Ada Programming/Installing

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Ada. Time-tested, safe and secure.
Ada. Time-tested, safe and secure.

Ada compilers are available from several vendors, on a variety of host and target platforms. The Ada Resource Association maintains a list of available compilers.

Below is an alphabetical list of available compilers with additional comments.

AdaMagic from SofCheck[edit | edit source]

SofCheck used to produce an Ada 95 front-end that can be plugged into a code generating back-end to produce a full compiler. This front-end is offered for licensing to compiler vendors.

Based on this front-end, SofCheck used to offer:

  • AdaMagic, an Ada-to-C/C++ translator
  • AppletMagic, an Ada-to-Java bytecode compiler

SofCheck has merged with AdaCore under the AdaCore name, leaving no visible trace of AdaMagic offering on AdaCore website.

However, MapuSoft is now licensed to resell AdaMagic. They renamed it to "Ada-to-C/C++ changer". New name sounds like fake. Almost no Ada developer heard of MapuSoft. MapuSoft is never seen making Ada libraries, commercial or FLOSS. They are never seen at Ada conferences. Yet this is a real stuff, a validated Ada compiler that knows lots of tricks required to work on top of C/C++ compilers. E.g. it contains a proven knowledge of handling integer overflow with a special "-1" case.

Thanks to MapuSoft, AdaMagic really became available to developers. Get AppCOE, but not Win64 one, install it. In the MapuSoft/AppCOE_x32/Tools/Ada there will be AdaMagic. AdaMagic is known to support Win64, but AppCOE for Win64 is known to contain no AdaMagic at all.

Using AdaMagic from command line is badly supported in AppCOE, but possible. Set up ADA_MAGIC environment variable, edit Tools/Ada/{linux|windows}/SITE/rts_path to point to real path, edit SITE/config to get rid of unsupported C compiler keys, and compile via e.g.

adareg -key=`test_key | sed -e '/md5/!d;s/md5 = //'` Hello_World.adb
adabgen -key=`test_key | sed -e '/md5/!d;s/md5 = //'` Hello_World

Commercial; proprietary.

AdaMULTI from Green Hills Software[edit | edit source]

Green Hills Software sells development environments for multiple languages and multiple targets (including DSPs), primarily to embedded software developers.

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, C, C++, Fortran
License for the run-time library Proprietary, royalty free.
Native platforms GNU/Linux on i386, Microsoft Windows on i386, and Solaris on SPARC
Cross platforms INTEGRITY, INTEGRITY-178B and velOSity from Green Hills; VxWorks from Wind River; several bare board targets, including x86, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS and ColdFire/68k. Safety-critical GMART and GSTART run-time libraries certified to DO-178B level A.
Available from http://www.ghs.com/
Support Commercial
Add-ons included IDE, debugger, TimeMachine, integration with various version control systems, source browsers, other utilities

GHS claims to make great efforts to ensure that their compilers produce the most efficient code and often cites the EEMBC benchmark results as evidence, since many of the results published by chip manufacturers use GHS compilers to show their silicon in the best light, although these benchmarks are not Ada specific.

GHS has no publicly announced plans to support the two most recent Ada standards (2005 and 2012) but they do continue to actively market and develop their existing Ada products.

DEC Ada from HP[edit | edit source]

DEC Ada was an Ada 83 compiler for OpenVMS. While “DEC Ada” is probably the name most users know, the compiler has also been called “HP Ada”, "VAX Ada", and "Compaq Ada".

GNAT, the GNU Ada Compiler from AdaCore and the Free Software Foundation[edit | edit source]

GNAT is the free GNU Ada compiler, which is part of the GNU Compiler Collection. It is the only Ada compiler that supports all of the optional annexes of the language standard. The original authors formed the company AdaCore to offer professional support, consulting, training and custom development services. It is thus possible to obtain GNAT from many different sources, detailed below.

GNAT is always licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

However, the run-time library uses either the GPL, or the GNAT Modified GPL, depending on where you obtain it.

Several optional add-ons are available from various places:

  • ASIS, the Ada Semantic Interface Specification, is a library that allows Ada programs to examine and manipulate other Ada programs.
  • FLORIST is a library that provides a POSIX programming interface to the operating system.
  • GDB, the GNU Debugger, with Ada extensions.
  • GLADE implements Annex E, the Distributed Systems Annex. With it, one can write distributed programs in Ada, where partitions of the program running on different computers communicate over the network with one another and with shared objects.
  • GPS, the GNAT Programming Studio, is a full-featured integrated development environment, written in Ada. It allows you to code in Ada, C and C++.

Many Free Software libraries are also available.

