mkdir ../binutils-build: The installation instructions for Binutils recommend creating a separate build directory instead of compiling the package inside the source tree. So, we create a binutils-build directory and work from there. --disable-nls: This option disabled internationalization (also known as i18n). We don't need this for our static programs and nls often causes problems when you're linking statically. LDFLAGS=-all-static: Setting the variable LDFLAGS to the value -all-static causes binutils to be linked statically.