RE: Where oh where can I find a version of gcc which WILL bootstrap?

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

Joe Garvey wrote:

> My project is to build a new front-end to gcc on Linux which
> requires a bootstrapping of gcc.  I've downloaded and tried to
> build several versions of gcc, 4.3.2 which had it's own numerous
> errors, and when that was given up on, then 3.1.1 and, 3.1 (as
> referenced by Arthur Griffith in his book GCC: The Complete
> Reference) but I get the problem "read-rtl.c:662:error: lvalue
> required as increment operand".

It really ought to just work, particularly if you're building on Linux - that's where it gets most of its testing. All released versions are known to build and every post to the gcc-testresults mailing list is evidence of a successful build. There are some caveats: you may run into problems building an old GCC with a more recent GCC (your error above is typical) and you may need to upgrade your binutils if you're building a newer GCC. You should check the documentation included with the version you're trying to build.

You haven't told us any details about your Linux install. The simplest option is probably to see what version of GCC you have already (i.e. "gcc -v") and copy the version and configure line used by your Linux distribution - it's likely the binutils version matches already all of the build prerequisites will be available through your Linux distro's package manager. However if you ever intend to submit your work to the GCC project you should base your project on the absolute latest version you can get away with, and you may get more help on the GCC mailing lists if you're asking about recent versions.

Probably the best thing to do is to pick a version, carefully read the documentation to make sure you're doing everything right and then post any errors you're still seeing so we can help you resolve them.

Rup.