GNAT GPL (or Community) Edition[edit | edit source]

As of may 2022, AdaCore no longer supports GNAT GPL. It has been replaced with Alire, a package manager for Ada sources, which also provides toolchains. The following is no longer relevant for post May 2022 users.


This is a source and binary release from AdaCore, intended for use by Free Software developers only. If you want to distribute your binary programs linked with the GPL run-time library, then you must do so under terms compatible with the GNU General Public License.

As of GNAT GPL Edition 2013:

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, Ada 2005, Ada 2012, C, C++
License for the run-time library pure GPL
Native platforms GNU/Linux on x86_64; Microsoft Windows on i386; ; Mac OS X (Darwin, x86_64). Earlier releases have supported Solaris on SPARC, GNU/Linux on i386, Microsoft .NET on i386
Cross platforms AVR, hosted on Windows; Java VM, hosted on Windows; Mindstorms NXT, hosted on Windows; ARM, hosted on Windows and Linux;
Compiler back-end GCC 4.9
Available from https://www.adacore.com/download
Support None
Add-ons included GDB, GPS in source and binary form; many more in source-only form.

GNAT Modified GPL releases[edit | edit source]

With these releases of GNAT, you can distribute your programs in binary form under licensing terms of your own choosing; you are not bound by the GPL.

GNAT 3.15p[edit | edit source]

This is the last public release of GNAT from AdaCore that uses the GNAT Modified General Public License.

GNAT 3.15p has passed the Ada Conformity Assessment Test Suite (ACATS). It was released in October 2002.

The binary distribution from AdaCore also contains an Ada-aware version of the GNU Debugger (GDB), and a graphical front-end to GDB called the GNU Visual Debugger (GVD).

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, C
License for the run-time library GNAT-modified GPL
Native platforms GNU/Linux on i386 (with glibc 2.1 or later), Microsoft Windows on i386, OS/2 2.0 or later on i386, Solaris 2.5 or later on SPARC
Cross platforms none
Compiler back-end GCC 2.8.1
Available from ftp://ftp.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/pub/Ada-Belgium/mirrors/gnu-ada/3.15p/
Support None
Add-ons included ASIS, Florist, GLADE, GDB, Gnatwin (on Windows only), GtkAda 1.2, GVD

GNAT Pro[edit | edit source]

GNAT Pro is the professional version of GNAT, offered as a subscription package by AdaCore. The package also includes professional consulting, training and maintenance services. AdaCore can provide custom versions of the compiler for native or cross development. For more information, see http://www.adacore.com/.

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, Ada 2005, Ada 2012, C, and optionally C++
License for the run-time library GNAT-modified GPL
Native platforms many, see http://www.adacore.com/home/products/gnatpro/supported_platforms/
Cross platforms many, see http://www.adacore.com/home/products/gnatpro/supported_platforms/; even more on request
Compiler back-end GCC 4.3
Available from http://www.adacore.com/ by subscription (commercial)
Support Commercial; customer-only bug database
Add-ons included ASIS, Florist, GDB, GLADE, GPS, GtkAda, XML/Ada, and many more in source and, on request, binary form.

GCC[edit | edit source]

GNAT has been part of the Free Software Foundation's GCC since October 2001. The Free Software Foundation does not distribute binaries, only sources. Its licensing of the run-time library for Ada (and other languages) allows the development of proprietary software without necessarily imposing the terms of the GPL.

Most GNU/Linux distributions and several distributions for other platforms include prebuilt binaries; see below.

For technical reasons, we recommend against using the Ada compilers included in GCC 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 4.0. Instead, we recommend using GCC 3.4, 4.1 or later, or one of the releases from AdaCore (3.15p, GPL Edition or Pro).

Since October 2003, AdaCore merge most of their changes from GNAT Pro into GCC during Stage 1; this happens once for each major release. Since GCC 3.4, AdaCore has gradually added support for revised language standards, first Ada 2005 and now Ada 2012.

GCC version 4.4 switched to version 3 of the GNU General Public License and grants a Runtime Library Exception similar in spirit to the GNAT Modified General Public License used in all previous versions. This Runtime Library Exception applies to run-time libraries for all languages, not just Ada.

As of GCC 4.7, released on 2012-03-22:

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, Ada 2005, parts of Ada 2012, C, C++, Fortran 95, Java, Objective-C, Objective-C++ (and others)
License for the run-time library GPL version 3 with Runtime Library Exception
Native platforms none (source only)
Cross platforms none (source only)
Compiler back-end GCC 4.7
Available from http://gcc.gnu.org/ in source only form.
Support Volunteer; public bug database
Add-ons included none

The GNU Ada Project[edit | edit source]

The GNU Ada Project provides source and binary packages of various GNAT versions for several operating systems, and, importantly, the scripts used to create the packages. This may be helpful if you plan to port the compiler to another platform or create a cross-compiler; there are instructions for building your own GNAT compiler for GNU/Linux and Mac OS X users.

