3.5. Creating the $HLFS/tools Directory

All programs compiled in Chapter 5 will be installed under $HLFS/tools to keep them separate from the programs compiled in Chapter 6. The programs compiled here are temporary tools and will not be a part of the final HLFS system. By keeping these programs in a separate directory, they can easily be discarded later after their use. This also prevents these programs from ending up in the host production directories (easy to do by accident in Chapter 5).

Create the required directory by running the following as root:

mkdir $HLFS/tools

The next step is to create a /tools symlink on the host system. This will point to the newly-created directory on the HLFS partition. Run this command as root as well:

ln -s $HLFS/tools /

The created symlink enables the toolchain to be compiled so that it always refers to /tools, meaning that the compiler, assembler, and linker will work both in this chapter (when we are still using some tools from the host) and in the next (when we are “chrooted” to the HLFS partition).

Downloaded packages and patches will need to be stored somewhere that is conveniently available throughout the entire build. A working directory is also required to unpack the sources and build them. $HLFS/sources can be used both as the place to store the tarballs and patches and as a working directory. By using this directory, the required elements will be located on the HLFS partition and will be available during all stages of the building process.

To create this directory, execute the following command:

mkdir $HLFS/sources

Make this directory writable and sticky. “Sticky” means that even if multiple users have write permission on a directory, only the owner of a file can delete the file within a sticky directory. The following command will enable the write and sticky modes:

chmod a+wt $HLFS/sources