[Linux-ia64] Endian problems when migrating program from HP-UX to RedHat Linux

[Linux-ia64] Endian problems when migrating program from HP-UX to RedHat Linux

[Yap Tan Sing]

Hi,

Currently I am trying to migrate a program from HP-UX to RedHat 6.2 Linux
(on Dell PowerEdge2400 server). I am facing endian conversion problem. From
HP homepage learned that Linux is little endian whereas HP-UX is big endian.
If I am not wrong there is a gcc option to generate big endian code
(-mbig-endian), but I learned that this option is only applicable to Linux
on advanced RISC machines (ARM). I think Dell PowerEdge2400 server is using
Pentium III so I guess it is not an ARM machine. Do you have any idea how
can I actually get big endian code using my current Dell PowerEdge2400
server? Please help. Thanks in advance.

Thanks & Best Regards,
Yap Tan Sing

Re: [Linux-ia64] Endian problems when migrating program from HP-UX to RedHat Linux

[Jim Wilson]

Endianness is a feature of the system (CPU+OS).  You can not change it by
using a compiler option.

ia64-linux is little-endian.  If you want your program to run on ia64-linux,
then you have to make it work on little-endian systems.

It would be possible to create a big-endian ia64-linux OS, but that would be
a great deal of work, and is not a practical solution.

If you just want to run your program on IA-64 hardware, and don't care about
the OS, then you could use an ia64-hpux system, which is big-endian.

Jim