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This section identifies bugs that g77
users
might run into in the GCC-3.4.6 version
of g77
.
This includes bugs that are actually in the gcc
back end (GBE) or in libf2c
, because those
sets of code are at least somewhat under the control
of (and necessarily intertwined with) g77
,
so it isn't worth separating them out.
For information on bugs in other versions of g77
,
see News About GNU Fortran.
There, lists of bugs fixed in various versions of g77
can help determine what bugs existed in prior versions.
The following information was last updated on 2004-05-18:
g77
fails to warn about
use of a “live” iterative-DO variable
as an implied-DO variable
in a WRITE
or PRINT
statement
(although it does warn about this in a READ
statement).
g77
's straightforward handling of
label references and definitions sometimes prevents the GBE
from unrolling loops.
Until this is solved, try inserting or removing CONTINUE
statements as the terminal statement, using the END DO
form instead, and so on.
INCLUDE
statements from within INCLUDE
'd or #include
'd files.
g77
assumes that INTEGER(KIND=1)
constants range
from `-2**31' to `2**31-1' (the range for
two's-complement 32-bit values),
instead of determining their range from the actual range of the
type for the configuration (and, someday, for the constant).
Further, it generally doesn't implement the handling of constants very well in that it makes assumptions about the configuration that it no longer makes regarding variables (types).
Included with this item is the fact that g77
doesn't recognize
that, on IEEE-754/854-compliant systems, `0./0.' should produce a NaN
and no warning instead of the value `0.' and a warning.
g77
uses way too much memory and CPU time to process large aggregate
areas having any initialized elements.
For example, `REAL A(1000000)' followed by `DATA A(1)/1/' takes up way too much time and space, including the size of the generated assembler file.
Version 0.5.18 improves cases like this—specifically, cases of sparse initialization that leave large, contiguous areas uninitialized—significantly. However, even with the improvements, these cases still require too much memory and CPU time.
(Version 0.5.18 also improves cases where the initial values are zero to a much greater degree, so if the above example ends with `DATA A(1)/0/', the compile-time performance will be about as good as it will ever get, aside from unrelated improvements to the compiler.)
Note that g77
does display a warning message to
notify the user before the compiler appears to hang.
A warning message is issued when g77
sees code that provides
initial values (e.g. via DATA
) to an aggregate area (COMMON
or EQUIVALENCE
, or even a large enough array or CHARACTER
variable)
that is large enough to increase g77
's compile time by roughly
a factor of 10.
This size currently is quite small, since g77
currently has a known bug requiring too much memory
and time to handle such cases.
In gcc/gcc/f/data.c, the macro
FFEDATA_sizeTOO_BIG_INIT_
is defined
to the minimum size for the warning to appear.
The size is specified in storage units,
which can be bytes, words, or whatever, on a case-by-case basis.
After changing this macro definition, you must
(of course) rebuild and reinstall g77
for
the change to take effect.
Note that, as of version 0.5.18, improvements have
reduced the scope of the problem for sparse
initialization of large arrays, especially those
with large, contiguous uninitialized areas.
However, the warning is issued at a point prior to
when g77
knows whether the initialization is sparse,
and delaying the warning could mean it is produced
too late to be helpful.
Therefore, the macro definition should not be adjusted to reflect sparse cases. Instead, adjust it to generate the warning when densely initialized arrays begin to cause responses noticeably slower than linear performance would suggest.
MAIN__
(or MAIN___
or MAIN_
if
MAIN__
doesn't exist)
and run the program until it hits the breakpoint.
At that point, the
main program unit is activated and about to execute its first
executable statement, but that's the state in which the debugger should
start up, as is the case for languages like C.
g77
-compiled code using debuggers other than
gdb
is likely not to work.
Getting g77
and gdb
to work together is a known
problem—getting g77
to work properly with other
debuggers, for which source code often is unavailable to g77
developers, seems like a much larger, unknown problem,
and is a lower priority than making g77
and gdb
work together properly.
On the other hand, information about problems other debuggers
have with g77
output might make it easier to properly
fix g77
, and perhaps even improve gdb
, so it
is definitely welcome.
Such information might even lead to all relevant products
working together properly sooner.
g77
doesn't work perfectly on 64-bit configurations
such as the Digital Semiconductor (“DEC”) Alpha.
This problem is largely resolved as of version 0.5.23.
g77
currently inserts needless padding for things like
`COMMON A,IPAD' where `A' is CHARACTER*1
and `IPAD'
is INTEGER(KIND=1)
on machines like x86,
because the back end insists that `IPAD'
be aligned to a 4-byte boundary,
but the processor has no such requirement
(though it is usually good for performance).
The gcc
back end needs to provide a wider array
of specifications of alignment requirements and preferences for targets,
and front ends like g77
should take advantage of this
when it becomes available.
libf2c
routines that perform some run-time
arithmetic on COMPLEX
operands
were modified circa version 0.5.20 of g77
to work properly even in the presence of aliased operands.
While the g77
and netlib
versions of libf2c
differ on how this is accomplished,
the main differences are that we believe
the g77
version works properly
even in the presence of partially aliased operands.
However, these modifications have reduced performance on targets such as x86, due to the extra copies of operands involved.