Cross compile xalan-c 1.11, arm gcc, CodeSourcery 4.3.3, ./configure

Question

I have been trying to compile xalan-c specifically 1.11 with xerces 3.1.1. with an arm cross-compile toolchain 4.3.3 from CodeSourcery on a ubuntu 14.x 64.

xalan-c has two configure scripts. First the usual ./configure and second ./runConfigure.

Up until now I have been cross-compiling other libs (e.g. libusb-1.0/libusb-0.1/openssl) with

--host../configure --host=arm-none-linux-gnueabi --prefix="/home/user/sysroot-arm-sf/usr/local/"

This time however I believe I need to use ./runConfigure otherwise some environment variables are not set (e.g. how it deals with messages) I use:

./runConfigure -p linux -x arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++ -c arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc  -P "/home/user/sysroot-arm-sf/usr/local/"  -C--host=arm-none-linux-gnueabi

instead which I believe to be the equivalent to ./configure . the ./runConfigure is using all default values (except for the c and c++ compiler which it does not recognize, unfortunately)

Generating makefiles with the following options ...
Platform: linux
C Compiler: arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc
C++ Compiler: arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++
Extra compile options: 
Extra link options: 
Transcoder: default
Localization system: inmem
Locale: en_US
Thread option: pthread
bitsToBuild option: 32
Extra configure options:  --prefix=/home/user/sysroot-arm-sf/usr/local/ --host=arm-none-linux-gnueabi
Debug is OFF
I do not recognize the C compiler 'arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc'. Continuing anyway ...
I do not recognize the C++ compiler 'arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++'. Continuing anyway ...

configure: WARNING: If you wanted to set the --build type, don't use --host.
If a cross compiler is detected then cross compile mode will be used.
checking for arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc... arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... yes
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking for arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++... arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++ accepts -g... yes
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for autoconf... autoconf
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... arm-none-linux-gnueabi
checking for floor in -lm... yes
checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++ -E
checking for egrep... grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for mbstowcs... yes
checking if mbstowcs can count only... cross-compiling default
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile.incl
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating src/xalanc/Makefile
config.status: creating src/xalanc/Utils/Makefile
config.status: creating src/xalanc/Utils/MsgCreator/Makefile
config.status: creating src/xalanc/Utils/XalanMsgLib/Makefile
config.status: creating samples/Makefile
config.status: creating Tests/Makefile

If the result of the above commands look OK to you, go to the directory
/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c/ and type "gmake" or "make" to make the XALAN-C system.

Note: You must use GNU make to use the Xalan Makefile.

