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+Binutils Package
+================
+
+Building the Binutils Package
+-----------------------------
+
+If you want to temporarily change the targets for which Binutils is built, run
+the following commands before building:
+
+    $ ./config clean
+    $ PKG_TARGETS='list of architectures' ./config
+
+The default targets are listed in the `targets.in` file.
+
+To configure Binutils to be built for all default targets, run the following
+commands before building:
+
+    $ ./config clean
+    $ ./config
+
+Binutils Build System Mangling
+------------------------------
+
+[See `patches/01_pass-some-dirs-to-child-makes.patch` for some background
+information.]
+
+An alternative to `patches/01_pass-some-dirs-to-child-makes.patch` is to run
+make in each subdirectory ourselves instead of letting the top-level makefile do
+it for us.  This way, we can leave the build system untouched and directly give
+each child make process the required macro settings.
+
+There are ten subdirectories in which we would need to run make (though of
+course we don't currently enable some of them, e.g. `gold`):
+
+  * `bfd`
+  * `opcodes`
+  * `binutils`
+  * `etc`
+  * `gas`
+  * `gold`
+  * `gprof`
+  * `intl`
+  * `ld`
+  * `libiberty`
+
+The disadvantage to this is a higher maintenance cost: we need to keep track of
+the subdirectories in which we need to run make.  We need to watch out for
+changes to the dependencies of `install-host` and `install-target` in Binutils's
+Makefile.in (unlikely) and changes in the features (e.g. gold) we enable
+(likely).
+
+The trivial patch (which adds just three lines) should apply cleanly across
+Binutils releases, so it seems best to just stick with that.