Re: GCC C/C++ runtime library question

Ramanathan Ramadass wrote:


(assuming some unix)


> 1. What is the exact difference between the C runtime and the C
> standard libraries i.e where does one end and the other begin;
> specifically w.r.t gcc? While i am going through a lot of text(both
> online and book form) i am not 100% clear on this.


Roughly, the runtime is libgcc, the stdlib is libc. This can be seen
e.g. on *BSD that use different libc's. (so what the default libc
might be, is platform dependant)


Besides these there are the ELF startup code files (crt*), the .o
files in /usr/lib


The OS interface is a series of calls defined by unistd.h, and usually
a real ugly macro to inline some syscall. You can never be sure that a
call with a certain name (in the stdlib) really exists in the
library. It might be a header only thing and via some macro wrapper
get magically turned into some other call.


> 2. In a gcc distribution where exactly does the compiler specific
> magic lie within the runtime libraries?


(no idea, don't develop with gcc, only use it as systems compiler)


> I might have to modify gcc to use only my libraries but where and how do i
> begin?


Start to link your binary, and see what calls are missing. Find out
what these calls are, and how they interact (e.g. by objdump -D small
static binaries)


> Currently i have built the 3rd party vendor's library and am linking with
> it but for some symbols i still have to go to the gcc runtimes. I am
> running "nm" and extracting the object modules using "ar" for all the
> unresolved symbols; which seems to be a roundabout way of doing things.


- Get the libc source
- objdump small programs using the symbols. Much easier to examine.


> What i would like is to understand the structure of how gcc interfaces
> with its runtimes. Would appreciate any and all help on this. Pointers to
> other articles/links/books will also be very welcome.


No idea. I looked at libc to implement our own runtime, but don't use gcc
(or libc)


> [Good luck. The OS interface library, the standard C library, and the
> magic helper code libraries are rarely easy to separate out, and the
> low level details are rarely documented. -John]


My main frustration is that a symbol on C language level is not
guaranteed a symbol in the source. This makes POSIX useless if you
don't use C, and, together with liberal use of preprocessor macro's in
Unix headers in general hinders a lot of automatic conversion.

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