C++ binary compatibility between GCC 3.1 and GCC 3.2?

[Andreas Jaeger <aj at suse dot de>]

Jason committed recently patch to fix a number of C++ Bugs in the ABI:
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2002-06/msg01275.html

What does this mean for binary compatibility between GCC 3.1 and GCC
3.2?  With the introduction of GCC 3 and its ABI, the expectation by
users is that we won't have binary incompatible changes.  Unfortunatly
the - AFAIK valid - bug reports show that the ABI implemention was
buggy and therefore needed to change.

What will this mean for distributions and for production usage of GCC
3.1?  I fear this means that folks cannot easily upgrade from GCC 3.1
to GCC 3.2 since C++ is incompatible and all C++ libraries that are
needed for development need to be relinked.

Would it make sense for a distribution starting to ship GCC 3.1 to
apply that bugfix?  I prefer not to do this since it would mean that
then two different GCC 3.1 release are binary incompatible :-(.  But
it would allow an easier upgrade to GCC 3.2 - or distributors are
stuck with GCC 3.1 like some where stuck with GCC 2.95 due to the
binary incompatibilities between 2.95, 3.0 and 3.1 which were known
before.

Andreas
-- 
 Andreas Jaeger
  SuSE Labs aj@suse.de
   private aj@arthur.inka.de
    http://www.suse.de/~aj