IBM RS/6000 and PowerPC Options

These -m options are defined for the IBM RS/6000 and PowerPC:

-mpower

-mno-power

-mpower2

-mno-power2

-mpowerpc

-mno-powerpc

-mpowerpc-gpopt

-mno-powerpc-gpopt

-mpowerpc-gfxopt

-mno-powerpc-gfxopt

-mpowerpc64

-mno-powerpc64

GCC supports two related instruction set architectures for the RS/6000 and PowerPC. The POWER instruction set are those instructions supported by the rios chip set used in the original RS/6000 systems and the PowerPC instruction set is the architecture of the Motorola MPC5xx, MPC6xx, MPC8xx microprocessors, and the IBM 4xx microprocessors.

Neither architecture is a subset of the other. However there is a large common subset of instructions supported by both. An MQ register is included in processors supporting the POWER architecture.

You use these options to specify which instructions are available on the processor you are using. The default value of these options is determined when configuring GCC. Specifying the -mcpu=cpu_type overrides the specification of these options. We recommend you use the -mcpu=cpu_type option rather than the options listed above.

The -mpower option allows GCC to generate instructions that are found only in the POWER architecture and to use the MQ register. Specifying -mpower2 implies -power and also allows GCC to generate instructions that are present in the POWER2 architecture but not the original POWER architecture.

The -mpowerpc option allows GCC to generate instructions that are found only in the 32-bit subset of the PowerPC architecture. Specifying -mpowerpc-gpopt implies -mpowerpc and also allows GCC to use the optional PowerPC architecture instructions in the General Purpose group, including floating-point square root. Specifying -mpowerpc-gfxopt implies -mpowerpc and also allows GCC to use the optional PowerPC architecture instructions in the Graphics group, including floating-point select.

The -mpowerpc64 option allows GCC to generate the additional 64-bit instructions that are found in the full PowerPC64 architecture and to treat GPRs as 64-bit, doubleword quantities. GCC defaults to -mno-powerpc64.

If you specify both -mno-power and -mno-powerpc, GCC will use only the instructions in the common subset of both architectures plus some special AIX common-mode calls, and will not use the MQ register. Specifying both -mpower and -mpowerpc permits GCC to use any instruction from either architecture and to allow use of the MQ register; specify this for the Motorola MPC601.

-mnew-mnemonics

-mold-mnemonics

Select which mnemonics to use in the generated assembler code. With -mnew-mnemonics, GCC uses the assembler mnemonics defined for the PowerPC architecture. With -mold-mnemonics it uses the assembler mnemonics defined for the POWER architecture. Instructions defined in only one architecture have only one mnemonic; GCC uses that mnemonic irrespective of which of these options is specified.

GCC defaults to the mnemonics appropriate for the architecture in use. Specifying -mcpu=cpu_type sometimes overrides the value of these option. Unless you are building a cross-compiler, you should normally not specify either -mnew-mnemonics or -mold-mnemonics, but should instead accept the default.

-mcpu=cpu_type

Set architecture type, register usage, choice of mnemonics, and instruction scheduling parameters for machine type cpu_type. Supported values for cpu_type are rios, rios1, rsc, rios2, rs64a, 601, 602, 603, 603e, 604, 604e, 620, 630, 740, 7400, 7450, 750, power, power2, powerpc, 403, 505, 801, 821, 823, and 860 and common.

-mcpu=common selects a completely generic processor. Code generated under this option will run on any POWER or PowerPC processor. GCC will use only the instructions in the common subset of both architectures, and will not use the MQ register. GCC assumes a generic processor model for scheduling purposes.

-mcpu=power, -mcpu=power2, -mcpu=powerpc, and -mcpu=powerpc64 specify generic POWER, POWER2, pure 32-bit PowerPC (i.e., not MPC601), and 64-bit PowerPC architecture machine types, with an appropriate, generic processor model assumed for scheduling purposes.

The other options specify a specific processor. Code generated under those options will run best on that processor, and may not run at all on others.

