parameter type of -frandom-seed

[Martin Sebor]

On 08/27/2015 12:16 PM, Stephan Gatzka wrote:
>
>> The option argument is processed in the set_random_seed function in
>> toplev.c. The function takes a string argument and calls strtoul on
>> it to obtain the numeric random seed (strtoul is called with the base
>> argument of zero letting it detect it from the prefix). When strtoul
>> fails, set_random_seed calls crc32_string with the string argument.
>> So the function is capable of processing both numeric and string
>> arguments.
>
> Thanks for diving into the sources.
>
>> I suppose the question is whether GCC should should be
>> changed back to accept string arguments as originally implemented,
>> or whether it should stay as is and the option specification changed
>> to match the documentation.
>
> Well, I would stay with the implementation and allow strings. So
> reverting the docs back to string would be fine.

I opened driver/67425 for this and outlined the two solutions we've
discussed.

Martin