compact frame descriptions incompatible with DWARF2 .eh_frame

[Mason]

Steve Ellcey wrote:

> Mason wrote:
>
>> Ian Lance Taylor wrote:
>>
>>> Mason wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm running a mips-linux-gnu system, using
>>>> gcc version 4.6.3 (Sourcery CodeBench Lite 2012.03-63)
>>>>
>>>> mips-linux-gnu/bin/ld:
>>>>   compact frame descriptions incompatible with DWARF2 .eh_frame
>>
>> I'm downloading the source tarball right now.
>> https://sourcery.mentor.com/GNUToolchain/release2190
> 
> If you want to use the latest CodeSourcery tools but not have the
> compact frames you can use the flag '-mno-compact-eh' and you should
> get the standard eh frames.  That should fix your link problem.

Thanks! I managed to miss this option because I kept reading man gcc,
instead of man mips-linux-gnu-gcc. Doh!

If I understand correctly, gcc 4.3 did not support compact frames,
whereas they are used by default in 4.6, correct?

Can you explain (briefly) the pros and cons of compact frames?

-- 
Regards.