The -mcpu options automatically enable or disable other -m options as follows:

common

-mno-power, -mno-powerpc

power

power2

rios1

rios2

rsc

-mpower, -mno-powerpc, -mno-new-mnemonics

powerpc

rs64a

602

603

603e

604

620

630

740

7400

7450

750

505

-mno-power, -mpowerpc, -mnew-mnemonics

601

-mpower, -mpowerpc, -mnew-mnemonics

403

821

860

-mno-power, -mpowerpc, -mnew-mnemonics, -msoft-float

-mtune=cpu_type

Set the instruction scheduling parameters for machine type cpu_type, but do not set the architecture type, register usage, or choice of mnemonics, as -mcpu=cpu_type would. The same values for cpu_type are used for -mtune as for -mcpu. If both are specified, the code generated will use the architecture, registers, and mnemonics set by -mcpu, but the scheduling parameters set by -mtune.

-maltivec

-mno-altivec

These switches enable or disable the use of built-in functions that allow access to the AltiVec instruction set. You may also need to set -mabi=altivec to adjust the current ABI with AltiVec ABI enhancements.

-mabi=spe

Extend the current ABI with SPE ABI extensions. This does not change the default ABI, instead it adds the SPE ABI extensions to the current ABI.

-mabi=no-spe

Disable Booke SPE ABI extensions for the current ABI.

-misel=yes/no

-misel

This switch enables or disables the generation of ISEL instructions.

-mfull-toc

-mno-fp-in-toc

-mno-sum-in-toc

-mminimal-toc

Modify generation of the TOC (Table Of Contents), which is created for every executable file. The -mfull-toc option is selected by default. In that case, GCC will allocate at least one TOC entry for each unique non-automatic variable reference in your program. GCC will also place floating-point constants in the TOC. However, only 16,384 entries are available in the TOC.

If you receive a linker error message that saying you have overflowed the available TOC space, you can reduce the amount of TOC space used with the -mno-fp-in-toc and -mno-sum-in-toc options. -mno-fp-in-toc prevents GCC from putting floating-point constants in the TOC and -mno-sum-in-toc forces GCC to generate code to calculate the sum of an address and a constant at run-time instead of putting that sum into the TOC. You may specify one or both of these options. Each causes GCC to produce very slightly slower and larger code at the expense of conserving TOC space.

If you still run out of space in the TOC even when you specify both of these options, specify -mminimal-toc instead. This option causes GCC to make only one TOC entry for every file. When you specify this option, GCC will produce code that is slower and larger but which uses extremely little TOC space. You may wish to use this option only on files that contain less frequently executed code.

-maix64

-maix32

Enable 64-bit AIX ABI and calling convention: 64-bit pointers, 64-bit long type, and the infrastructure needed to support them. Specifying -maix64 implies -mpowerpc64 and -mpowerpc, while -maix32 disables the 64-bit ABI and implies -mno-powerpc64. GCC defaults to -maix32.

-mxl-call

-mno-xl-call

On AIX, pass floating-point arguments to prototyped functions beyond the register save area (RSA) on the stack in addition to argument FPRs. The AIX calling convention was extended but not initially documented to handle an obscure K&R C case of calling a function that takes the address of its arguments with fewer arguments than declared. AIX XL compilers access floating point arguments which do not fit in the RSA from the stack when a subroutine is compiled without optimization. Because always storing floating-point arguments on the stack is inefficient and rarely needed, this option is not enabled by default and only is necessary when calling subroutines compiled by AIX XL compilers without optimization.

-mpe

Support IBM RS/6000 SP Parallel Environment (PE). Link an application written to use message passing with special startup code to enable the application to run. The system must have PE installed in the standard location (/usr/lpp/ppe.poe/), or the specs file must be overridden with the -specs= option to specify the appropriate directory location. The Parallel Environment does not support threads, so the -mpe option and the -pthread option are incompatible.

-msoft-float

-mhard-float

Generate code that does not use (uses) the floating-point register set. Software floating point emulation is provided if you use the -msoft-float option, and pass the option to GCC when linking.

