While creating new C++ Project in Eclipse, I am being asked about toolchain.
What is the practical difference between these toolchains – Cross GCC and Linux GCC. In what circumstances use them? Does it have something to do with whether the project is going to be compiled both on linux and windows machines?
In one of the answers we can read:
Generally a cross compiler is a compiler producing code for a different kind of system than yours.
so if I compile project on target machine using own makefiles, it does not matter what option I will choose here, right?
Best Answer
The Cross compiler article on wikipedia is quite good. Generally a cross compiler is a compiler producing code for a different kind of system than yours. Usually this means a different target hardware architecture, but it can also mean a different target operating system (or both).
Theoretically you could combine these and use a cross-compiler on architecture A1 and operating system S1 to build a cross-compiler that would run on architecture A2 under operating system S2 and produce code for operating system S3 on architecture A3.
As Ulrich mentions in his comment, Linux GCC should be your "native" compiler (i.e. for the same target).