BFD is an object file library. It permits applications to use the

same routines to process object files regardless of their format.

BFD is used by the GNU debugger, assembler, linker, and the binary

utilities.

The documentation on using BFD is scanty and may be occasionally

incorrect. Pointers to documentation problems, or an entirely

rewritten manual, would be appreciated.

There is some BFD internals documentation in doc/bfdint.texi which may

help programmers who want to modify BFD.

BFD is normally built as part of another package. See the build

instructions for that package, probably in a README file in the

appropriate directory.

BFD supports the following configure options:

--target=TARGET

The default target for which to build the library. TARGET is

a configuration target triplet, such as sparc-sun-solaris.

--enable-targets=TARGET,TARGET,TARGET...

Additional targets the library should support. To include

support for all known targets, use --enable-targets=all.

--enable-64-bit-bfd

Include support for 64 bit targets. This is automatically

turned on if you explicitly request a 64 bit target, but not

for --enable-targets=all. This requires a compiler with a 64

bit integer type, such as gcc.

--enable-shared

Build BFD as a shared library.

--with-mmap

Use mmap when accessing files. This is faster on some hosts,

but slower on others. It may not work on all hosts.

Report bugs in BFD to https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/

Patches are encouraged. When sending patches, always send the output

of diff -u or diff -c from the original file to the new file. Do not

send default diff output. Do not make the diff from the new file to

the original file. Remember that any patch must not break other

systems. Remember that BFD must support cross compilation from any

host to any target, so patches which use ``#ifdef HOST'' are not

acceptable. Please also read the ``Reporting Bugs'' section of the

gcc manual.

Bug reports without patches will be remembered, but they may never get

fixed until somebody volunteers to fix them.

Copyright (C) 2012-2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,

are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright

notice and this notice are preserved.