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Re: hacking gcc - avoiding bootstrap?
- To: brent at rcfile dot org, dewar at gnat dot com, gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Subject: Re: hacking gcc - avoiding bootstrap?
- From: Mike Stump <mrs at windriver dot com>
- Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2000 15:55:41 -0700 (PDT)
> To: brent@rcfile.org, gcc@gcc.gnu.org, mrs@windriver.com
> Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2000 08:24:51 -0400 (EDT)
> From: dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar)
> I would have thought that it was routine to do a bootstrap to test
> any modification that is made. Certainly in the GNAT world, we do
> both a bootstrap and our full regression run for even the simplest
> change.
That's because your frontend is written in the language of the
frontend. By compiling it, you run a testcase, selfcompile.
If mine were in C++, it might make more sense.
If I had a sparc, and I was working on the sparc.md file, a full clean
botstrap would be good, as again, it is a good testcase.
Very few changes to the C++ frontend can show a difference between a
bootstrapped compiler and a non-bootstrapped. Also, given an
infrastructure that runs beside you that does a full bootstrap and a
full test, there is really little need... It's not that it wasn't
done, it just that I usually didn't do them. Better to let cron waste
his time, more efficient for me.