How to achieve ARM cross-compilation on macOS

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Cross-compilation is occasionally troublesome. It often requires us to install additional toolchain to get it done.

Now, I found I needed to compile my source code for the Arm architecture machine for Mbed application. I do not have any idea how to install the toolchain for Arm compilation. Thus this is the post to describe the fastest way to prepare the toolchain for the cross-compilation for Arm.

Xcode Compiler

Please ensure to install Xcode first. Xcode contains the first compiler sets, such as clang.

$ xcode-select --install

Arm Toolchains from Homebrew

You can install Arm GCC toolchains by using Homebrew. There are two options.

• osx-cross/homebrew-arm
• ARMmbed/homebrew-formulae

There is no difference between these two distributions. They use precisely the same package internally. You can use whichever you want.
For my Mbed application, I choose the second one.

$ brew tap ArmMbed/homebrew-formulae
$ brew install arm-none-eabi-gcc

You should be able to find the compiler eventually. The following tools are installed in the local machine.

$ arm-none-eabi-gcc
$ arm-none-eabi-g++
...

It looks like they are GCC for Arm architecture. I believe it is the easiest way to prepare the Arm build toolchains in macOS platform.

Thanks