[patch, libgfortran] [4.3/4.4/4.5 Regression] I/O: Problems reading partial records in formatted direct access files

[Tobias Burnus]

On 11/19/2009 05:47 AM, Jerry DeLisle wrote:
>> OK.  Are we still "supporting" 4.3?
>>
> Not too sure on 4.3.  I am not even sure the patch would be the same
> there, but I will check.

Well, the official GCC policy is to support the current development
version (i.e. 4.5), the last stable release series (i.e. 4.4.x) and the
previous stable release series (i.e. 4.3.x). Support means fixes for
reported regressions will be considered to be applied also to stable
branches.

Whether a given bug fix will be backported to an earlier release or not,
depends on the maintainers (i.e. on us). In tendency, regressions have a
higher priority than other bugs, wrong-code bugs a higher priority than
ICE-on-valid or rejects-valid PRs. And patches with few lines which are
obvious are better suited for backporting than long, complicated patches.

Regarding 4.3 and this regression: It is a wrong-code PR with a simple
2-line patch - and it is a regression. On the other hand, it is an old
bug (working in 4.1, failing in 4.2/4.3/4.4/4.5) and it has not been
found before - additionally, 4.3.x will loose the supported status as
soon as 4.5. is released, which will happen in few months (personal
guess: around end of February).

Personally, I would do the backport to 4.3, but I am also fine with
4.4/4.5 only.

Tobias