Re: Compiler for Red Hat Linux 8

["H . J . Lu" <hjl at lucon dot org>]

On Wed, Jul 18, 2001 at 11:41:18AM +0200, Andreas Jaeger wrote:
> 
> IMO we should broaden the issues a bit.  The issues you're facing will
> be faced by all Linux distributors.  We should avoid a situation where
> each distributor releases a GCC 3.0 version that is only compatible to
> itself.  
> 
> I personally would appreciate - and support - a commitment from some
> of the Linux distributors on the next GCC version they're using and on
> compatibility to a *released* GCC version.

I think that is the problem. When was the last time any Linux
distributions used an unmodified *released* GCC? Probably never. None
of the *released* GCCs was good enough to build a whole Linux
distribution. Every vendor has to modify a *released* GCC or
take a snapshot from CVS. One way to solve it for Linux is to have
a vendor-natural Linux gcc, which is known to be able to compile
a complete, working Linux distribution. But given the release
schedule of gcc, unless a Linux distribution wants to sync their
release schedule with gcc, which I don't believe is likely to happen,
I don't think such a Linux gcc will be a *released* GCC. That is
why I suggested making bug fix releases of gcc every 2 or 3 weeks
so that there is a chance that we can use a *released* GCC for
Linux distributions. Of course, I am assuming that those bug fix
releases fix the reported Linux build bugs.


H.J.