This is an updated version of readme.dos from the Binutils 2.9.5.1
beta release. This version will provide updates on known problems as they
are discovered.

This is a DOS/DJGPP port of GNU Binutils from the CVS repository
as of February 27th, 2000.

Contents
========

* Installing the binary
* DJGPP port notes
* Building from sources
* Bug reports & Known problems
* Thanks

Installing the binary
=====================

Unzip the binary package with the option to preserve directories 
(the -d option in PKUNZIP, the -directories option in PKZIP 2.5 and above)
from the top of your DJGPP directory tree.

DJGPP port notes
================

* This is a beta release, so do expect to find a few problems.
* Weak symbols are now supported, along with the '.gnu.linkonce' feature
  for C++ templates. DJGPP ports of gcc 2.95.2 and later can generate
  weak symbols with the -mbnu210 command line switch.
* General fixes are included for handling drive names and the
  path separator not yet in the Binutils repository. See diffs.dos
* Intel MMX and SSE instructions are now supported.
* AMD 3dNow! instructions are now supported.
* Long section names are now supported.
* The .data and .text sections are now aligned at 16-bytes.
* The binaries were built with DJGPP 2.03, so it understands the new
  '/dev/env/FOO' syntax. This is important when building packages with
  Bash 2.03 or later.
* Please see the documentation for other new features in this beta release.
* Due to the amount of space taken up by files not used by the DJGPP build,
  the source has been split into two sections.
    + bnu2951s.zip contains just the sources needed to build Binutils
      for DJGPP.
    + bnu2951x.zip contains the rest of the sources needed to build
      Binutils for all other targets.

Building from sources
=====================

You will need:

* bnu2951s.zip when building for DJGPP. Does not require a LFN environment.
  However, certain files containing Changelog entries clash when unpacked
  in plain DOS.
* bnu2951x.zip in addition to bnu2951s.zip for a cross build. May require
  a LFN environment for certain targets.
* Bash 2.03 or later.
* A GCC compiler and existing Binutils.
* Make 3.78 or later.
* Sed 3.02 or later.
* Fileutils 3.16 or later.
* DJGPP v2.03
* and possibly more packages

Unzip the source archive with the option to preserve directories
(the -d option in the old PKUNZIP, the -directories option in newer
versions of PKZIP) from the top of your DJGPP directory tree. Install
the Bash binary and required utilities if you haven't already done so.

The sources come ready to build, so all you need do is type 'make' and
then find something else to do for a while.

Changes were made to ylwrap and Makefile.in to handle the default output
filenames produced by DJGPP's Bison. See 'diffs.dos' for a patch that can
be applied to the sources from the Binutils CVS or Binutils snapshots.
Eli Zaretskii's changes for handling drive names and the path separator
are also included.

To re-configure, you can run 'djconfig.bat'. It will set the proper variables
before running 'configure'. Or at least view the file to see what variables
you need to set before running 'configure' yourself.


Bug reports & Known Problems
============================

Please send DJGPP-specific bug reports to the newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp
or to the e-mail gateway djgpp@delorie.com. All other bug reports should be
sent to binutils@sourceware.cygnus.com .

Known problems in bnu2951s.zip and bnu2951x.zip:
*  The '--enable-targets=all' option for 'configure' is broken.

Thanks
======

Thanks to Eli Zaretskii for his fixes for Binutils bugs not yet integrated
into the Binutils repository.


Mark E. <snowball3@bigfoot.com>