On Sun, Mar 04, 2007 at 20:37:43 -0800, sankar chebolu wrote: > Hi, > Any document available which explains the GCC > Versioning policy/scheme? Did not stumble upon any so far, but I can offer what I gathered around. GCC is not using any odd/even (or stable/unstable) notion in the versioning. Each X.Y.z version is stable release. Each release series starts with number X.Y.0 and is maintained in a separate branch that is in regression fixes only mode. That means, no new features, only bugfixes will appear in X.Y.1 and later patch releases. If a bugfix is too intrusive, it is not applied to release series (the reason is that intrusive changes are likely to introduce new bugs), instead the bug is fixed in the current developer branch (that will become next release series in the future). The GCC website (http://gcc.gnu.org) has a status and history section where you can have a look at the changes, current status of the series and list of regressions (bugs that did not occur in a previous versions of GCC) against the series. Generally, X.Y.0 contain new features, so you are more likely to encounter a bug. Personally I'm waiting for X.Y.1 or X.Y.2 when switching to newer version of the compiler. If there are big changes (like between 3.4 and 4.0) or if you want to use brand new feature, it might be wise to wait a bit longer. > Among GCC 4.0.4 & 4.1.2 which one is more stable? Both should be in a reasonably good shape, but as the internal representation changed in the 4.0 series, I would go for 4.1.2 (as I mentioned above, there is a category of bugs that cannot be fully fixed on a release branch, but are likely fixed before the next X.Y release). Hope it helps. Peter