Both GPL and GMGPL or GCC Runtime Library Exception versions of GNAT are available.

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, Ada 2005, C. (Some distributions also support Ada 2012, Fortran 90, Java, Objective C and Objective C++)
License for the run-time library pure, GNAT-modified GPL, or GCC Runtime Library Exception
Native platforms Fedora Core 4 and 5, MS-DOS, OS/2, Solaris 10, SuSE 10, Mac OS X, (more?)
Cross platforms none
Compiler back-end GCC 2.8.1, 3.4, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6 (various binary packages)
Available from Sourceforge
Support Volunteer; public bug database
Add-ons included AdaBrowse, ASIS, Booch Components, Charles, GPS, GtkAda (more?)

A# (A-Sharp, a.k.a. Ada for .NET)[edit | edit source]

This compiler is historical as it has now been merged into GNAT GPL Edition and GNAT Pro.

A# is a port of Ada to the .NET Platform. A# was originally developed at the Department of Computer Science at the United States Air Force Academy which distribute A# as a service to the Ada community under the terms of the GNU general public license. A# integrates well with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, AdaGIDE and the RAPID open-source GUI Design tool. As of 2006-06-06:

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, C
License for the run-time library pure GPL
Native platforms Microsoft .NET
Cross platforms none
Compiler back-end GCC 3.4 (GNAT GPL 2006 Edition?)
Available from http://sourceforge.net/projects/asharp/
Support None (but see GNAT Pro)
Add-ons included none.

GNAT for AVR microcontrollers[edit | edit source]

Rolf Ebert and others provide a version of GNAT configured as a cross-compiler to various AVR microcontrollers, as well as an experimental Ada run-time library suitable for use on the microcontrollers. As of Version 1.1.0 (2010-02-25):

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, Ada 2005, C
License for the run-time library GNAT-Modified GPL
Host platforms GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows on i386
Target platforms Various AVR 8-bit microcontrollers
Compiler back-end GCC 4.7
Available from http://avr-ada.sourceforge.net/
Support Volunteer; public bug database
Add-ons included partial Ada run time system, AVR peripherals support library

GNAT for LEON[edit | edit source]

The Real-Time Research Group of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) wrote a Ravenscar-compliant real-time kernel for execution on LEON processors and a modified run-time library. They also provide a GNAT cross-compiler. As of version 2.0.1:

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, Ada 2005, C
License for the run-time library pure GPL
Native platforms none
Cross platforms GNU/Linux on i686 to LEON2 bare boards
Compiler back-end GCC 4.1 (GNAT GPL 2007 Edition)
Available from http://www.dit.upm.es/ork/
Support ?
Add-ons included OpenRavenscar real-time kernel; minimal run-time library

GNAT for Macintosh (Mac OS X)[edit | edit source]

GNAT for Macintosh provides both FSF (GMGPL) and AdaCore (GPL) versions of GNAT with Xcode and Carbon integration and bindings.

Note that this site was last updated for GCC 4.3 and Mac OS X Leopard (both PowerPC and Intel-based). Aside from the work on integration with Apple’s Carbon graphical user interface and with Xcode 3.1 it may be preferable to see above.

There is also support at MacPorts; the last update (at 25 Nov 2011) was for GCC 4.4.2.

Prebuilt packages as part of larger distributions[edit | edit source]

Many distributions contain prebuilt binaries of GCC or various public releases of GNAT from AdaCore. Quality varies widely between distributions. The list of distributions below is in alphabetical oder. (Please keep it that way.)

AIDE (for Microsoft Windows)[edit | edit source]

AIDE — Ada Instant Development Environment is a complete one-click, just-works Ada distribution for Windows, consisting of GNAT, comprehensive documentation, tools and libraries. All are precompiled, and source code is also available. The installation procedure is particularly easy (just unzip to default c:\aide and run). AIDE is intended for beginners and teachers, but can also be used by advanced users.

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, C
License for the run-time library GNAT-modified GPL
Native platforms Microsoft Windows on i386
Cross platforms none
Compiler back-end GCC 2.8.1
Available from https://stef.genesix.org/aide/aide.html
Support stef@genesix.org
Add-ons included ASIS, GDB, GPS, GtkAda, Texinfo (more?)

Cygwin (for Microsoft Windows)[edit | edit source]

Cygwin, the Linux-like environment for Windows, also contains a version of the GNAT compiler. The Cygwin version of GNAT is older than the MinGW version and does not support DLLs and Multi-Threading (as of 11.2004).

