Re: Can you emulate cross compilers written for x86 on ARMv8-A?

[James Hanley]

Not sure what you mean by “emulate” - the gcc suite of tools includes a concept 
of:
Build - the architecture doing the compiler build
Host - the architecture you are building the compiler for 
Target - the architecture the compiler is to build for

So you could build on M2 Darwin a compiler to be executed on raspbian A76 
hardware to build target binaries for x86 Linux.

-Jim

> On Jan 12, 2025, at 8:39 PM, Matt Timpson via <qemu-arm@nongnu.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> The Raspberry Pi forums just banned me, and while they probably banned me for 
> asking beginner-level questions they saw as inappropriate, I feel compelled 
> to clear the air. They didn't formally give me a reason.
> 
> I had one of those shower thoughts: if you want to run a cross compiler to 
> rewrite x86 software to work on your ARM computer, but those you found only 
> work on x86, couldn't you emulate an x86 system just long enough to rewrite 
> software so it no longer needs an emulator? I understand that compilers 
> translate into high-level languages for a reason, even if I don't know why; 
> and everyone who would speak to me suggested just about everything else, but 
> for sake of completeness, what would happen if I did this the wrong way?
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Matt Timpson 🍉
> 
> 
> Sent with Proton Mail secure email.
>