Re: egcs and linux

[hjl at lucon dot org (H.J. Lu)]

> > Many Linux testcases are quite complicated. As you have noted
> > that those bugs only show up in specific circumstances. A testcase
> > may mean
> > 
> > 1. A Linux machine with specific packages installed.
> > 2. A Makefile and several source files.
> > 
> > How can such a testcase be included in the egcs testsuite?
> 
> #1 can't be included; #2, in theory, could be.  Since the real problem
> is often glibc/libstdc++ interaction, or issues with dynamic linking,

Make that glibc/libc5/libstdc++/libg++. Yes, there are some
applications on Linux which uses libg++. groff and netscape are
among them. You may have to be on the cutting edge to see the problem.
That is one reason I usually see the problem first before anyone else.


> I wouldn't be surprised if some of these failures show up also on the
> Hurd (e.g. in the Debian/HURD system people are putting together) or
> even with dynamic linking on other ELF systems.  This means you wouldn't
> want to include #1 even if you wanted to, you'd just describe cases
> where you expect failures.

I doubt a testcase will show the problem without (1). The main reason
other people don't see the problem is (1).

> 
> I would then support you in saying that egcs 1.1.2 must run those tests
> correctly (you could describe the problematic systems or how to duplicate
> failures).
> 
> 

It will be very hard for me to explain problems in words only. If
they are so simple, I won't need to write this message. To really
understand it, you need to know the internals of libc, libstdc++,
and libg++.


-- 
H.J. Lu (hjl@gnu.org)