User:Barre/Development/GCC/Static Build

Here is how to build a static release of a given software with GCC.

First you need to build a specific release of the GCC compiler. Let's assume we are going to use GCC 3.4.3 (you mileage may vary, replace 3.4.3 with your favorite version):

• Download GCC at gcc.gnu.org. You need:

 gcc-core-x-y-z.tar.bz2
 gcc-g++-x-y-z.tar.gz

• Create a distribution directory for GCC:

 mkdir /opt/gcc-3.4.3s

• Create a src directory inside the distribution directory:

 cd /opt/gcc-3.4.3s
 mkdir src

• Unpack the GCC packages inside the src directory:

 cd src
 tar xvjf gcc-core-3.4.3.tar.bz2
 tar xvjf gcc-g++-3.4.3.tar.bz2

• Create the below small configuration script myconfig-gcc-343 inside the src directory (note the --disable-shared option):

 #!/bin/sh
 ../gcc-3.4.3/configure \
   --prefix=/opt/gcc-3.4.3s \
   --enable-languages=c,c++ \
   --disable-shared 

• Create a build directory inside the src directory:

 mkdir gcc-3.4.3-build

• At this point, the distribution tree should pretty much look this way:

 /opt/gcc-3.4.3s/c
 /opt/gcc-3.4.3s/src/
 /opt/gcc-3.4.3s/src/gcc-3.4.3/
 /opt/gcc-3.4.3s/src/gcc-3.4.3-build/
 /opt/gcc-3.4.3s/src/myconfig-gcc-343

• Execute the configuration script from the build directory:

 cd gcc-3.4.3-build
 sh ../myconfig-gcc-343

• Build the compiler from the build directory and install it:

 make
 make install

• [OPTIONAL] Create some symlinks to this GCC build in /usr/local/bin:

 cd /usr/local/bin
 ln -s /opt/gcc-3.4.3s/bin/gcc gcc-3.4.3s
 ln -s /opt/gcc-3.4.3s/bin/g++ g++-3.4.3s
 ln -s /opt/gcc-3.4.3s/bin/c++ c++-3.4.3s
 ln -s /opt/gcc-3.4.3s/bin/cpp cpp-3.4.3s

Now re-build your software:

• Whatever tool you were using to build your software (for example, CMake), you need to point this tool to your brand-new GCC compiler. Most of the times, setting the CXX and CC environment variables to the path to the corresponding GCC binaries will do the trick:

 CXX=g++-3.4.3s CC=gcc-3.4.3s cmake

• Do not forget to pass the -static parameter to your linker. With CMake, set:

 CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS=-static

If you plan to distribute your binary, you may want to try shrinking it a little more. To do so, use strip to discard useless symbols from the executable. Once it's done, you may also give a shot to UPX to self-compress the resulting binary and achieve near-gzip compression level:

 $ ls -al dicom2
 -rwxrwxr-x  1 barre barre 4090180 Mar  9 10:48 dicom2*
 $ strip dicom2
 $ ls -al dicom2
 -rwxrwxr-x  1 barre barre 1492828 Mar  9 10:55 dicom2*
 $ upx -9 dicom2
 $ ls -al dicom2
 -rwxrwxr-x  1 barre barre 537136 Mar  9 10:56 dicom2*
 $ gzip dicom2
 $ ls -al dicom2.gz
 -rwxrwxr-x  1 barre barre 528410 Mar  9 10:56 dicom2.gz*