fpc/rtl/freebsd/bsdport.txt

$Id$

Comments, mistakes and suggestions to Marco@freepascal.org

1 FreeBSD status and notes. (kept on CVS because I work on several places)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please read these before running a FreeBSD snapshot.

- Supported are FreeBSD 3.x (3.2, 3.4 and 4.0-release (quickly) tested. I never
   tested on 3.0).  NON-ELF (2.x) versions are not supported.

- This is alpha software. I didn't have data-loss using it, but you
	use this on your own responsability. Use a scratch, or well backup'ed
	system.

- The FreeBSD/FPC port is now in its second stage. Some more stuff then what
    is required to recompile is now implemented (Clone, Sockets, Signals).
    Plans to create an (Alpha) release distribution are being made.
    (linking to external libs worked in the 16 april version already, even
    though the bsdport.txt of that date said it didn't)
    
-  IMPORTANT:
     !!! An explicite warning: Not all procedures and structures in Linux are
   checked, so even if they are not commented out, they can be not implemented!!!
   This specially applies to linux specific stuff. In case of doubt, use a
   scratch system, view the source, or mail the maintainer.

- The pre alpha version's READDIR problem is fixed with a "hack", which
    means that searchpath (-Fx) and FindFirst/FindNext are more or less 
    working.
  I don't know how  good that hack is,I hope to replace it later this week 
     by a port of freebsd's libc opendir/readdir/closedir/telldir/seekdir code,
     just to make sure.( Libc does some complex scanning and sorting for
     duplicate names, but I don't know if that is something archaic or not.
     Probably related to hardlinks, so don't use findfirst in /dev for now)

These packages have more or less been tested with ncurses:
- RTL, (NOT the Crt unit. Use ncrt for now!)
- compiler can rebuild (see below)
- packages/inet,
- packages/zlib
- packages/x11
- fcl/
- ncurses/panel.
- (reported by somebody else) XForms.
- fpgui's "hello world" demo (the other ones needed a FPC 1.1 compiler, I
        only tested 1.0.1 with FreeBSD)

2 Syscalls.
-----------

The bulk of the linux syscalls are implemented.

Some that aren't implemented:

NI           = not implemented yet
req          = required for compiler
noreq?       = not required, but not checked.
Ever? (y/n)

syscall   status  Ever?  comment
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Readdir   I req         implemented from scratch, working. (this
                        call doesn't exist on FreeBSD and FindFirst is
                        based on it)

ioperm   NI noreq  n    IO via port access impossible under FreeBSD
                           (so: no ports unit, port[] support)
                        (got some reports that port access is possible under
                        FreeBSD. Probably the same way it slipped into Linux;
                        dos emulation)

ipc      NI       ?     The IPC is System V thingy, and only supported
                          under FreeBSD with certain kernel parameters.

Clone()  I  noreq       Not implemented as syscall, based on linuxthread
                         assembler routine. Untested. Somebody has a good
                         test program? Or that tests the FCL threading
                         routines based on it?

sysinfo  NI noreq       Not supported under BSD, not even by emulator
uname    NI noreq       "        "       "    "   "   "    "   "
                        (procedures based on this call are also commented
                         (get* procs))

signal   I   noreq      A *lot* of emulation code.
alarm    NI  noreq?     Could be possible to port. (crt.delay?)
pause    NI  noreq?     Also possible I think. Uses process information
                        in linux-emu, that is why I didn't port directly.

3 How to build a FreeBSD compiler/RTL ?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

(You'll probably need CVS sources dated after April 16th for basic support, or
after the major updates on 10 september for signals and sockets.)

To rebuild the compiler, you need a starting compiler.
- Start compiler on other OS? (tested is Linux) -> check 3a
- Already a 1.0.x startcompiler on FreeBSD (e.g. from a snapshot) -> 3b is much
    easier.

3a How to build a FreeBSD system starting on Linux or using the Linux emu of
   FreeBSD? (Bootstrapping)

The FreeBSD port is experimental atm, though valid native binaries can be
obtained.

