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<title>egcs Frequently Asked Questions</title>
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<h1 align="center">egcs Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
<ol>
<li><a href="#gcc-2-diff">How is egcs different from gcc2?</a>
<li><a href="#open-development">What is an open development model?</a>
<li><a href="#release-fork">Releases and Forking</a>
<li><a href="#libc-lock">bits/libc-lock.h: No such file or directory</a>
<li><a href="#morelibc">`_IO_stdfile_0_lock' was not declared in this scope</a>
<li><a href="#fortran">Problems building the Fortran compiler</a>
<li><a href="#mips">Problems building on MIPS platforms</a>
<li><a href="#x86eh">Problems with exception handling on x86 platforms</a>
<li><a href="#hpcompare">Bootstrap comparison failures on HPs</a>
<li><a href="#makebugs">Bootstrap loops rebuilding cc1 over and over</a>
<li><a href="#rpath">Dynamic linker is unable to find GCC libraries</a>
<li><a href="#rpath">libstdc++/libio tests fail badly with --enable-shared</a>
<li><a href="#dejagnu">Unable to run the testsuite</a>
<li><a href="#cross">How to build a cross compiler</a>
<li><a href="#multiple">How to install both gcc2 and egcs</a>
<li><a href="#snapshot">Snapshots, how, when, why</a>
<li><a href="#linuxkernel">Problems building Linux kernels</a>
<li><a href="#memexhausted">Virtual memory exhausted</a>
<li><a href="#gas">GCC can not find GAS</a>
<li><a href="#rh5.0">egcs does not work on Red Hat 5.0</a>
<li><a href="#x86solaris">Unable to bootstrap on x86 Solaris2.{5,6}</a>
<li><a href="#windows">EGCS with Windows</a>
<li><a href="#os2">EGCS with OS/2</a>
<li><a href="#environ">cpp: Usage:... Error</a>
<li><a href="#kde">EGCS will not build KDE</a>
<li><a href="#friend">Friend Templates</a>
<li><a href="#libg++">Where to find libg++</a>
<li><a href="#autoconf/bison++">Why do I need autoconf & bison</a>
<li><a href="#aix">EGCS does not work on AIX 4.3</a>
<li><a href="#gdb">Problems debugging egcs code</a>
<li><a href="#conflicts">Conflicts when using cvs update </a>
</ol>
<hr>
<h2><a name="gcc-2-diff">How is egcs be different from gcc2?</a></h2>
<p>Six years ago, gcc version 1 had reached a point of stability. For the
targets it could support, it worked well. It had limitations inherent in
its design that would be difficult to resolve, so a major effort was made
and gcc version 2 was the result. When we had gcc2 in a useful state,
development efforts on gcc1 stopped and we all concentrated on making
gcc2 better than gcc1 could ever be. This is the kind of step forward
we want to make with egcs.
<p>In brief, the three biggest differences between egcs and gcc2 are:
<ul>
<li>More rexamination of basic architectual decisions of
gcc and an interest in adding new optimizations;
<li>working with the groups who have fractured out from gcc2 (like
the Linux folks, the Intel optimizations folks, Fortran folks)
including more front-ends; and finally
<li>An open development model (<a
href="#open-development">see below</a>) for the development process.
</ul>
<p>These three differences will work together to result in a more
useful compiler, a more stable compiler, a central compiler that works
for more people, a compiler that generates better code.
<p>There are a lot of exciting compiler optimizations that have come
out. We want them in gcc. There are a lot of front ends out there for
gcc for languages like Fortran or Pascal. We want them easily
installable by users. After six years of working on gcc2, we've come
to see problems and limitations in the way gcc is architected; it is
time to address these again.
<hr>
<h2><a name="open-development">What is an open development model?</a></h2>
<p>With egcs, we are going to try a bazaar style<a
href="#cathedral-vs-bazaar"><b>[1]</b></a> approach to its
development: We're going to be making snapshots publicly available
to anyone who wants to try them; we're going to welcome anyone to join
the development mailing list. All of the discussions on the
development mailing list are available via the web. We're going to be
making releases with a much higher frequency than they have been made
in the past: We're shooting for three by the end of 1997.
<p>In addition to weekly snapshots of the egcs development sources, we
are going to look at making the sources readable from a CVS server by
anyone. We want to make it so external maintainers of parts of egcs
are able to commit changes to their part of egcs directly into the
sources without going through an intermediary.
<p>There have been many potential gcc developers who were not able to
participate in gcc development in the past. We these people to help in
any way they can; we ultimately want gcc to be the best compiler in the
world.
<p>A compiler is a complicated piece of software, there will still be
strong central maintainers who will reject patches, who will demand
documentation of implementations, and who will keep the level of
quality as high as it is today. Code that could use wider testing may
be intergrated--code that is simply ill-conceived won't be.
<p>egcs is not the first piece of software to use this open development
process; FreeBSD, the Emacs lisp repository, and Linux are a few
examples of the bazaar style of development.
<p>With egcs, we will be adding new features and optimizations at a
rate that has not been done since the creation of gcc2; these additions
will inevitably have a temporarily destabilizing effect. With the help
of developers working together with this bazaar style development, the
resulting stability and quality levels will be better than we've had
before.
