On 7 April 2013 14:46, Dennis Clarke wrote: > >> Required versions of gmp/mpfr/mpc clearly stated in the docs: >> http://gcc.gnu.org/install/prerequisites.html >> I'm not sure how you could miss that. >> >> cloog/ppl/isl are not required (unless you want the optional Graphite >> loop optimisation support) >> >> Systemtap is not required. If you have it, it needs to be a fairly >> recent version. >> >> http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/InstallingGCC gives a foolproof recipe. > > I take some exception to the language on that page and perhaps I can > edit it to be a bit more cross platform and in the spirit of open source. > > There clearly seems to be a heavy leaning towards Linux distros here > where Debian is directly mentioned and the assumption is made that > pre-built ( by someone magic ) packages exist out in the world. There is some leaning towards the systems used by the vast majority of people asking for help building GCC on the gcc-help list. > The > libs that are really needed, gmp/mpfr/mpc do *need* to be built from > sources on Solaris. OK, so build them from source then. Life is considerably simpler if you do that in-tree, as described on that page. > They may be available on the BSD's and may be > available for Debian and Red Hat Enterprise Linux but I run all of these > operating systems in fairly up to date revs. None of them are up to > date with regards to gmp/mpfr and mpc. Not one of them. OK, so what's wrong with the "If it provides sufficiently recent versions, use your OS package management system to install the support libraries in standard system locations." wording? Your systems don't provide sufficiently recent versions, so that bullet doesn't apply to you. Most people on this list ask about installing on Ubuntu, which provides the packages. > I feel strongly, and I must point this out, that for a person to take on > the task of building GCC for themselves that we, long time users of > and packagers of GCC, should take responsibility to point out that you > will never get a testsuite report from anyone unless you do it yourself. Irrelevant to that wiki page. > Building gmp/mpfr/mpc is *not* overly difficult and one does get the > very tangible and real benefit of knowing that what you have built > does indeed pass all the provided testsuites for each respective lib. For the majority of people I direct to that page, who are using GNU/Linux, the support libs are known to work on that platform and they're not interested in running tests, they just want to install a new GCC. > This is critical. Otherwise anyone anywhere, me for example, could build > a GCC package for download and release garbage which fails most of > its own testsuite and results in C++ exceptions and faulty code being > created. As a sidenote I am still amazed to this day that Red Hat does > not publish a testsuite for the released GCC in RHEL when one considers > that GCC is almost certainly the single most important open source > bit in the OS other than the kernel itself. Again, my opinion which I base > on the fact that GCC is needed to produce the kernel. That opinion as > well as my feeling that Red Hat has created the most trusted name in linux > distros. [ sorry .. I often say what I think ] Irrelevant to that wiki page. > So, perhaps I have had too much coffee, but I feel that the language on > the wiki needs a tweak to indicate that there is great value in having > a testsuite report in hand for the GCC compiler package you just built > from scratch, and that means gmp/mpfr/mpc must also be built from > sources and each of them tested also. Certainly when one veers away > from the Debian/Ubuntu/RHEL et al world. I very strongly disagree. I don't want the page to be obfuscated by references to testing the support libraries, or even GCC. There are already more detailed instructions for installing the support libs and testing GCC in the official installation docs, for those who are not RTFM-intolerant.That wiki page is intended for people who are RTFM-intolerant. The majority of those people asking for help building GCC should first look for packages provided by the OS. If there are none, the simplest way to build GCC is to use the download_prerequisites script and build the support libs in-tree. If you make it any more complicated then people won't read the page. and we might as well just tell them to read the (much longer) official installation docs.
