add drivers at application level

> DanL

Thanks,

Aleksey