A valid friend declaration of a function template from a different namespce results in the following error message:

friend.cpp:12: `void A::f(B::C*)' should have been declared inside `A'

This appears to be a known problem (it is described here: http://www.cuj.com/experts/2101/sutter.htm), but I couldn't find a specific bug report.

Release:
gcc version 3.2 (mingw special 20020817-1)

Environment:
Reading specs from d:/opt/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc-lib/mingw32/3.2/specs
Configured with: ../gcc/configure --with-gcc --with-gnu-ld --with-gnu-as --host=
mingw32 --target=mingw32 --prefix=/mingw --enable-threads --disable-nls --enable
-languages=f77,c++,objc,ada --disable-win32-registry --disable-shared
Thread model: win32
gcc version 3.2 (mingw special 20020817-1)

How-To-Repeat:
Save the following program in file 'friend.cpp':

namespace A
{
template <typename T> void f(T * t) { delete t; } 
}

namespace B
{
class C
{
  private:
    friend void A::f<>(C *);

    ~C() {}
};
}

int main()
{
  B::C * c = new B::C;
  A::f(c);
}

Compile with g++ friend.cpp.