[csw-users] The GNU Compiler Collection 4.0.0 is released as Blastwave packages

[Peter FELECAN]

The first release of the new GNU Compiler Collection is available.

This is the branch 4 of the GNU compiler suite. The branch 4 is
new. My recommendation is to not use it in a production
environment. If you wish to use a stable and well tested version of
the GNU compiler suite you can use the branch 3; for this, look for
the gcc3 related packages. There is also the branch 2 which is still
used and sometimes preferred for some products. If you are in this
situation look for the gcc2 related packages.

Some relevant notes:

1. The branch 4 compiler is installed in /opt/csw/gcc4, similar to the
   branch 2 and 3, and the rt packages install the versioned shared
   libraries in /opt/csw/gcc4/lib. Note: gcc3 packages install their
   shared libraries in /opt/csw/lib.

2. There is a fixinclude stage executed in the postinstall script for
   gcc4core. [see point 6 in the notes at the end of this document]

3. The granularity of the packages is identical to that of the FSF,
   i.e. gcc4core, gcc4g++, gcc4g95, gcc4java, gcc4objc, gcc4ada
   and each one has a corresponding runtime package, e.g. gcc4corert;
   a similar granularity can be found in the branch 2 and 3.

        gcc4core		 C compiler
		gcc4g++			 C++ compiler
		gcc4g95			 FORTRAN 95 compiler
		gcc4java		 Java compiler
		gcc4objc		 Objective C compiler
		gcc4ada			 Ada Compiler

4. The packages inter-dependencies are as follows:

	gcc4corert:
	
	gcc4core:	\
				gcc4corert
	
	gcc4g++rt:	\
				gcc4corert
	
	gcc4g++:	\
				gcc4core \
				gcc4g++rt
	
	gcc4g95rt:	\
					gcc4corert
	
	gcc4g95:	\
					gcc4core \
					gcc4g95rt
	
	gcc4javart:	\
				gcc4corert
	
	gcc4java:	\
				gcc4core
				gcc4javart
	
	gcc4objcrt:	\
				gcc4corert
	
	gcc4objc:	\
				gcc4core \
				gcc4objcrt
	
	gcc4adart:\
				gcc4corert
	
	gcc4ada:	\
				gcc4core \
				gcc4adart

5. All the packages were tested using the latest testsuite (4.0),
   with the exception of Java which doesn't have a test set,
   on Solaris SPARC 9 and Solaris Intel 8

It should also be noted that:

1. /opt/csw has precedence in searching headers, libraries and dynamic
   libraries.

2. /usr/local/include or /opt/sfw/include are not part of the default
   include search path.

3. There is no dependency on <sys/cdefs.h>

4. -mcpu=v8 is the default on SPARC (instead of -mcpu=v7)

5. Each package has its documentation in a specific directory in
   /opt/csw/share/doc, the common documents are linked to the gcc4core
   directory, and additionally contains the documentation in
   PostScript and PDF.

6. The includes need fixing each time that the system includes are
   updated. Consequently, there is the possibility to fix the system
   includes when needed by running the following script, as root:
   
   /opt/csw/gcc4/bin/mkheaders

7. The documentation in info format is stored in
   /opt/csw/gcc4/info. If you wish to access it from info aware tools,
   add this directory to the INFOPATH environment variable. For
   example, for a bash user:

   export INFOPATH=/opt/csw/info:/opt/csw/gcc4/info

-- 
Peter FELECAN