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xPack GNU RISC-V Embedded GCC v11.5.0-1 released

· 6 min read
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)
Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

Version 11.5.0-1 is a new release; it follows the GNU GCC release.

The xPack GNU RISC-V Embedded GCC is a standalone cross-platform binary distribution of the GNU GCC.

There are separate binaries for Windows (Intel 64-bit), macOS (Intel 64-bit) and GNU/Linux (Intel 64-bit, Arm 32/64-bit).

Raspberry Pi

The main targets for the GNU/Linux Arm binaries are the Raspberry Pi class devices (armv7l and aarch64; armv6 is not supported).

Download​

The binary files are available from GitHub Releases.

Prerequisites​

  • x64 GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.27 or higher (like Ubuntu 18 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)
  • arm64/arm GNU/Linux: any system with GLIBC 2.27 or higher (like Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu 18 or later, Debian 10 or later, RedHat 8 or later, Fedora 29 or later, etc)
  • x64 Windows: Windows 7 with the Universal C Runtime (UCRT), Windows 8, Windows 10
  • x64 macOS: 10.13 or later
  • arm64 macOS: 11.6 or later

Install​

The full details of installing the xPack GNU RISC-V Embedded GCC on various platforms are presented in the Install Guide.

Compliance​

The xPack GNU RISC-V Embedded GCC uses the official sources, with no functional changes:

  • GCC 11.5.0
  • binutils 2.42
  • newlib 4.4.0
  • gdb 15.1
  • python 3.12.2

Supported libraries​

The default architecture/ABI pair is rv32imac/ilp32.

The other supported libraries are:

$ riscv-none-elf-gcc -print-multi-lib
.;
rv32e/ilp32e;@march=rv32e@mabi=ilp32e
rv32ea/ilp32e;@march=rv32ea@mabi=ilp32e
rv32eac/ilp32e;@march=rv32eac@mabi=ilp32e
rv32ec/ilp32e;@march=rv32ec@mabi=ilp32e
rv32em/ilp32e;@march=rv32em@mabi=ilp32e
rv32ema/ilp32e;@march=rv32ema@mabi=ilp32e
rv32emac/ilp32e;@march=rv32emac@mabi=ilp32e
rv32emc/ilp32e;@march=rv32emc@mabi=ilp32e
rv32i/ilp32;@march=rv32i@mabi=ilp32
rv32ia/ilp32;@march=rv32ia@mabi=ilp32
rv32iac/ilp32;@march=rv32iac@mabi=ilp32
rv32iaf_zicsr/ilp32f;@march=rv32iaf_zicsr@mabi=ilp32f
rv32iafc_zicsr/ilp32f;@march=rv32iafc_zicsr@mabi=ilp32f
rv32iafd_zicsr/ilp32d;@march=rv32iafd_zicsr@mabi=ilp32d
rv32iafdc_zicsr/ilp32d;@march=rv32iafdc_zicsr@mabi=ilp32d
rv32ic/ilp32;@march=rv32ic@mabi=ilp32
rv32if_zicsr/ilp32f;@march=rv32if_zicsr@mabi=ilp32f
rv32ifc_zicsr/ilp32f;@march=rv32ifc_zicsr@mabi=ilp32f
rv32ifd_zicsr/ilp32d;@march=rv32ifd_zicsr@mabi=ilp32d
rv32ifdc_zicsr/ilp32d;@march=rv32ifdc_zicsr@mabi=ilp32d
rv32im/ilp32;@march=rv32im@mabi=ilp32
rv32ima/ilp32;@march=rv32ima@mabi=ilp32
rv32imaf_zicsr/ilp32f;@march=rv32imaf_zicsr@mabi=ilp32f
rv32imafc_zicsr/ilp32f;@march=rv32imafc_zicsr@mabi=ilp32f
rv32imafd_zicsr/ilp32d;@march=rv32imafd_zicsr@mabi=ilp32d
rv32imafdc_zicsr/ilp32d;@march=rv32imafdc_zicsr@mabi=ilp32d
rv32imc/ilp32;@march=rv32imc@mabi=ilp32
rv32imf_zicsr/ilp32f;@march=rv32imf_zicsr@mabi=ilp32f
rv32imfc_zicsr/ilp32f;@march=rv32imfc_zicsr@mabi=ilp32f
rv32imfd_zicsr/ilp32d;@march=rv32imfd_zicsr@mabi=ilp32d
rv32imfdc_zicsr/ilp32d;@march=rv32imfdc_zicsr@mabi=ilp32d
rv64i/lp64;@march=rv64i@mabi=lp64
rv64ia/lp64;@march=rv64ia@mabi=lp64
rv64iac/lp64;@march=rv64iac@mabi=lp64
rv64iaf_zicsr/lp64f;@march=rv64iaf_zicsr@mabi=lp64f
rv64iafc_zicsr/lp64f;@march=rv64iafc_zicsr@mabi=lp64f
rv64iafd_zicsr/lp64d;@march=rv64iafd_zicsr@mabi=lp64d
rv64iafdc_zicsr/lp64d;@march=rv64iafdc_zicsr@mabi=lp64d
rv64ic/lp64;@march=rv64ic@mabi=lp64
rv64if_zicsr/lp64f;@march=rv64if_zicsr@mabi=lp64f
rv64ifc_zicsr/lp64f;@march=rv64ifc_zicsr@mabi=lp64f
rv64ifd_zicsr/lp64d;@march=rv64ifd_zicsr@mabi=lp64d
rv64ifdc_zicsr/lp64d;@march=rv64ifdc_zicsr@mabi=lp64d
rv64im/lp64;@march=rv64im@mabi=lp64
rv64ima/lp64;@march=rv64ima@mabi=lp64
rv64imac/lp64;@march=rv64imac@mabi=lp64
rv64imaf_zicsr/lp64f;@march=rv64imaf_zicsr@mabi=lp64f
rv64imafc_zicsr/lp64f;@march=rv64imafc_zicsr@mabi=lp64f
rv64imafd_zicsr/lp64d;@march=rv64imafd_zicsr@mabi=lp64d
rv64imafdc_zicsr/lp64d;@march=rv64imafdc_zicsr@mabi=lp64d
rv64imc/lp64;@march=rv64imc@mabi=lp64
rv64imf_zicsr/lp64f;@march=rv64imf_zicsr@mabi=lp64f
rv64imfc_zicsr/lp64f;@march=rv64imfc_zicsr@mabi=lp64f
rv64imfd_zicsr/lp64d;@march=rv64imfd_zicsr@mabi=lp64d
rv64imfdc_zicsr/lp64d;@march=rv64imfdc_zicsr@mabi=lp64d