-mmultiple

-mno-multiple

Generate code that uses (does not use) the load multiple word instructions and the store multiple word instructions. These instructions are generated by default on POWER systems, and not generated on PowerPC systems. Do not use -mmultiple on little endian PowerPC systems, since those instructions do not work when the processor is in little endian mode. The exceptions are PPC740 and PPC750 which permit the instructions usage in little endian mode.

-mstring

-mno-string

Generate code that uses (does not use) the load string instructions and the store string word instructions to save multiple registers and do small block moves. These instructions are generated by default on POWER systems, and not generated on PowerPC systems. Do not use -mstring on little endian PowerPC systems, since those instructions do not work when the processor is in little endian mode. The exceptions are PPC740 and PPC750 which permit the instructions usage in little endian mode.

-mupdate

-mno-update

Generate code that uses (does not use) the load or store instructions that update the base register to the address of the calculated memory location. These instructions are generated by default. If you use -mno-update, there is a small window between the time that the stack pointer is updated and the address of the previous frame is stored, which means code that walks the stack frame across interrupts or signals may get corrupted data.

-mfused-madd

-mno-fused-madd

Generate code that uses (does not use) the floating point multiply and accumulate instructions. These instructions are generated by default if hardware floating is used.

-mno-bit-align

-mbit-align

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems do not (do) force structures and unions that contain bit-fields to be aligned to the base type of the bit-field.

For example, by default a structure containing nothing but 8 unsigned bit-fields of length 1 would be aligned to a 4 byte boundary and have a size of 4 bytes. By using -mno-bit-align, the structure would be aligned to a 1 byte boundary and be one byte in size.

-mno-strict-align

-mstrict-align

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems do not (do) assume that unaligned memory references will be handled by the system.

-mrelocatable

-mno-relocatable

On embedded PowerPC systems generate code that allows (does not allow) the program to be relocated to a different address at runtime. If you use -mrelocatable on any module, all objects linked together must be compiled with -mrelocatable or -mrelocatable-lib.

-mrelocatable-lib

-mno-relocatable-lib

On embedded PowerPC systems generate code that allows (does not allow) the program to be relocated to a different address at runtime. Modules compiled with -mrelocatable-lib can be linked with either modules compiled without -mrelocatable and -mrelocatable-lib or with modules compiled with the -mrelocatable options.

-mno-toc

-mtoc

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems do not (do) assume that register 2 contains a pointer to a global area pointing to the addresses used in the program.

-mlittle

-mlittle-endian

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the processor in little endian mode. The -mlittle-endian option is the same as -mlittle.

-mbig

-mbig-endian

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the processor in big endian mode. The -mbig-endian option is the same as -mbig.

-mcall-sysv

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code using calling conventions that adheres to the March 1995 draft of the System V Application Binary Interface, PowerPC processor supplement. This is the default unless you configured GCC using powerpc-*-eabiaix.

-mcall-sysv-eabi

Specify both -mcall-sysv and -meabi options.

-mcall-sysv-noeabi

Specify both -mcall-sysv and -mno-eabi options.

-mcall-aix

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code using calling conventions that are similar to those used on AIX. This is the default if you configured GCC using powerpc-*-eabiaix.

-mcall-solaris

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the Solaris operating system.

-mcall-linux

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the Linux-based GNU system.

-mcall-gnu

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the Hurd-based GNU system.

-mcall-netbsd

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems compile code for the NetBSD operating system.

-maix-struct-return

Return all structures in memory (as specified by the AIX ABI).

-msvr4-struct-return

Return structures smaller than 8 bytes in registers (as specified by the SVR4 ABI).

-mabi=altivec

Extend the current ABI with AltiVec ABI extensions. This does not change the default ABI, instead it adds the AltiVec ABI extensions to the current ABI.

-mabi=no-altivec

Disable AltiVec ABI extensions for the current ABI.

