Cross Gcc

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Setting up cross-gcc toolchains
• Configuring sysroots
• Building for ARM/AArch64/RISC-V/MIPS from an x86-64 host
• Troubleshooting wrong-architecture errors

Example prompts

• “/cross-gcc”

Workflow steps

9 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

1. 1Understand the triplet
2. 2Install the toolchain
3. 3Basic cross-compilation
4. 4Sysroot
5. 5pkg-config for cross builds
6. 6CMake cross-compilation
7. 7Test with QEMU
8. 8Common errors
9. 9Environment variables

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit bdc5847. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • apt
  • cmake

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Cross Gcc loads about 1.3k tokens when it runs, and up to ~1.8k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 111 tokens; SKILL.md has 304 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~111

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.3k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~1.8k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:39

  sudo apt install gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu g++-aarch64-linux-gnu binutils-aarch64-linux-gnu

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:42

  sudo apt install gcc-arm-none-eabi binutils-arm-none-eabi

• NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:120

  sudo apt install qemu-user-static

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills at commit bdc5847, republished under its MIT licence (© mohitmishra786). 304 words, ~1,342 tokens.

name

cross-gcc

description

Cross-compilation with GCC skill for embedded and multi-architecture targets. Use when setting up cross-gcc toolchains, configuring sysroots, building for ARM/AArch64/RISC-V/MIPS from an x86-64 host, troubleshooting wrong-architecture errors, or running cross-compiled binaries under QEMU. Activates on queries about cross-compilation triplets, sysroot, pkg-config for cross builds, embedded toolchains, or Yocto/Buildroot integration.

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu g++-aarch64-linux-gnu binutils-aarch64-linux-gnu

# For bare-metal ARM (Cortex-M)
sudo apt install gcc-arm-none-eabi binutils-arm-none-eabi

# Verify
aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc --version

# C
aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc -O2 -o hello hello.c

# C++
aarch64-linux-gnu-g++ -O2 -std=c++17 -o hello hello.cpp

# Bare-metal (no stdlib, no OS)
arm-none-eabi-gcc -mcpu=cortex-m4 -mthumb -mfloat-abi=hard -mfpu=fpv4-sp-d16 \
    -ffreestanding -nostdlib -T linker.ld -o firmware.elf startup.s main.c

# Use a sysroot
aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc --sysroot=/path/to/aarch64-sysroot -O2 -o prog main.c

# Common sysroot sources:
# - Raspberry Pi: download from raspbian/raspios
# - Debian multiarch: debootstrap --arch arm64 bullseye /tmp/sysroot
# - Yocto/Buildroot: generated automatically in build output

aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc --sysroot=/path/to/sysroot -v -E - < /dev/null 2>&1 | grep sysroot

export PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR=/path/to/sysroot
export PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=${PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR}/usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/pkgconfig:${PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR}/usr/share/pkgconfig
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=   # clear host path

pkg-config --libs libssl  # now returns target paths

set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME Linux)
set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR aarch64)

set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER   aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc)
set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER aarch64-linux-gnu-g++)

set(CMAKE_SYSROOT /path/to/aarch64-sysroot)
set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM NEVER)
set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_LIBRARY ONLY)
set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE ONLY)

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=aarch64.cmake
cmake --build build

# User-mode emulation (Linux binaries, no full OS)
sudo apt install qemu-user-static

qemu-aarch64-static ./hello
# Or set binfmt_misc for transparent execution:
# Then just: ./hello

# GDB remote debug via QEMU
qemu-aarch64-static -g 1234 ./hello &
aarch64-linux-gnu-gdb -ex "target remote :1234" ./hello

# Tell build systems to use cross-compiler
export CC=aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc
export CXX=aarch64-linux-gnu-g++
export AR=aarch64-linux-gnu-ar
export STRIP=aarch64-linux-gnu-strip
export OBJDUMP=aarch64-linux-gnu-objdump

# For autoconf projects
./configure --host=aarch64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr

© mohitmishra786, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 1 other file (references) in skills/compilers/cross-gcc of mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills.

• SKILL.md
• references/arm-flags.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit bdc5847