Changes​

Compared to the upstream GNU release, there are no functional changes.

risc-none-elf-gcc​

For compliance reasons, starting with 11.x, the name of the toolchain was updated to risc-none-elf-gcc.

RISC-V ISA updates​

Compared to previous releases, starting from 12.x, the compiler implements the new RISC-V ISA, which introduces an incompatibility issue, and builds might throw error messages like unrecognized opcode csrr.

The reason is that csr read/write (csrr*/csrw*) instructions and fence.i instruction were separated from the I extension, becoming two standalone extensions: Zicsr and Zifencei.

The solution is to add _zicsr and/or _zifencei to the -march option, e.g. -march=rv32imac becomes -march=rv32imac_zicsr_zifencei.

In Eclipse, until the GUI will be updated, select the Toolchain Default for Architecture and enter the new string separately as Other target flags.

newlib-nano​

Support for newlib-nano is available using the --specs=nano.specs option. For better results, this option must be added to both compile and link time.

nosys.specs​

If no syscalls are needed, --specs=nosys.specs can be used at link time to provide empty implementations for the POSIX system calls.

-mcmodel=medany​

The libraries are compiled with -O2 -mcmodel=medany. The nano version is compiled with -Os -mcmodel=medany.

caution

It is mandatory for the applications to be compiled with -mcmodel=medany, otherwise the link might fail.

Python​

Support for Python scripting was added to GDB. This distribution provides a separate binary, riscv-none-elf-gdb-py3 with support for Python 3.12.2.

The Python 3 run-time is included, so GDB does not need any version of Python to be installed, and is insensitive to the presence of other versions.

Text User Interface (TUI)​

Support for TUI was added to GDB. The ncurses library was added to the distribution.

note

TUI is not available on Windows

Bug fixes​

  • none

Enhancements​

  • none

Known problems​

  • due to the large number of libraries, the archive is >500 MB.

Documentation​

The original GNU GCC documentation is available online.

Build​

The binaries for all supported platforms (Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux) were built using the xPack Build Box (XBB), a set of build environments based on slightly older distributions, that should be compatible with most recent systems.

For the prerequisites and more details on the build procedure, please see the Maintainer Info page.

CI tests​

Before publishing, a set of simple tests were performed on an exhaustive set of platforms. The results are available from:

Tests​

The binaries were tested on a variety of platforms, but mainly to check the integrity of the build, not the compiler functionality.

Checksums​

The SHA-256 hashes for the files are:

d530428c080e7b1411653a64f634f79f94b48262285993280d2717fa4d471ce0
xpack-riscv-none-elf-gcc-11.5.0-1-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

5596748cc940f632e11882c3ada92b68700b04cf48d97b41a9aae353ee3307a5
xpack-riscv-none-elf-gcc-11.5.0-1-darwin-x64.tar.gz

657162eed9eac11f3a9a43945bd099476e11d6d76aeca4ef5e07ce05ff59df39
xpack-riscv-none-elf-gcc-11.5.0-1-linux-arm.tar.gz

f8fecda99eb2ad5d90440c8494f725083e2445229c5d5962012905a8f9275fac
xpack-riscv-none-elf-gcc-11.5.0-1-linux-arm64.tar.gz

38cf0a7b885e21e3b0a88cde401b1a56290eb7856dab46a50bf05ec4f506df86
xpack-riscv-none-elf-gcc-11.5.0-1-linux-x64.tar.gz

533269c5c4f54966d6ff21f57525e11fd59c4d3bdea9b1911b38c6b159e64da8
xpack-riscv-none-elf-gcc-11.5.0-1-win32-x64.zip

Deprecation notices​

Linux minimum requirements​

The minimum requirement is GLIBC 2.27, available starting with Ubuntu 18, Debian 10 and RedHat 8. Support for RedHat 7 was dropped in 2022.

32-bit support​

Support for 32-bit Intel Linux and Intel Windows was dropped in 2022.

Pre-deprecation notice for 32-bit Arm Linux​

Due to the large user base of 32-bit Raspberry Pi systems, support for 32-bit Arm Linux (armv7l) will be preserved for a little while, but expect it to be dropped by 2025, so it is recommended to consider an upgrade to a RPi 4 or 5 with at least 4 GB (preferably 8 GB) of RAM.

Pre-deprecation notice for Ubuntu 18.04​

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver reached the end of the standard five-year maintenance window for Long-Term Support (LTS) release on 31 May 2023.

As a courtesy, the xPack GNU/Linux releases will continue to be based on Ubuntu 18.04 for another year.

From 2025 onwards, the GNU/Linux binaries will be built on Debian 10, (GLIBC 2.28), and are also expected to run on RedHat 8.

Users are urged to update their build and test infrastructure to ensure a smooth transition to the next xPack releases.

Download analytics​

Credit to Shields IO for the badges and to Somsubhra/github-release-stats for the individual file counters.