Symbian OS natively runs on ARM processors and to build a Symbian OS
application, we need a compiler based on the Application Binary Interface (ABI)
for ARM Architecture. There are two versions of the ARM ABI, referred to as v1
and v2 respectively. The Symbian OS build toolchain defines a set of native
build targets (ARMV5
and ARMV6
) that invoke ARM's
RealView Compiler Tools (RVCT) to build binaries conforming to these two ABI
versions. For more information on differences between ABI v1 and v2 toolchains,
refer to ABIv1 to ABIv2 toolchain changes.
From Symbian OS v9.4 onwards, the behaviour of these build targets
(ARMV5
, ARMV5_ABIv2
, ARMV6
and
ARMV6_ABIv2
) can be changed. The following lists the behaviour of
these build targets prior to, for and after Symbian OS v9.4:
For Symbian OS v9.3 and earlier versions, the build targets used to
create binaries conforming to ABI v1 and ABI v2 are ARMV5
and
ARMV5_ABIv2
respectively, and ARMV6
and
ARMV6_ABIv2
respectively. By default, the abld build
command will create binaries conforming to ARMV5 ABI v1.
For Symbian OS v9.4 and later, the build targets used to create
binaries conforming to ABI v2 and ABI v1 are ARMV5
and
ARMV5_ABIv1
respectively, and ARMV6
and
ARMV6_ABIv1
respectively. By default, the abld build
command will create binaries conforming to ARMV5 ABI v2.
You can choose to switch between the above listed behaviours using the
macro ENABLE_ABIV2_MODE
. If you enable this macro, the behaviour
of build targets ARMV5
and ARMV6
is changed to create
binaries conforming to ABI v2 instead of ABI v1. If you want to create binaries
conforming to ABI v1, use the build targets ARMV5_ABIv1
and
ARMV6_ABIv1
.
To switch to ABI v2 mode from ABI v1 mode, edit the
variant.cfg
file located at epoc32\tools\variant\
and
add the macro ENABLE_ABIV2_MODE
.
After you add the macro to variant.cfg
file, the following
abld
commands will create binaries conforming to ABI v2 under
epoc32\release\ARMV5\
or epoc32\release\ARMV6\
folders:
> abld build
> abld build ARMV5
> abld build ARMV6
If you want to create binaries conforming to ABI v1 under
epoc32\release\ARMV5_ABIV1\
or
epoc32\release\ARMV6_ABIV1\
folders, use the following
abld
commands:
> abld build ARMV5_ABIV1
> abld build ARMV6_ABIV1
A summary of the available build targets, their instruction set, compiler version, ABI version and their target location, after you switch to ABI v2 mode is as follows:
|
To switch back to ABI v1 mode from ABI v2 mode, disable the
ENABLE_ABIV2_MODE
macro. You can disable the macro either by
commenting it or removing it from the variant.cfg
file.
After you disable the ENABLE_ABIV2_MODE
macro, the
following abld
commands will create binaries conforming to ABI v1
under epoc32\release\ARMV5\
or epoc32\release\ARMV6\
folders:
> abld build
> abld build ARMV5
> abld build ARMV6
If you want to build binaries conforming to ABI v2 under
epoc32\release\ARMV5_ABIV2\
or
epoc32\release\ARMV6_ABIV2\
folders, use the following
abld
commands:
> abld build ARMV5_ABIV2
> abld build ARMV6_ABIV2