I am using GNU MCU ECLIPSE and the ARM toolchain to target CortexM MCUs, and I want to use functions from CMSIS DSP library. I have downloaded the library from the repository from https://github.com/ARM-software/CMSIS_5, added to the compiler settings the paths to the includes, and in the linker options I have added the folder C:/workspace/CMSIS/DSP/Lib/GCC as path to search for libraries, and added 'arm_cortexM3l_math' to the libraries. When I try to build I get the error
arm-none-eabi-g++ -mcpu=cortex-m3 -mthumb -O0 -fmessage-length=0 -fsigned-char -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -g3 -Xlinker --gc-sections -L"C:\workspace\eclipse_tools\CMSIS_5-develop\CMSIS\DSP\Lib\GCC" -Wl,-Map,"hello6.map" --specs=rdimon.specs -Wl,--start-group -lgcc -lc -lc -lm -lrdimon -Wl,--end-group -o "hello6.elf" ./src/main.o -larm_cortexM3l_math
c:/workspace/eclipse_tools/arm embedded gcc/8.2.1-1.7-20190524-0603/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/8.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/bin/ld.exe:C:\workspace\eclipse_tools\CMSIS_5-develop\CMSIS\DSP\Lib\GCC\libarm_cortexM3l_math.a: file format not recognized; treating as linker script
c:/workspace/eclipse_tools/arm embedded gcc/8.2.1-1.7-20190524-0603/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/8.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/bin/ld.exe:C:\workspace\eclipse_tools\CMSIS_5-develop\CMSIS\DSP\Lib\GCC\libarm_cortexM3l_math.a:1: syntax error
I don't understand why can't the linker read the library in .a format. I have tried with a clean eclipse installation both on windows and linux and with both the GNU MCU Eclipse ARM Embedded GCC and the GNU ARM Embedded Toolchain. Build tools for windows are also correctly installed.