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Re: How to know if compiler is Safe?



> I'm new to egcs.  Currently, I'm using the egcs-1.0.3 binary distribution
> from sunsite, and it appears to work fine, I've been compiling kernels and
> other various things (with -O6 -mpentium). I'd like to use one of the
> snapshots. But when I compile it and run the testsuite, there are
> unexpected errors.  Should I worry about these?

(I'm assuming that you have a Linux system with a Pentium, and not a
Pentium Pro or Pentium II, processor.  Right?)

Well, maybe.  The thing to keep in mind about snapshots are that they
are very new work, and any given snapshot may have major breakage.
They definitely aren't for production use, though you are free to
experiment with them.

> How will I know if it's safe to install, and use for general
> compilation?

First, never replace your only compiler by a snapshot.  Install the
snapshot somewhere else.  It's "safe" in that the compiler won't damage
your system or anything.

You can compile programs with snapshots, and it may work, but you may
encounter new bugs.  It's kind of like running a development kernel,
though a lot less risky (kernel bugs might corrupt your filesystem,
compiler bugs just make bad code or crash).

> Should I be getting no unexpected errors?

Not on snapshots.  In many cases new tests have recently been added
to mark bugs that haven't been fixed yet.  Even releases may have one
or two on some platforms.

> And what do you guys think about pgcc?  It appears to
> use the haifa flag when compiling.  Does it optimize much better than
> egcs?  Sorry for all these questions, but they don't seem to be answered
> on the FAQ.  ;-)

pgcc is now based on egcs.  It has better optimization if you have a
Pentium, but for any other platform it's likely to be worse or even not
work right.  I don't know if it is a win on the PPro or Pentium II or
not.

It used to be quite buggy, but it has gotten much better.  Ideally, I'd
like to see pgcc and egcs merge (and they are a lot closer now than pgcc
and gcc used to be).


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