a gcc-based cross-compiler for classic 68K and PPC Macintoshes
a gcc-based cross-compiler for classic 68K and PPC Macintoshes
A GCC-based cross-compilation environment for 68K and PowerPC Macs. Why? Because there is no decent C++23 Compiler targeting Apple's System 6. If that's not a sufficient reason for you, I'm sure you will find something more useful elsewhere.
If you are crazy enough to try it out, please say hello at [email protected].
The Retro68 git repository uses submodules; be sure to use the --recursive option to git clone or use
git submodule update --init
after cloning. To get the latest changes, use
git pull
git submodule update
Note: There is now experimental support for the Nix Package Manager. If you're a nix user, skip ahead to the Using Retro68 with Nix section.
For Ubuntu Linux, the following should help a bit:
sudo apt-get install cmake libgmp-dev libmpfr-dev libmpc-dev libboost-all-dev bison flex texinfo ruby
For Arch Linux, this should do the trick:
sudo pacman -S --needed cmake gmp mpfr libmpc boost bison flex texinfo ruby
On a Mac, get the homebrew package manager and:
brew install boost cmake gmp mpfr libmpc bison texinfo
You can also run Retro68 on a PowerMac G4 or G5 running Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger). In that case, get the tigerbrew package manager and
brew install gcc cmake gmp mpfr libmpc bison texinfo
brew install boost --c++11
To compile code for the Mac, you need header files and libraries describing the APIs. There are two choices: Apple's Universal Interfaces, or the brand-new open source reimplementation, the Multiversal Interfaces.
The Multiversal Interfaces are included with Retro68 out of the box, and they are free software. However, they are incomplete and may still contain serious bugs. Missing things include Carbon, MacTCP, OpenTransport, Navigation Services, and basically everything introduced after System 7.0.
The Universal Interfaces used to be a free download from Apple. However, they have taken the site off-line and the license agreement does not allow redistribution, which is why it's not included in this repository. The concept of fair use might cover keeping it available for reasons of historical interest, or it might not. I am not a lawyer.
If you find a copy of Apple's Universal Interfaces, you can put it inside the InterfacesAndLibraries directory in the source tree, and Version 3.4 has received the most testing, but any 3.x version could theoretically work. The exact directory layout inside the InterfacesAndLibraries directory does not matter. It will be picked up automatically when Retro68 is built.
Especially on non-macOS platforms, make sure that the Mac resource fork of the PowerPC library files is included in a format recognized by Retro68. Recognized formats include MacBinary II (e.g., Interfacelib.bin), AppleDouble (._InterfaceLib or %InterfaceLib) or Basilisk/Sheepshaver resource forks (.rsrc/InterfaceLib).
The Universal Interfaces were also included with Apple's free-to-download Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW; redistribution is not officially allowed, either) and with Metrowerks CodeWarrior.
One of the most easily found downloads is the MPW 3.5 Golden Master release, usually in a file named MPW-GM.img.bin or mpw-gm.img_.bin. At the time of this writing, this can be found at:
http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macintosh-programmers-workshop
https://www.macintoshrepository.org/1360-macintosh-programmer-s-workshop-mpw-3-0-to-3-5
https://staticky.com/mirrors/ftp.apple.com/developer/Tool_Chest/Core_Mac_OS_Tools/MPW_etc./MPW-GM_Images/MPW-GM.img.bin
You will need a Mac or a Mac emulator (with DiscCopy) to read that file.
You can compile Retro68 on Windows using via a Cygwin terminal. When installing Cygwin, select the following packages in the Cygwin Setup program (as per the dependencies listed above):
Additional dependencies will be automatically installed.
Note that compilation via Cygwin is around 3X slower than other platforms.
Once you have all the prerequisites, execute these commands from the top level of the Retro68 directory:
mkdir ../Retro68-build
cd ../Retro68-build
../Retro68/build-toolchain.bash
The toolchain will be installed in the "toolchain" directory inside
the build directory. All the commands are in toolchain/bin, so you might want
to add that to your PATH.
If you're building this on a PowerMac running Mac OS X 10.4, tell the build script to use the gcc you've installed via tigerbrew:
../Retro68/build-toolchain.bash --host-cxx-compiler=g++-7 --host-c-compiler=gcc-7
Building all of Retro68 involves building binutils and gcc... twice, so it takes quite a while.
You can pass the --no-68k, --no-ppc or --no-carbon
flags to build-toolchain to limit yourself to the old Macs you're really
interested in (note that --no-ppc implies --no-carbon).
After the initial build, you can use the --skip-thirdparty option in order to
skip gcc and binutils and just compile the Retro68-specific tools, libraries and
sample programs.
The build-host, build-target, build-target-ppc and build-target-carbon
directories are CMake build directories generated from the top-level CMakeLists.txt,
so you can also cd to one of these and run make separately if you've made changes.
If you are not using the Nix Package Manager, please skip this section. But maybe you should be using it ;-).