Debian (GNU/Linux and GNU/kFreeBSD)[edit | edit source]

There is a Debian Policy for Ada which tries to make Debian the best Ada development and deployment platform. The development platform includes the compiler and many libraries, pre-packaged and integrated so as to be easy to use in any program. The deployment platform is the renowned stable distribution, which is suitable for mission-critical workloads and enjoys long life cycles, typically 3 to 4 years. Because Debian is a binary distribution, it is possible to deploy non-free, binary-only programs on it while enjoying all the benefits of a stable platform. Compiler choices are conservative for this reason, and the Policy mandates that all Ada programs and libraries be compiled with the same version of GNAT. This makes it possible to use all libraries in the same program. Debian separates run-time libraries from development packages, so that end users do not have to install the development system just to run a program.

The GNU Ada compiler can be installed on a Debian system with this command:

aptitude install gnat

This will also give you a list of related packages, which are likely to be useful for an Ada programmer.

Debian is unique in that it also allows programmers to use some of GNAT's internal components by means of two libraries:

  • libgnatvsn (licensed under GNAT-Modified GPL) and
  • libgnatprj (the project manager, licensed under pure GPL).

Debian packages make use of these libraries.

In the table below, the information about the future Debian 8.0 Jessie is accurate as of October 2014 and will change.

  3.1 Sarge 4.0 Etch 5.0 Lenny 6.0 Squeeze 7.0 Wheezy 8.0 Jessie
Release date June 2005 April 2007 February 2009 February 2011 May 2013 April 2015
Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, C +Ada 2005, parts of Ada 2012, C, C++, Fortran 95, Java, Objective-C, Objective-C++ +Ada 2012
License for the run-time library GNAT-modified GPL (both ZCX and SJLJ versions starting from 5.0 Lenny) GPL version 3 with Run-time library exception
Native platforms: 3.1 Sarge 4.0 Etch 5.0 Lenny 6.0 Squeeze 7.0 Wheezy 8.0 Jessie
alpha yes yes
amd64 yes yes yes yes yes
armel preliminary yes yes
armhf yes yes
hppa yes yes yes
hurd-i386 yes yes
i386 yes yes yes yes yes yes
ia64 yes yes yes yes
kfreebsd-amd64 yes yes yes
kfreebsd-i386 yes yes yes yes yes
mips yes yes yes yes yes
mipsel yes yes yes yes yes
powerpc yes yes yes yes yes yes
ppc64 yes yes yes yes
s390 yes yes yes yes s390x
sparc yes yes yes yes yes yes
Cross platforms none
Compiler back-end GCC 2.8.1 GCC 4.1 GCC 4.3 GCC 4.4 GCC 4.6 GCC 4.9
Available from http://www.debian.org/
Support Volunteer; public bug database; paid support available from third parties; public mailing list
Add-ons included 3.1 Sarge 4.0 Etch 5.0 Lenny 6.0 Squeeze 7.0 Wheezy 8.0 Jessie
ada-reference-manual 1995 1995 1995 2005 2012 2012
AdaBindX 0.7.2
AdaBrowse 4.0.2 4.0.2 4.0.2 4.0.3 4.0.3 -
AdaCGI 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6
AdaControl 1.6r8 1.9r4 1.12r3 1.12r3 1.16r11
APQ (with PostgreSQL) 3.0 3.2 3.2
AdaSockets 1.8.4.7 1.8.4.7 1.8.4.7 1.8.8 1.8.10 1.8.11
Ahven 1.2 1.7 2.1 2.4
Alog 0.1 0.3 0.4.1 -
anet 0.1 0.3.1
ASIS 3.15p 2005 2007 2008 2010 2014
AUnit 1.01 1.03 1.03 1.03 1.03 3.7.1
AWS 2.0 2.2 2.5 prerelease 2.7 2.10.2 3.2.0
Charles 2005-02-17 (superseded by Ada.Containers in gnat)
Florist 3.15p 2006 2006 2009 2011 2014
GDB 5.3 6.4 6.8 7.0.1 7.4.1 7.7.1
GLADE 3.15p 2006 (superseded by PolyORB)
GMPAda 0.0.20091124 0.0.20120331 0.0.20131223
GNADE 1.5.1 1.6.1 1.6.1 1.6.2 1.6.2 -
GNAT Checker 1999-05-19 (superseded by AdaControl)
GPRBuild 1.3.0w 2011 2014
GPS 2.1 4.0.1 4.0.1 4.3 5.0 5.3
GtkAda 2.4 2.8.1 2.8.1 2.14.2 2.24.1 2.24.4
Log4Ada 1.0 1.2 1.2
Narval 1.10.2
OpenToken 3.0b 3.0b 3.0b 4.0b 4.0b 5.0a
PC/SC Ada 0.6 0.7.1 0.7.2
PolyORB 2.6 prerelease 2.8 prerelease 2.11 prerelease
PLPlot 5.9.0 5.9.5 5.9.5 5.10.0
Templates Parser 10.0+20060522 11.1 11.5 11.6 11.8
TextTools 2.0.3 2.0.3 2.0.5 2.0.6 2.1.0
XML/Ada 1.0 2.2 3.0 3.2 4.1 4.4
XML-EZ-out 1.06 1.06.1 1.06.1

The ADT plugin for Eclipse (see section ObjectAda from Aonix) can be used with GNAT as packaged for Debian Etch. Specify "/usr" as the toolchain path.