Then I'll try

make
make -C src/xalanc all
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c/src/xalanc'
Preparing the directory structure for a build ...
mkdir -p ../../obj
mkdir -p ../../lib
mkdir -p ../../bin
make -C Utils prepare
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c/src/xalanc/Utils'
mkdir -p ../../../nls
mkdir -p ../../../nls/include
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c/src/xalanc/Utils'
make -C Utils locale
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c/src/xalanc/Utils'
make -C MsgCreator 
make[3]: Entering directory `/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c/src/xalanc/Utils/MsgCreator'
arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++ -O3 -DNDEBUG  -pthread -D_REENTRANT   -Wall -fPIC -DLINUX -D_REENTRANT -DXALAN_INMEM_MSG_LOADER -c -I/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src -I/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//include -I../../../../nls/include -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//src/ -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//include/xercesc -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//include/  -o ../../../../obj/MsgFileOutputStream.o /home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src/xalanc/Utils/MsgCreator/MsgFileOutputStream.cpp
arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++ -O3 -DNDEBUG  -pthread -D_REENTRANT   -Wall -fPIC -DLINUX -D_REENTRANT -DXALAN_INMEM_MSG_LOADER -c -I/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src -I/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//include -I../../../../nls/include -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//src/ -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//include/xercesc -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//include/  -o ../../../../obj/ICUResHandler.o /home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src/xalanc/Utils/MsgCreator/ICUResHandler.cpp
arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++ -O3 -DNDEBUG  -pthread -D_REENTRANT   -Wall -fPIC -DLINUX -D_REENTRANT -DXALAN_INMEM_MSG_LOADER -c -I/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src -I/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//include -I../../../../nls/include -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//src/ -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//include/xercesc -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//include/  -o ../../../../obj/InMemHandler.o /home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src/xalanc/Utils/MsgCreator/InMemHandler.cpp
arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++ -O3 -DNDEBUG  -pthread -D_REENTRANT   -Wall -fPIC -DLINUX -D_REENTRANT -DXALAN_INMEM_MSG_LOADER -c -I/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src -I/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//include -I../../../../nls/include -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//src/ -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//include/xercesc -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//include/  -o ../../../../obj/MsgCreator.o /home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src/xalanc/Utils/MsgCreator/MsgCreator.cpp
arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++ -O3 -DNDEBUG  -pthread -D_REENTRANT   -Wall -fPIC -DLINUX -D_REENTRANT -DXALAN_INMEM_MSG_LOADER -c -I/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src -I/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//include -I../../../../nls/include -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//src/ -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//include/xercesc -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//include/  -o ../../../../obj/NLSHandler.o /home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src/xalanc/Utils/MsgCreator/NLSHandler.cpp
arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++ -O3 -DNDEBUG  -pthread -D_REENTRANT   -Wall -fPIC -DLINUX -D_REENTRANT -DXALAN_INMEM_MSG_LOADER -c -I/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src -I/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//include -I../../../../nls/include -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//src/ -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//include/xercesc -I/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//include/  -o ../../../../obj/SAX2Handler.o /home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src/xalanc/Utils/MsgCreator/SAX2Handler.cpp
arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++ -DLINUX -fPIC -pthread -D_REENTRANT -DXALAN_INMEM_MSG_LOADER   \
     -lm  -lpthread  ../../../../obj/MsgFileOutputStream.o ../../../../obj/ICUResHandler.o ../../../../obj/InMemHandler.o ../../../../obj/MsgCreator.o ../../../../obj/NLSHandler.o ../../../../obj/SAX2Handler.o -o ../../../../bin/MsgCreator -L/home/user/xerces-c-3.1.1//lib -lxerces-c 
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c/src/xalanc/Utils/MsgCreator'
../../../bin/MsgCreator /home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src/xalanc/NLS/en_US/XalanMsg_en_US.xlf -TYPE inmem -LOCALE en_US
../../../bin/MsgCreator: ../../../bin/MsgCreator: cannot execute binary file
make[2]: *** [../../../nls/include/LocalMsgData.hpp] Error 126
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c/src/xalanc/Utils'
make[1]: *** [locale] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c/src/xalanc'
make: *** [all] Error 2

and it will fail executing

../../../bin/MsgCreator /home/user/xalan-c-1.11/c//src/xalanc/NLS/en_US/XalanMsg_en_US.xlf -TYPE inmem -LOCALE en_US

which is

bin/MsgCreator: ELF 32-bit LSB  executable, ARM, EABI5 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.14, not stripped

a binary for an Arm arch. I though ./runConfigure had used the --host option and was aware this was a cross build. Or maybe this is something xalan-c specific?

Answer 1

This problem is really tough and weird. Fortunately, I find a way to resolve this problem. From the error, we can conclude that the build process uses an executable tool named 'MsgCreator'.

Where is it from?

Actually, this tool is an intermediate product of the build process. Xalan generate it and use this tool to do something he wants.

What happens?

You may remember that you are now cross-compiling Xalan, so the target executable platform of MsgCreator may not support your build platform. This case will cause the error you see.

How to solve this problem

1. Use the local compiler to build a local MsgCreator which means this tool can run on your build platform.
2. Update the code in …./xalan-c-1.11/c/src/xalanc/Utils/MsgCreator/Malefile.in. $(XSL_BIN_DIR)/MsgCreator -> $(XSL_BIN_TMP_DIR)/MsgCreator
3. Export XSL_BIN_TMP_DIR to your local MsgCreator tool path.
4. export LD_LIBRARY_PATH to add MsgCreator dependency libraries. These libraries can be generated by compiling Xerces-C (the version must greater than 3.0) with your local compiler.
5. Cross compile Xalan, everything will go well.

Answer 2

I tried the following workaround which apparently worked.

The files in the xalanc bin/ Folder seem to be only used at compile time (at least I guessed so). Xalan generates headerfiles etc. in order to compile the libxalanMsg.so .

It was a long shot but I simply precompile those bin/ files for Ubuntu x86 and copied those files into my cross compile bin folder.

done. (at least for now)

Answer 3

It does say

checking whether we are cross compiling... yes

So this looks like a poorly tested makefile, to me.

You could try to debug it, or you could just install qemu so that ARM binaries magically Just Work (assuming they can find their libraries).