Re: [PATCH v3 11/12] compiler/gcc: Raise minimum GCC version for kernel builds to 4.8

[Arnd Bergmann]

On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 6:53 PM Will Deacon <will@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> It is very rare to see versions of GCC prior to 4.8 being used to build
> the mainline kernel. These old compilers are also know to have codegen
> issues which can lead to silent miscompilation:
>
> https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=58145
>
> Raise the minimum GCC version for kernel build to 4.8 and remove some
> tautological Kconfig dependencies as a consequence.
>
> Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Reviewed-by: Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Will Deacon <will@xxxxxxxxxx>

Acked-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx>

On a related note, I've updated the cross-compilers on kernel.org and
done some randconfig testing on all major versions from v4.8 to 9.3.
There were a couple of minor regressions with 4.8 (mostly harmless
warnings), but overall gcc-4.8 is still working well. I did not try older
compilers.

       Arnd