pkgsrc-Users archive

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Old Index]

Any objections to swapping base compilers to make gcc4.7 the default?



The gcc-4.4 compiler is still the default compiler on DragonFly-3.3. There seems to be general consensus on IRC that it's time to promote gcc-4.7 to that role and have gcc-4.4 serve as the backup.

Is there any major objection to doing this?

From a pkgsrc point of view, over 11,150 packages build with gcc-4.7. There are some older packages that fail the stricter gcc-4.7 checks that are easily patched, but they take time to add. However, one could take a page from dports where gcc-4.4 is the primary compiler for pkgsrc regardless of which the system uses. So to summarize: gcc-4.7 can already build most of what gcc-4.4 can in pkgsrc (plus some that it can't), and users could put "DRAGONFLY_CCVER?=gcc44" in the /usr/pkg/etc/mk.conf file if they want to keep using gcc-4.4 for packages.

There's only one known problem with gcc-4.7 right now: The plugin mechanism introduced around gcc-4.6 doesn't work right. The world/kernel doesn't use this mechanism and only 1-2 packages are failing because of it. Nevertheless I'd like to fix it, so I'll attempt to do before before a compiler switch. However, failing to do so shouldn't block the switch.

So as the title says, is there a good reason to hold off on making gcc-4.7 the primary compiler?

John


Home | Main Index | Thread Index | Old Index