gcc 4.4.4 can freeze x86_64

[Ian Lance Taylor]

"Wolfram R. Jarisch" <wolfram@cyber-inc.us> writes:

> When compiling code with a total array size about equal (or slightly
> larger) to the machine RAM the system freezes (here it is an x86_64 with
> 24GB running RHEL 6). Redhat identified this as a problem with the
> computation on the sha1sum on gcc 4.4.4 (case# 00387722). For some
> reason the compiler tries to "work though the array" in its whole size
> to compute a sha1sum.

A Red Hat case number doesn't tell us anything useful, so I'm not sure
exactly what the problem is.  As far as I know, the compiler does not
compute any SHA1 checksum.  The linker does compute such a checksum if
you pass the --build-id option.  The linker is part of the GNU binutils;
it is not part of the compiler.  Linker bug reports should go to
binutils@sourceware.org; see http://sourceware.org/binutils/ .

That said, I think the linker just computes the checksum over the
section contents of the output file.  It has to generate that data
anyhow, so I don't know why computing the checksum would make such a big
difference in linker performance.

Ian