The GCC toolchain

While in the case of the IDE, its complexity is abstracted through the user interface, a toolchain is a set of standalone software applications, each one serving a specific purpose.

GCC is one of the reference toolchains to build embedded systems due to its modular structure allowing backends for multiple architectures. Thanks to its open source model, and the flexibility in building tailored toolchains from it, GCC-based toolchains are among the most popular development tools in embedded systems.

Building software using a command-line-based toolchain has several advantages, including the possibility of automating the intermediate steps that would build all the modules up from the source code into the final image. This is particularly useful when it is required to program multiple devices in a row or to automate builds on a continuous integration server.

ARM distributes the GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain for all the most popular development hosts. Toolchains...