From: H. Peter Anvin on
[Reposting as a separate thread]

Recently, we have seen an increasing number of problems with gcc 3.4 on
x86; mostly due to poor constant propagation producing not just bad code
but failing to properly eliminate what should be dead code.

I'm wondering if there is any remaining real use of gcc 3.4 on x86 for
compiling current kernels (as opposed to residual use for compiling
applications on old enterprise distros.) I'm specifically not referring
to other architectures here -- most of these issues have been in
relation to low-level arch-specific code, and as such only affects the
x86 architectures. Other architectures may very well have a much
stronger need for continued support of an older toolchain.

If there isn't a reason to preserve support, I would like to consider
discontinue support for using gcc 3 to compile x86 kernels. If there is
a valid use case, it would be good to know what it is.

-hpa

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H. Peter Anvin, Intel Open Source Technology Center
I work for Intel. I don't speak on their behalf.

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From: Ingo Molnar on

(reposted with Andrew and Linus Cc:-ed too)

* H. Peter Anvin <hpa(a)zytor.com> wrote:

> [Reposting as a separate thread]
>
> Recently, we have seen an increasing number of problems
> with gcc 3.4 on x86; mostly due to poor constant
> propagation producing not just bad code but failing to
> properly eliminate what should be dead code.
>
> I'm wondering if there is any remaining real use of gcc
> 3.4 on x86 for compiling current kernels (as opposed to
> residual use for compiling applications on old
> enterprise distros.) I'm specifically not referring to
> other architectures here -- most of these issues have
> been in relation to low-level arch-specific code, and as
> such only affects the x86 architectures. Other
> architectures may very well have a much stronger need
> for continued support of an older toolchain.
>
> If there isn't a reason to preserve support, I would
> like to consider discontinue support for using gcc 3 to
> compile x86 kernels. If there is a valid use case, it
> would be good to know what it is.
>
> -hpa
>
> --
> H. Peter Anvin, Intel Open Source Technology Center
> I work for Intel. I don't speak on their behalf.
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From: Andi Kleen on
"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa(a)zytor.com> writes:
>
> If there isn't a reason to preserve support, I would like to consider
> discontinue support for using gcc 3 to compile x86 kernels. If there is
> a valid use case, it would be good to know what it is.

I suspect there are still distributions around that use it as a standard
compiler. Wasn't it used in some major release of Debian?

-Andi
--
ak(a)linux.intel.com -- Speaking for myself only.
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From: H. Peter Anvin on
On 05/19/2010 06:38 AM, Andi Kleen wrote:
> "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa(a)zytor.com> writes:
>>
>> If there isn't a reason to preserve support, I would like to consider
>> discontinue support for using gcc 3 to compile x86 kernels. If there is
>> a valid use case, it would be good to know what it is.
>
> I suspect there are still distributions around that use it as a standard
> compiler. Wasn't it used in some major release of Debian?
>
> -Andi

There are, but that doesn't mean it's relevant for people to compile
bleeding-edge kernels with it.

-hpa

--
H. Peter Anvin, Intel Open Source Technology Center
I work for Intel. I don't speak on their behalf.

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From: Justin P. Mattock on
On 05/19/2010 07:08 AM, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On 05/19/2010 06:38 AM, Andi Kleen wrote:
>> "H. Peter Anvin"<hpa(a)zytor.com> writes:
>>>
>>> If there isn't a reason to preserve support, I would like to consider
>>> discontinue support for using gcc 3 to compile x86 kernels. If there is
>>> a valid use case, it would be good to know what it is.
>>
>> I suspect there are still distributions around that use it as a standard
>> compiler. Wasn't it used in some major release of Debian?
>>
>> -Andi
>
> There are, but that doesn't mean it's relevant for people to compile
> bleeding-edge kernels with it.
>
> -hpa
>

no need for it here(using 4.6.0)..
Any distro still using this version
should upgrade(but who am I to say anything)

cheers.

Justin P. Mattock
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