Nix is a package manager that runs on Linux and macOS, and NixOS is a Linux distribution based on it. Try the Determinate Nix Installer for the best installation experience.
[TODO: docs on using the binary cache to avoid builds]
Once you've got nix installed, and without checking out the Retro68 repository, you can run
nix develop github:autc04/Retro68#m68k
from the Retro68 directory to get a shell with the compiler tools targeting
68K Macs available in the path, and CC and other environment variables already
set up for you. You can then cd to one of the example directories or to your
own project and use cmake to build it.
Likewise, use
nix develop github:autc04/Retro68#powerpc
... to get an environment targeting PowerPC Macs.
If you have a local checkout of Retro68, you can replace github:autc04/Retro68 by the path
to that local checkout, e.g., run nix develop .#m68k from inside the Retro68 directory.
To see how to set up your own nix-based build and development environment for your own application, head over to the github.com/autc04/Retro68NixSample repository.
You can also use the nix build command to build packages. As always with nix,
the result will be somewhere in a subdirectory of /nix/store, with a symlink
named result placed in the directory where you invoked the command.
| Command | What |
|---|---|
nix build github:autc04/Retro68#samples-m68k |
Sample programs for 68K |
nix build github:autc04/Retro68#samples-powerpc |
Sample programs for PowerPC |
nix build github:autc04/Retro68#pkgsCross.m68k.zlib |
zlib library, cross-compiled for 68K Macs |
nix build github:autc04/Retro68#pkgsCross.m68k.packagename |
cross-compile packagename to 68K |
nix build github:autc04/Retro68#pkgsCross.powerpc.packagename |
cross-compile packagename to PowerPC |
You can attempt to cross-compile any package from the nixpkgs collection. Unless the
package contains a very portable library, the command will of course fail. Please don't
report bugs, please report successes instead!
Whenever commits are merged into the Retro68 git repository, a build pipeline is triggered to
create a container image which is then pushed to the Retro68 package repository as
ghcr.io/autc04/retro68. This image contains the complete 68K and PPC toolchains ready for
use for either local development or as part of CI pipeline. The command line below shows an
example invocation of Retro68 to build the Samples/Raytracer app:
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/autc04/Retro68.git
$ cd Retro68
$ docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/root -i ghcr.io/autc04/retro68 /bin/bash is not a standard header file), and made to build with
cmake instead of autotools. Much simpler now.
### hfsutils
No changes.
### ResourceFiles
A C++ Library for manipulating resource forks.
### Rez
A reimplementation of Apple's Rez resource compiler. Reads `.r` files
containing textual resource descriptions and compiles them to binary
resource files.
### Elf2Mac
A wrapper around the linker for 68K programs; it supplies a linker script,
invokes the linker, and converts the resulting ELF binary to a Mac APPL with
one or more segments, or to a flat file which can be converted to a code resource
using Rez.
### LaunchAPPL
A tool for lauching compiled Mac applications via various emulators.
### ConvertObj
Reads a MPW 68K Object file (`*.o`) and converts it to input for the
GNU assembler (`powerpc-apple-macos-as`). Well, as long as the .o file does not
use global variables or non-local function calls. Used to import glue code from
MPW's `Interface.o` library.
### PEFTools
Tools supporting the Apple's PEF format, the Preferred Executable Format
for PowerPC Macs.
- `MakePEF`, a tool to convert xcoff files to PEF.
- `MakeImport`, a tool to create an xcoff import stub library from a PEF-format library.
### prepare-headers.sh:
Apply any necessary patches to Apple's headers.
### ImportLibraries
Import Libraries in XCOFF format. Based on the list of symbols in Apple's import
libraries. Generated using the `MakeImport` tool.
### libretro
Contains startup code (handles relocations on 68K) and implementations
for some standard library functions.
### Console
Contains a library that implements basic text console functionality.
### AutomatedTests
An automated test suite that can be run using `ctest` and `LaunchAPPL`.
### Sample Program: Hello World
The binary is in Retro68-build/build-target/Samples/HelloWorld/.
### Sample Program: Raytracer
Calculates a nice 3D image, pixel by pixel.
There are two versions: raytracer.c is a straightforward
plain C implementation using floating point arithmetic.
Raytracer2 makes use of C++ features; it also uses
fixed point arithmetic instead of floating point
(operator overloading FTW).
The binaries are in Retro68-build/build-target/Samples/Raytracer/.
### Sample Program: Launcher
A utility program for using Retro68 together with the minivmac emulator.
Waits for a disk(image) to be inserted, and if it contains a single application, launches it.
After the application exits, the disk is ejected again.
This way, you can just drag a .dsk file generated by Retro68 on a minivmac Window to run your application.
Intended for System 6 without Multifinder.
### Sample Program: Dialog
Shows a simple and useless dialog box. Demonstrates how to use Rez, the resource compiler.
The binary is in Retro68-build/build-
No open issues yet, or sync has not completed.