README.mips

Supported platforms
-------------------
- MIPS32 and MIPS64 platforms are currently supported.
- Both little-endian and big-endian cores are supported.
- MIPS DSP ASE on MIPS32 platforms is supported.


Building V for MIPS
-------------------
- Native build is available for all supported platforms. The build system
expects that native GCC is configured correctly and optimized for the platform.
Yet, this may not be the case with some Debian distributions which configure
GCC to compile to "mips1" by default. Depending on a target platform, using
CFLAGS="-mips32r2", CFLAGS="-mips32" or CFLAGS="-mips64" or
CFLAGS="-mips64 -mabi=64" will do the trick and compile Valgrind correctly.

- Use of cross-toolchain is supported as well.
- Example of configure line and additional configure options:

   $ ./configure --host=mipsel-linux-gnu --prefix=<path_to_install_directory>

 * --host=mips-linux-gnu is necessary only if Valgrind is built on platform
   other then MIPS, tools for building MIPS application have to be in PATH.

 * --host=mips-linux-gnu is necessary if you compile it with cross toolchain
   compiler for big endian platform.

 * --host=mipsel-linux-musl is necessary if you compile it with cross toolchain
   compiler for little endian platform.

 * --host=nanomipseb-linux-gnu is necessary if you compile it with cross toolchain
   compiler for nanoMIPS big endian platform.

 * --host=nanomips-linux-gnu is necessary if you compile it with cross toolchain
   compiler for nanoMIPS little endian platform.

 * --build=mips-linux is needed if you want to build it for MIPS32 on 64-bit
   MIPS system.

 * If you are compiling Valgrind for mips32 with gcc version older then
   gcc (GCC) 4.5.1, you must specify CFLAGS="-mips32r2 -mplt", e.g.

   ./configure --prefix=<path_to_install_directory>
   CFLAGS="-mips32r2 -mplt"


Limitations
-----------
- Some gdb tests will fail when gdb (GDB) older than 7.5 is used and gdb is
  not compiled with '--with-expat=yes'.
- You can not compile tests for DSP ASE if you are using gcc (GCC) older
  then 4.6.1 due to a bug in the toolchain.
- Older GCC may have issues with some inline assembly blocks. Get a toolchain
  based on newer GCC versions, if possible.
- Systems with a mips64 cpu having only o32 libraries will misconfigure in case
  no appropriate architecture flag is specified during configure time.
  Be sure to set either mips32 or mips32r2 as the target architecture in that
  case.
- Some tests can not be compiled for nanoMIPS due to limitations in
  preliminary GCC for nanoMIPS. You can use '-i' switch for building tests.