RE: installing gcc v4 on AMD64

["Rupert Wood" <me at rupey dot net>]

kenneth kahn wrote:

> What's the difference between gcc and gcc-g++; what is gcc-core and
> gcc-testsuite?  I want to install the basic gcc/g++ compilers along
> with their support libraries.

This is touched on in the install docs, but it isn't that clear; better is a
snapshot announcement:

    http://gcc.gnu.org/install/download.html
    http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2005-07/msg00290.html

  - gcc is everything;
  - gcc-core is just the C compiler and backend
  - gcc-g++ is the extra files you'll need on top of gcc-core for C++
  - gcc-testsuite is the optional testsuite you can run on your built
    compiler as a confidence check

The simplest thing to do, provided bandwidth isn't an issue, is to download
the full gcc package and mask off the languages you don't need with
"--enable-languages=c++" on the configure line. Or build them all and
experiment!

If bandwidth is an issue, you just need gcc-core and gcc-g++; unpack them
together and you'll have enough to build C and C++ compilers. Add
gcc-testsuite too and you'll be able to confidence check your compiler too
and optionally mail in build test results to the gcc-testresults mailing
list. Don't panic if there are some failures in the test-suite; compare your
run against a similar system in recent gcc-testresults archives

    http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-testresults/

rather than expect a completely clean run.

If you're adding a compiler to an existing system, I'd suggest

  1) you keep it out of the way, e.g. in /usr/local or
     /usr/local/gcc40 or in your home dir, rather than trying to
     update the system compiler; C++ you build with the new one won't
     be compatible with any system-installed C++ libs, for example
     and I always prefer to leave the system compiler be

  2) you should get the system compiler's configure options from
     "gcc -v" and use that as a starting point for your own
     configure line, for maximum compatibility with the existing
     system libs.

FWIW, gcc-4.0.1 was just released so you should look for that over 4.0.0.

Rup.