compiler question

[Jerry McBride]

My reply is mixed within your original text...

On Monday 21 July 2003 10:56 am, Tony Alfrey wrote:
> I see that more and more stuff will require gcc 3.3 and I've been
> running gcc 2.95.2.  So can someone tell me what potential problems I
> might have if I install 3.3.  Specifically
> a)  will 3.3 prevent me from now making small changes in my 2.4.4 kernel
> previously compiled with 2.95.2?

You mean on the source code level and then recompiling it with gcc 3.3? No 
problems...

> b)  Will I need some special tools to go with 3.3  (I'll of course read
> the read me about things I'll need for 3.3)

Just follow the requirements in linux/documentation/changes and you'll be ok.

> c)  Is there some clever way that I might switch between 2.95.2 and 3.3?
> gcc at the command line presumably knows only my most recent compiler.
>

I tried that under gentoo and I failed. Therefore I just stuck with the gcc I 
compiled. Now some of my personal observations in regards to gcc 3.3. That 
version is still considered the cutting edge of development. I've had some 
problems getting certain programs to compile that usually ended up with gcc 
segfaulting. Not pretty. That said, gcc version 3.2.3 has been real stable 
and has yet to have any internal compile problems or errors. However, some 
very old sources will not compile with it or any of the 3.x compilers. So 
far, nothing important has failed to compile, just odd stuff like old games, 
etc. Be aware, your milage may vary...

One very big gotcha in moving from 2.9.x to 3.x.x... if you recompile your 
glibc or anything else critical to system operations, you can never go back 
to the 2.9.x series of gcc as the new compiler generates version specific 
libraries...




> General suggestions about switching would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks!

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