DJGPP (for MS-DOS)[edit | edit source]

DJGPP has GNAT as part of their GCC distribution.

DJGPP is a port of a comprehensive collection of GNU utilities to MS-DOS with 32-bit extensions, and is actively supported (as of 1.2005). It includes the whole GCC compiler collection, that now includes Ada. See the DJGPP website for installation instructions.

DJGPP programs run also in a DOS command box in Windows, as well as in native MS-DOS systems.

FreeBSD and DragonFly[edit | edit source]

FreeBSD's ports collection has an Ada framework with an expanding set of software packages. The Framework is currently built by FSF GCC 6.3.1, although FSF GCC 5.4 can optionally be used instead. The AdaCore GPL compilers are not present. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is the addition maintenance of multiple compilers is significant. There are no non-GCC based Ada compilers represented in ports either.

While FreeBSD does have a snapshot that goes with each release, the ports are updating in a rolling fashion continuously, and the vast majority of users prefer the "head" of ports which has the latest packages.

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, Ada 2005, Ada 2012, C, C++, ObjC, Fortran
License for the run-time library GPLv3 with Runtime Library Exception v3
Native platforms FreeBSD i386, FreeBSD AMD64, FreeBSD ARM64, DragonFly x86-64
Cross platforms FreeBSD/DragonFly->Android (targets ARMv7 and x86), FreeBSD/DragonFly->FreeBSD/ARM64 (targets Aarch64)
Compiler back-end GCC 6.3.1
Available from http://www.freebsd.org, https://github.com/DragonFlyBSD/DPorts
Support Volunteer; public bug database

There are two ways to install the software. The quickest and easiest way is to install prebuilt binaries using the command "pkg install <pkg name>". For example, to install the GNAT Programming Studio and all of its dependencies including the GNAT compiler, all you need is one command:

pkg install gps-ide

If a specific package is not available, or the user just prefers to build from source (this can take a long time), then a typical command would be:

cd /usr/ports/devel/gps && make install clean

As with the binary installation, if any dependencies are missing they will be built first, also from source.