The procedure here is verbose, and for the most akward case.
If you have linux support on on your FreeBSD machine, or operate on NFS or Samba
share (so that copying and using the sources in two systems is easier)
some steps can be omitted or simplified. Just play with it.

STEP A: create the RTL assembler files.

1. Copy all linux files to a new directory. (here called BSDBUILD), and
2. Copy all bsd files over them.
2b. Run fpcmake if you can. This will eliminate problems with Makefile being
    out of sync or containing dos lfns.
3. Execute  make OPT='-Tlinux -dBSD -a -s -OG3p3' (with any i386 FPC
    compiler) in directory BSDBUILD. This failed with some go32v2 versions
    (which wanted to assemble anyway), but worked with several win32 and
    linux' snapshots. On go32v2 you can try to add -Aas.

You now have .ppu's and .s  's for the RTL hopefully. Don't forget
    i386/prt0.as (which is in fact a .s file)!

STEP B: Create the compiler assembler (.s) sources;

4. Compile with
   ./bsdcompile -Fu/full_path_to_BSDBUILD -a -s

(steps 5 and 6 are only needed for the very first FreeBSD snapshot, which
is no longer available)

STEP C: Building the binary

7. Copy all necessary files
    (- all *.s *.ppu files, both from compiler and BSDBUILD dir,
     - compiler/link.res and
     - compiler/ppas.sh
     - Cut and paste of the DO_S script at the end of this document to file
     - rtl/bsd/i386/*.as files.
     )
     to a directory on the BSD machine.
8a. Change to the directory on the BSD machine, and run the script DO_S to
    assemble all .s files to .o files.
8b. Assemble the stub with as prt0.as -o prt0.o
9. Adapt link.res so that all paths are right.
    (remove all paths in front of all .o files, remove the -l lines and their
      parentheses)
10a. Edit ppas.sh, and keep only #!/bin/sh and the line starting with ld.
  b  Remove any -l=ld-linux.so.1 (or similar) option from the ld line.
  c  run ppas.sh to build the compiler

11. Have fun :-) The compiler is called "pp"

12. If you have a heavy machine (pentium 100 and 32MB+) execute 3b to make
    sure everything is up to date.

------------

3b How to update FPC compiler on FreeBSD from fresh CVS sources with a snapshot
installed.

(To create a compiler for the 1.0 branch, you need a 1.0.x compiler, and to
create a 1.1 (development branch) compiler you need a 1.1.x snapshot.
You can check the version of your snapshot with ppc386 -i)

(assuming ppc386 in the PATH, and a rtl/ and compiler/ directory obtained
 from snapshot zips, with non mangled makefiles)

1a  Rename the rtl/linux to something else. (here: rtl/linuxorg)
1b  create a new rtl/linux dir
1c  copy rtl/linuxorg/* to rtl/linux
1d  copy rtl/bsd/* to rtl/linux  RECURSIVELY
1e  (optionally) Run fpcmake if you have it installed. This is a good
    habit!
2   switch to compiler/
3   gmake cycle OPT='-OG3p3 -dBSD' will generate a new compiler.

Be patient! FreeBSD has slower disk-io than Linux :-)

Rest is like Linux, except that I strongly advise to create the fpc
directory always in /usr/local/lib/ instead of /usr/lib.
This habit is still fashionable on FreeBSD.

The same with other packages. Like Linux :-)

4 Linking to external libraries
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Same as on Linux, except use the


------------------
The DO_S script. (C) El Znorro
------------------
#!/bin/sh

for i in *.s; do
 flup=`basename $i .s`
 as $i -o $flup.o
 echo $i
 echo $flup
 done

{
$Log$
Revision 1.2  2000-09-18 13:42:35  marco
 * FreeBSD support into 1.1

Revision 1.3  2000/09/11 14:38:09  marco
 * 14 april version killed, and replaced by newer fixes branch version

Revision 1.1.2.1  2000/09/10 16:12:14  marco
Initial signals, sockets and clone

Revision 1.1  2000/07/13 06:30:32  michael
+ Initial import

Revision 1.3  2000/04/16 16:11:33  marco
 * Severe updates for now *working* status

Revision 1.2  2000/04/10 15:46:51  marco
 * worked all day. probably a lot changed
}