How to install gnu ld on mac os x 10.6?

Question

I'm having a lot of trouble compiling the otherwise excellent Contiki OS on my macbook pro (with mac os x 10.6). Contiki actually uses a lot of GNU-specific features and options of GCC, AR, LD, and so on. So I installed those utilities via macports, but it looks like "port install binutils" does not install GNU ld, does it ?

So, the question is, how do I get GNU ld on my mac ? Is there a simple alternative to the hard-way (i.e. the wget, configure, make, make install way) ?

Answer 1

As far as I can tell, GNU binutils does not support the Mach-O format. None of the documentation mentions it, and some Googling turns up some recent messages indicating that it is not supported.

Now, you mention the Contiki OS, which looks to me like an embedded operating system. Are you needing to compile to a native executable, or are you trying to cross-compile for some other environment? MacPorts does include several ports of binutils for cross compilation.

Answer 2

$ port info binutils
(…) Tools are prefixed with g to avoid conflicts with original tools. (…)

Answer 3

Generally you can link directly with gcc or g++ and don't need gld. Try setting LD to point to the compiler and see if it doesn't link for you.