Re: building gcj on OS X (also AWT)

[Bryce McKinlay <mckinlay at redhat dot com>]

John Gabriele wrote:

> > 1. try "make" instead of "make bootstrap". Since Apple uses gcc 3.3, 
> > the native compiler should be able to build gcc 3.4 without needing a 
> > full bootstrap cycle.
>
>
> I thought the already-installed gcc 3.3 *was* the compiler that
> was building 3.4 for me... Could be please explain roughly how this
> "bootstrapping" works?


"make bootstrap" does something like this: first it builds the C 
compiler using the system compiler, then rebuilds itself using the 
freshly built compiler. Then it does a sanity check to see if the output 
of itself built with the system compiler is the same as itself built 
with itself. Finally it builds the other front ends and the libraries 
using iself built with itself.

"make" on the other hand simply builds the compiler once using whatever 
compiler is found on the system, then builds the libraries using the 
newly built compiler. Since this is a lot quicker, its often the best 
choice if you trust the installed compiler.

Bryce