IRIX Toolchain Project

This repository is the hub of the IRIX 6.5 rebuild project.

The project rebuilds IRIX 6.5.7m, then replaces it. The first deliverable is the stock rebuild: IRIX 6.5.7m reproduced in the guest with its own tools. The second is the modernised tree: the same OS rebuilt outside the guest with a modern GCC. The third is IRIX 7: a GPL-3.0 Rust reimplementation of the whole system.

What is in this repository

Item	Role
patches/gcc-16.2/	The IRIX patch series for GCC 16.2.0
patches/binutils-2.47/	The IRIX patch series for binutils 2.47
scripts/build-toolchain.sh	Builds the cross compiler
scripts/verify-toolchain.sh	Checks the built cross compiler
scripts/smoke.sh	The smoke harness
scripts/rig/	The guest install and control scripts
scripts/runtime/	The libc and libm rebuild scripts
scripts/irix-media/	Read-only EFS readers for the IRIX CD images
oracle/	The reference test programs
docs/	The project documents
docs/adr/	The project decisions
CONTEXT.md	The project vocabulary

Build the cross compiler

You need two things:

• GNU nix
• A captured IRIX 6.5.7m sysroot (see docs/oracle.md)

Run:

nix develop --command bash -c \
  'scripts/build-toolchain.sh \
    --sysroot /path/to/sysroot --languages c'
scripts/verify-toolchain.sh --prefix .scratch/toolchain-16.2.0/prefix \
  --gcc-version 16.2.0

The script verifies the checksum of each pinned tarball. It applies the patch series. It builds into .scratch/toolchain-16.2.0/prefix.

The cross targets mips-sgi-irix6.5: big-endian MIPS, ELF32, with the o32 and n32 ABIs.

Test on the guest

The smoke harness compiles a C program with the cross. It copies the binary into the emulated guest. It runs the binary and compares the output with an expected file:

scripts/smoke.sh --prefix .scratch/toolchain-16.2.0/prefix \
  --cflags "-lm" oracle/hello.c scripts/smoke/hello.expected

Read the documents

Document	Topic
docs/toolchain.md	The patch series and the build
docs/rig.md	The emulated guest
docs/oracle.md	The MIPSpro reference compiler and the sysroot
docs/smoke.md	The smoke harness
docs/runtime.md	The libc and libm rebuild
docs/binutils.md	The binutils series and its evidence
docs/publication.md	The publication boundary
docs/stack.md	The full stack: host, cross GCC, Rust, IRIX 7
docs/adr/	The project decisions, numbered and dated

Related repositories

Repository	Role
irix7/gcc	The IRIX GCC fork: rust-lang/gcc base (GCC 17 trunk + libgccjit)
irix7/binutils-gdb	The binutils mirror and the IRIX dynamic-link patch
irix7/ghidra	The Ghidra fork with IRIX support
irix7/irix6	The IRIX 6.5.7m source tree (private)
irix7/iris	The Indy emulator fork (fork of techomancer/iris)
irix7/harness	The agent harness (planned)
irix7/os	IRIX 7, the Rust-native OS (planned)

Publication policy

This repository publishes toolchain work only: the patch series, the scripts and the documents. It publishes no IRIX source, headers, binaries or sysroot content. See ADR-0001 and docs/publication.md.

Licence

Each patch keeps the licence of the upstream component. The GCC and binutils patches are GPL. No SGI material is published here.