-mprototype

-mno-prototype

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems assume that all calls to variable argument functions are properly prototyped. Otherwise, the compiler must insert an instruction before every non prototyped call to set or clear bit 6 of the condition code register (CR) to indicate whether floating point values were passed in the floating point registers in case the function takes a variable arguments. With -mprototype, only calls to prototyped variable argument functions will set or clear the bit.

-msim

On embedded PowerPC systems, assume that the startup module is called sim-crt0.o and that the standard C libraries are libsim.a and libc.a. This is the default for powerpc-*-eabisim. configurations.

-mmvme

On embedded PowerPC systems, assume that the startup module is called crt0.o and the standard C libraries are libmvme.a and libc.a.

-mads

On embedded PowerPC systems, assume that the startup module is called crt0.o and the standard C libraries are libads.a and libc.a.

-myellowknife

On embedded PowerPC systems, assume that the startup module is called crt0.o and the standard C libraries are libyk.a and libc.a.

-mvxworks

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems, specify that you are compiling for a VxWorks system.

-mwindiss

Specify that you are compiling for the WindISS simulation environment.

-memb

On embedded PowerPC systems, set the PPC_EMB bit in the ELF flags header to indicate that eabi extended relocations are used.

-meabi

-mno-eabi

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems do (do not) adhere to the Embedded Applications Binary Interface (eabi) which is a set of modifications to the System V.4 specifications. Selecting -meabi means that the stack is aligned to an 8 byte boundary, a function __eabi is called to from main to set up the eabi environment, and the -msdata option can use both r2 and r13 to point to two separate small data areas. Selecting -mno-eabi means that the stack is aligned to a 16 byte boundary, do not call an initialization function from main, and the -msdata option will only use r13 to point to a single small data area. The -meabi option is on by default if you configured GCC using one of the powerpc*-*-eabi* options.

-msdata=eabi

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems, put small initialized const global and static data in the .sdata2 section, which is pointed to by register r2. Put small initialized non-const global and static data in the .sdata section, which is pointed to by register r13. Put small uninitialized global and static data in the .sbss section, which is adjacent to the .sdata section. The -msdata=eabi option is incompatible with the -mrelocatable option. The -msdata=eabi option also sets the -memb option.

-msdata=sysv

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems, put small global and static data in the .sdata section, which is pointed to by register r13. Put small uninitialized global and static data in the .sbss section, which is adjacent to the .sdata section. The -msdata=sysv option is incompatible with the -mrelocatable option.

-msdata=default

-msdata

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems, if -meabi is used, compile code the same as -msdata=eabi, otherwise compile code the same as -msdata=sysv.

-msdata-data

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems, put small global and static data in the .sdata section. Put small uninitialized global and static data in the .sbss section. Do not use register r13 to address small data however. This is the default behavior unless other -msdata options are used.

-msdata=none

-mno-sdata

On embedded PowerPC systems, put all initialized global and static data in the .data section, and all uninitialized data in the .bss section.

-G num

On embedded PowerPC systems, put global and static items less than or equal to num bytes into the small data or bss sections instead of the normal data or bss section. By default, num is 8. The -G num switch is also passed to the linker. All modules should be compiled with the same -G num value.

-mregnames

-mno-regnames

On System V.4 and embedded PowerPC systems do (do not) emit register names in the assembly language output using symbolic forms.

-mlongcall

-mno-longcall

Default to making all function calls via pointers, so that functions which reside further than 64 megabytes (67,108,864 bytes) from the current location can be called. This setting can be overridden by the shortcall function attribute, or by #pragma longcall(0).

Some linkers are capable of detecting out-of-range calls and generating glue code on the fly. On these systems, long calls are unnecessary and generate slower code. As of this writing, the AIX linker can do this, as can the GNU linker for PowerPC/64. It is planned to add this feature to the GNU linker for 32-bit PowerPC systems as well.

In the future, we may cause GCC to ignore all longcall specifications when the linker is known to generate glue.

-pthread

Adds support for multithreading with the pthreads library. This option sets flags for both the preprocessor and linker.