GCC multi-version development layout

[Jonathan Wakely]

On Sun, 19 Apr 2026, 18:03 Basile STARYNKEVITCH, <basile@starynkevitch.net>
wrote:

> On Mon, 2026-04-20 at 00:56 +0800, Xi Ruoyao via Gcc-help wrote:
> > On Sun, 2026-04-19 at 16:33 +0000, Heime via Gcc-help wrote:
> > > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > When building GCC from a cloned Git source tree using separate
> > > directories (as recommended), the directory structure follows
> > > a clean separation of source, build artifacts, and final
> > > installation.
> > >
> > > With different version of gcc, how would be the typical layout
> > > for specific branches to make patch changes to different gcc
> > > versions with multiple builds and install?
> >
> > See https://git-scm.com/docs/git-worktree.
>
>
> Excellent reference.
>
> However, GCC takes a long time to be compiled from source code. Often
> hours.
>
> But most computers (eg recent laptops) have terabytes of disk space.
>
> So for GCC specifically, I still recommend having one source tree + one
> build tree for every branch you work on.
>

Yes, and git worktree is the best way to do that

I'm not sure why you're responding to the correct suggestion to use git
worktree with "however, ..."


> And you probably want your work to be accepted in GCC trunk. When GCC
> is in stage 1 (or 2) sending your patches *daily* for review to gcc-
> patches@ is then making a lot of sense
>
> Regards.
> --
>
> Basile STARYNKEVITCH
> <basile@starynkevitch.net>
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