Re: egcs, glibc

Khimenko Victor (khim@sch57.msk.ru)
Thu, 9 Apr 1998 22:18:26 +0400 (MSD)


9-Apr-98 10:40 you wrote:
> Hi folks,
> This is a little off topic but I have seen quite a few messages here
> about egcs and glibc affecting kernel compiles, so here goes.
glibc coould not affect kernel compilation -- kernel does not use lib or glibc...
If course broken glibc (or libc) could broke compiler but this VERY rare
cases. new binutils, gcc (egcs, pgcc, etc.) could affect compilation (especially
for APM support), but most parts written in C are safe. I am using pgcc for
last two month (currently 1.0.2 -- I not dislike snapshots) for all compilations
including kernel compilations... Latest kernels 2.0.33+ & 2.1.89+ in most cases
could be compiled without any troubles by gcc 2.8.x, egcs 1.0.x or pgcc 1.0.x...

> It's time to upgrade my libraries and I need to know about egcs and
> glibc. Are there problems with either of these?
Yes. There are quite a few problems. With threads, for example, and some other
stuff also broken in current glibc.

> How will they affect kernel compiles?
glibc will not affect kernel compilation at all (only if you'll find completely
broken glibc this could prevent some programs from working at all :-)

> What is the difference between egcs and gcc?
egcs is different branch of gnu compilers (development was split in
mid-August 1997). More info on http://www.cygnus.com/egcs/
pgcc is egcs with additional optimisation for pentium & pentium-pro
More info on http://www.gcc.ml.org/

> Or glibc and libc?
glibc is "next libc". It's more poverfull, has more features, has better design
but still not so stable as libc :-(( I am NOT shure that you must upgrade from
libc to glibc now, but ahyway you could find FAQ about this on sunsite. May
be even better to use some glibc-based distribution (RedHat 5.0, Debian 2.0).

> Or I just have something mixed up (oranges to apples sort of
> thing)? I understand that they include some pentium optimizations.
> What about running on 486's? Any problems there? Thanks for
> everything.
May be you, may be no. I not have any 486 here to try...

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