To strip down a new version of GNU binutils for import, extract the files like this: tar -xvzf binutils-2.8.1.tar.gz -X FREEBSD-Xlist Don't eliminate the *z8* files. They're needed because of a stupid hard-coded configure script in the opcodes subdirectory. If you decide to bring in more of the files, import them -- don't use "cvs add". And please remember to adjust the contents of "FREEBSD-Xlist" so that it reflects what is really imported from the vendor. Many of the files generated by GNU configure are present pre-built in the "src/gnu/usr.bin/binutils" tree. These can be regenerated for a new version of binutils by running the "update.sh" script in that directory. When upgrading to a new version, you also need to update the VERSION definition in "src/gnu/usr.bin/binutils/Makefile.inc0".