Experiencing unreproducible internal compiler errors <<whinge>>

[Horst von Brand]

Matt Lowry <mclowry@cs.adelaide.edu.au> said:

[...]

> OK so let's posit it's the hardware. Why isn't every single process running
> on the machine liable to having it's memory corrupted or whatever. What's
> so special about GCC that means it and nothing else randomly segfaults or
> has non-deterministic behaviour despite a decidedly deterministic function
> in life? I've yet to see anything else on my machine exhibit this kind of
> behaviour.

The memory errors discussed here are that particular bits get (rarely!)
flipped at random (or close enough for the time being). Large processes
(i.e., gcc) are more liable to use the affected bits, and if they fumble
around with pointers like mad (i.e., gcc) it is probable that they soon
trip over an invalid pointer value and segfault.
-- 
Horst von Brand                             vonbrand@sleipnir.valparaiso.cl
Casilla 9G, Viña del Mar, Chile                               +56 32 672616