Available software as of 8 February 2017

Directory Common Name version pkg name
archivers/zip-ada Zip-Ada (Library) 52 zip-ada
cad/ghdl GNU VHDL simulator 0.33 ghdl
databases/adabase Thick bindings to Postgres, MySQL and SQLite 3.0 adabase
databases/apq Ada95 database interface library 3.2.0 apq
databases/apq-mysql APQ MySQL driver 3.2.0 apq-mysql
databases/apq-odbc APQ ODBC driver 3.2.0 apq-odbc
databases/apq-pgsql APQ PostgreSQL driver 3.2.0 apq-pgsql
devel/ada-util Ada 2005 app utilities (Library) 1.8.0 ada-util
devel/adaid UUID generation library 0.0.1 adaid
devel/adabooch Ada95 Booch Components (Library) 2016-03-21 adabooch
devel/adacurses AdaCurses (Binding) 2015-08-08 adacurses
devel/afay AFlex and AYACC parser generators 041111 afay
devel/ahven Ahven (Unit Test Library) 2.6 ahven
devel/alog Stackable logging framework 0.5.2 alog
devel/aunit Unit testing framework 2016 aunit
devel/florist-gpl Florist (Posix Binding) 2016 florist-gpl
devel/gnatcoll GNAT Component Collection 2016 gnatcoll
devel/gnatpython GNATPython (python-based test framework) 2014-02-24 gnatpython
devel/gprbuild GPRbuild (Multi-language build tool) 20160609 gprbuild
devel/gps GNAT Programming Studio 2016 gps-ide
devel/libspark2012 SPARK 2012 library source files 2012 libspark2012
devel/matreshka Matreshka (Info Systems Library) 0.7.0 matreshka
devel/pcsc-ada PCSC library 0.7.3 pcsc-ada
devel/pragmarcs PragmAda Reusable Components 20161207 pragmarcs
devel/sdl_gnat GNAT SDL bindings (Thin) 2013 sdl_gnat
devel/simple_components Simple Ada components 4.18 simple_components
dns/ironsides Spark/Ada Ironsides DNS Server 2015-04-15 ironsides
graphics/generic_image_decoder image decoder library 05 generic_image_decoder
lang/adacontrol AdaControl (Construct detection tool) 1.17r3 adacontrol
lang/asis Ada Semantic Interface Specification 2016 asis
lang/gcc5-aux GNAT Ada compiler (FSF GCC) 5.4 (2016-06-03) gcc5-aux
lang/gcc6-aux GNAT Ada compiler (FSF GCC) 6.3.1 (2017-02-02) gcc6-aux
lang/gnat_util GNAT sources (helper Library) 2017-02-02 gnat_util
lang/gnatcross-aarch64 FreeBSD/ARM64 cross-compiler, Aarch64 2017-02-02 (6.3.1) gnatcross-aarch64
lang/gnatcross-binutils-aarch64 GNU Binutils used by FreeBSD/ARM64 cross-compiler 2.27 gnatcross-binutils-aarch64
lang/gnatcross-sysroot-aarch64 FreeBSD/ARM64 sysroot 1 gnatcross-sysroot-aarch64
lang/gnatdroid-armv7 Android 5.0 cross-compiler, ARMv7 2017-02-02 (6.3.1) gnatdroid-armv7
lang/gnatdroid-binutils GNU Binutils used by Android cross-compiler 2.27 gnatdroid-binutils
lang/gnatdroid-binutils-x86 GNU Binutils used by Android cross-compiler (x86) 2.27 gnatdroid-binutils-x86
lang/gnatdroid-sysroot Android API 4.0 to 6.0 sysroot 23 gnatdroid-sysroot
lang/gnatdroid-sysroot-x86 Android API 4.4 to 6.0 sysroot (x86) 23 gnatdroid-sysroot-x86
lang/gnatdroid-x86 Android 5.0 cross-compiler, x86 2017-02-02 (6.3.1) gnatdroid-x86
lang/lua-ada Ada bindings for Lua 1.0 ada-lua
math/plplot-ada PLplot Ada bindings 5.12.0 plplot-ada
misc/excel-writer Excel output library 15 excel-writer
misc/ini_file_manager Configuration file library 03 ini_file_manager
net/adasockets IPv4 socket library 1.10 adasockets
net/anet Network library (IPv4 and IPv6) 0.3.4 anet
net/polyorb PolyORB (CORBA/SOAP/DSA middleware) 2.11.1 (2014) polyorb
security/libadacrypt Cryptography Library (symm & asymm) 20151019 libadacrypt
security/libsparkcrypto LibSparkCrypto (Cryptography Library) 0.1.1 libsparkcrypto
shells/sparforte Shell and scripting language for mission-critical projects 2.0.2 spareforte
textproc/adabrowse AdaBrowse (Ada95 HTML doc. generator) 4.0.3 adabrowse
textproc/opentoken Ada Lex analyzer and parser 6.0b opentoken
textproc/py-sphinxcontrib-adadomain Sphinx documentation generator for Ada 0.1 py27-sphinxcontrib-adadomain
textproc/templates_parser AWS Template Parser library 17.0.0 templates_parser
textproc/words Words (Latin/English dictionary) 1.97F words
textproc/xml_ez_out XML output (Library) 1.06 xml_ez_out
textproc/xmlada XML/Ada (Library) 17.0.0 xmlada
www/aws Ada Web Server 17.0.1 aws
www/aws-demos Ada Web Server demos 17.0.1 aws-demos
x11-toolkits/gtkada GTK2/Ada (bindings) 2.24.4 gtkada
x11-toolkits/gtkada3 GTK3/Ada (bindings) 3.14.2 gtkada3

Gentoo GNU/Linux[edit | edit source]

The GNU Ada compiler can be installed on a Gentoo system using emerge:

 emerge dev-lang/gnat

In contrast to Debian, Gentoo is primarily a source distribution, so many packages are available only in source form, and require the user to recompile them (using emerge).

Also in contrast to Debian, Gentoo supports several versions of GNAT in parallel on the same system. Be careful, because not all add-ons and libraries are available with all versions of GNAT.

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, Ada 2005, C (more?)
License for the run-time library pure or GNAT-modified GPL (both available)
Native platforms Gentoo GNU/Linux on amd64, powerpc and i386
Cross platforms none
Compiler back-end GCC 3.4, 4.1 (various binary packages)
Available from http://www.gentoo.org/ (see other Gentoo dev-ada packages)
Support Volunteer; public bug database
Add-ons included AdaBindX, AdaBroker, AdaDoc, AdaOpenGL, AdaSockets, ASIS, AUnit, Booch Components, CBind, Charles, Florist, GLADE, GPS, GtkAda, XML/Ada

Mandriva Linux[edit | edit source]

The GNU Ada compiler can be installed on a Mandriva system with this command:

urpmi gnat

MinGW (for Microsoft Windows)[edit | edit source]

MinGW — Minimalist GNU for Windows contains a version of the GNAT compiler.

The current version of MinGW (5.1.6) contains gcc-4.5.0. This includes a fully functional GNAT compiler. If the automatic downloader does not work correctly you can download the compiler directly: pick gcc-4.5.0-1 from MinGW/BaseSystem/GCC/Version4/

old instructions[edit | edit source]

The following list should help you with the installation. (I may have forgotten something — but this is wiki, just add to the list)

  1. Install MinGW-3.1.0-1.exe
    1. extract binutils-2.15.91-20040904-1.tar.gz
    2. extract mingw-runtime-3.5.tar.gz
    3. extract gcc-core-3.4.2-20040916-1.tar.gz
    4. extract gcc-ada-3.4.2-20040916-1.tar.gz
    5. extract gcc-g++-3.4.2-20040916-1.tar.gz (Optional)
    6. extract gcc-g77-3.4.2-20040916-1.tar.gz (Optional)
    7. extract gcc-java-3.4.2-20040916-1.tar.gz (Optional)
    8. extract gcc-objc-3.4.2-20040916-1.tar.gz (Optional)
    9. extract w32api-3.1.tar.gz
  2. Install mingw32-make-3.80.0-3.exe (Optional)
  3. Install gdb-5.2.1-1.exe (Optional)
  4. Install MSYS-1.0.10.exe (Optional)
  5. Install msysDTK-1.0.1.exe (Optional)
    1. extract msys-automake-1.8.2.tar.bz2 (Optional)
    2. extract msys-autoconf-2.59.tar.bz2 (Optional)
    3. extract msys-libtool-1.5.tar.bz2 (Optional)

I have made good experience in using D:\MinGW as target directory for all installations and extractions.

Also noteworthy is that the Windows version for GNAT from Libre is also based on MinGW.

In gcc-3.4.2-release_notes.txt from MinGW site reads: please check that the files in the /lib/gcc/mingw32/3.4.2/adainclude and adalib directories are flagged as read-only. This attribute is necessary to prevent them from being deleted when using gnatclean to clean a project.

So be sure to do this.

OpenCSW (for Solaris on SPARC and x86)[edit | edit source]

OpenCSW has binary packages of GCC 3.4.6 and 4.6.2 with Ada support. The package names are gcc3ada and gcc4ada respectively.

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, parts of Ada 2005, C, C++, Fortran 95, Java, Objective-C, Objective-C++
License for the run-time library GNAT-modified GPL
Native platforms Oracle Solaris and OpenSolaris on SPARC and x86
Cross platforms none
Compiler back-end GCC 3.4.6 and 4.6.2 (both available)
Support ?
Available from http://www.opencsw.org/
Add-ons included none (?)

pkgsrc: NetBSD, DragonFly, FreeBSD and Solaris[edit | edit source]

The pkgsrc portable package file system has a small Ada framework. It is based on FSF GCC 5.4 currently and the FSF GCC 6.2 is available as well. The AdaCore GPL versions are not present, nor are non-GCC based compilers.

The pkgsrc system is released in quarterly branches, which are normally recommended. However, a user could also choose the "head" which would the very latest package versions. The pkgsrc system supports 21 platforms, but for Ada this is potentially limited to 5 due to the bootstrap compiler requirement: NetBSD, DragonFly, SunOS (Solaris/Illumos), OpenBSD/MirBSD, and FreeBSD.

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, Ada 2005, Ada 2012, C, C++, ObjC, Fortran
License for the run-time library GPLv3 with Runtime Library Exception v3
Native platforms NetBSD i386 and amd64, DragonFly x86-64, FreeBSD i386 and amd64, Solaris i386 and x86_64
Cross platforms None
Compiler back-end GCC 5.4 (GCC 4.9 and 6 available)
Available from http://www.pkgsrc.org, status: http://www.pkgsrc.se
Support Volunteer; public bug database

There are two ways to install the software. The quickest and easiest way is to install prebuilt binaries using the command "pkg_add <pkg name>". For example, to install the GNAT Programming Studio and all of its dependencies including the GNAT compiler, all you need is one command:

pkg_add gps

If a specific package is not available, or the user just prefers to build from source (this can take a long time), then a typical command would be:

cd /usr/pkg/devel/gps && bmake install

As with the binary installation, if any dependencies are missing they will be built first, also from source.

Available software as of 14 December 2016

Directory Common Name version pkg name
cad/ghdl GNU VHDL simulator 0.32rc1 ghdl
devel/florist Florist (Posix Binding) 2012 florist-gpl
devel/gnatpython GNATPython (python-based test framework) 2011-09-12 gnatpython
devel/gprbuild-aux GPRbuild (Multi-language build tool) 2016-06-09 gprbuild-aux
lang/gcc-aux GNAT Ada compiler (FSF GCC) 4.9.2 (2014-10-23) gcc-aux
lang/gcc5-aux GNAT Ada compiler (FSF GCC) 5.4.0 (2016-06-03) gcc5-aux
lang/gcc6-aux GNAT Ada compiler (FSF GCC) 6.2.0 (2016-08-22) gcc6-aux
textproc/xmlada XML/Ada (Library) 4.4.0 xmlada
www/aws Ada Web Server 3.1.0.0 (w) aws
www/aws-demos Ada Web Server demos 3.1.0.0 (w) aws-demos
x11/gtkada GTK/Ada (bindings) 2.24.4 gtkada

SuSE Linux[edit | edit source]

All versions of SuSE Linux have a GNAT compiler included. SuSE versions 9.2 and higher also contains ASIS, Florist and GLADE libraries. The following two packages are needed:

gnat
gnat-runtime

For SuSE version 12.1, the compiler is in the package

 gcc46-ada
 libada46

For 64 bit system you will need the 32 bit compatibility packages as well:

gnat-32bit
gnat-runtime-32bit

Ubuntu[edit | edit source]

Ubuntu (and derivatives like Kubuntu, Xubuntu...) is a Debian-based Linux distribution, thus the installation process described above can be used. Graphical package managers like Synaptic or Adept can also be employed to select the Ada packages.

ICC from Irvine Compiler Corporation[edit | edit source]

Irvine Compiler Corporation provides native and cross compilers for various platforms.[1] The compiler and run-time system support development of certified, safety-critical software.

Commercial, proprietary. No-cost evaluation is possible on request. Royalty-free redistribution of the run-time system is allowed.

Janus/Ada 83 and 95 from RR Software[edit | edit source]

RR Software offers native compilers for MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and various Unix and Unix-like systems, and a library for Windows GUI programming called CLAW. There are academic, personal and professional editions, as well as support options.

Janus/Ada 95 supports subset of Ada 2007 and Ada 2012 features.

Commercial but relatively cheap; proprietary.

MAXAda from Concurrent[edit | edit source]

Concurrent offers MAXAda, an Ada 95 compiler for Linux/Xeon and PowerPC platforms, and Ada bindings to POSIX and X/Motif.[2]

Commercial, proprietary.

ObjectAda from PTC (formerly Aonix/Atego)[edit | edit source]

PTC offers ObjectAda native (Windows, some flavors of Unix, and Linux) and cross (PPC, Intel, VxWorks, and ERC32) compilers.

Limited support of Ada 2012 is available.

Commercial, proprietary.

PowerAda from OC Systems[edit | edit source]

OC Systems offers Ada compilers and bindings to POSIX and X-11:

  • PowerAda, an Ada 95 compiler for Linux and AIX,
  • LegacyAda/390, an Ada 83 compiler for IBM System 370 and 390 mainframes

Commercial, proprietary.

ApexAda from PTC (formerly IBM Rational)[edit | edit source]

PTC ApexAda for native and embedded development.

Commercial, proprietary.

SCORE from DDC-I[edit | edit source]

DDC-I offers its SCORE cross-compilers for embedded development. SCORE stands for Safety-Critical, Object-oriented, Real-time Embedded.

Commercial, proprietary.

TADS from Tartan[edit | edit source]

Tartan offers the Tartan Ada Development System (TADS), with cross-compilers for some digital signal processors.

Commercial, proprietary.

XD Ada from DXC[edit | edit source]

XD Ada is an Ada 83 cross-compiler for embedded development. Hosts include VAX, Alpha and Integrity Servers running OpenVMS. Targets include Motorola 68000 and MIL-STD-1750A processors.

Commercial, proprietary.

XGC Ada from XGC Software[edit | edit source]

XGC compilers are GCC with custom run-time libraries suitable for avionics and space applications. The run-time kernels are very small and do not support exception propagation (i.e. you can handle an exception only in the subprogram that raised it).

Commercial but some versions are also offered as free downloads. Free Software.

Languages supported Ada 83, Ada 95, C
License for the run-time library GNAT-Modified GPL
Native platforms none
Cross platforms Hosts: sun-sparc-solaris, pc-linux2.*; targets are bare boards with ERC32, MIL-STD-1750A, Motorola 68000 family or Intel 32-bit processors. PowerPC and Intel 80186 targets on request.
Compiler back-end GCC 2.8.1
Available from http://www.xgc.com/
Support Commercial
Add-ons included Ravenscar-compliant run-time kernels, certified for avionics and space applications; gdb cross-debugger; target simulator.

References[edit | edit source]