<blockquote>
<a name="cathedral-vs-bazaar"><b>[1]</b></a>
We've been discussing different development models a lot over the
past few months. The paper which started all of this introduced two
terms: A <b>cathedral</b> development model versus a <b>bazaar</b>
development model. The paper is written by Eric S. Raymond, it is
called ``<a
href="http://locke.ccil.org/~esr/writings/cathedral.html">The
Cathedral and the Bazaar</a>''. The paper is a useful starting point
for discussions.
</blockquote>
<hr>
<h2><a name="release-fork">Releases and Forking?</a></h2>
<p>Some folks have questioned whether or not making releases is consistent
with the goals of the egcs project and whether or not making releases is
a fork from gcc2.
<pre>
The egcs project has several goals, including:
* Experimenting with a new development model, release process and
release packaging,
* Using the new development model to accelerate development of new
features, optimizations, etc for future inclusion in gcc,
* Providing high quality releases to the public.
An egcs release is a copy of the egcs sources that the developers have
tested and are believed to be suitable for wider scale use and testing.
Making releases of stable, tested sources is both a goal and a means by
which we hope to achieve other goals of the egcs project.
The existence of a stable tested release allows egcs to be more thoroughly
used and tested by a wider audience than is capable of testing snapshots.
The expanded audience provides developers with critical feedback in a
timely manner, which is beneficial to GCC as a whole and is consistent with
the stated goals of egcs.
The gcc maintainers are encouraged to migrate tested fixes and new features
from egcs into gcc at their discretion. egcs maintainers are willing to
assist the gcc maintainers as time permits. egcs periodically merges in
changes from gcc into the egcs sources.
What will keep egcs from becoming a fork is cooperation between the
developers of gcc and egcs.
We don't see this situation as significantly different than other projects
that make releases based on some version of the gcc sources (Cygnus, g77,
etc). All the code is still available for inclusion in gcc at the discretion
of the gcc maintainers.
</pre>
<hr>
<h2><a name="libc-lock">bits/libc-lock.h: No such file or directory</a></h2>
<p>This entry should be obsolete, egcs should handle these beta versions of
glibc2 correctly.
<p>egcs includes a tightly integrated libio and libstdc++ implementation which
can cause problems on hosts which have libio integrated into their C library
(most notably Linux).
<p>We believe that we've solved the major technical problems for the most
common versions of libc found on Linux systems. However, some versions
of Linux use pre-release versions of glibc2, which egcs has trouble detecting
and correctly handling.
<p>If you're using one of these pre-release versions of glibc2, you may get
a message "bits/libc-lock.h: No such file or directory" when building egcs.
Unfortunately, to fix this problem you will need to update your C library to
glibc2.0.5c.
<hr>
<h2><a name="morelibc">`_IO_stdfile_0_lock' was not declared in this scope</a></h2>
<p>If you get this error, it means either egcs incorrectly guessed what version
of libc is installed on your linux system, or you incorrectly specified a
version of glibc when configuring egcs.
<p>If you did not provide a target name when configuring egcs, then you've
found a bug which needs to be reported. If you did provide a target name at
configure time, then you should reconfigure without specifying a target name.
<hr>
<h2><a name="fortran">Problems building the Fortran compiler</a></h2>
<p>The Fortran front end can not be built with most vendor compilers; it must
be built with gcc. As a result, you may get an error if you do not follow
the install instructions carefully.
<p>In particular, instead of using "make" to build egcs, you should use
"make bootstrap" if you are building a native compiler or "make cross"
if you are building a cross compiler.
<p>It has also been reported that the Fortran compiler can not be built
on Red Hat 4.X linux for the Alpha. Fixing this may require upgrading
binutils or to Red Hat 5.0; we'll provide more information as it becomes
available.
<hr>
<h2><a name="mips">Problems building on MIPS platforms</a></h2>
<p>egcs requires the use of GAS on all versions of Irix, except Irix 6 due
to limitations in older Irix assemblers.
<p> Either of these messages indicates that you are using the MIPS assembler
when instead you should be using GAS.
<pre>
as0: Error: ./libgcc2.c, line 1:Badly delimited numeric literal
.4byte $LECIE1-$LSCIE1
as0: Error: ./libgcc2.c, line 1:malformed statement
</pre>
<hr>
<pre>
as0: Error: /home/law/egcs_release/gcc/libgcc2.c, line 1:undefined symbol in expression
.word $LECIE1-$LSCIE1
</pre>
<p> For Irix 6, you should use the native assembler as GAS is not supported
on Irix 6.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="x86eh">Problems with exception handling on x86 platforms</a></h2>
<p>If you are using the GNU assembler (aka gas) on an x86 platform and
exception handling is not working correctly, then odds are you're using a
buggy assembler.
<p>We recommend binutils-2.8.1.0.15 or newer.
<br><a href="ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/GCC/binutils-2.8.1.0.20.tar.gz"> binutils-2.8.1.0.20 source</a>
<br><a href="ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/GCC/binutils-2.8.1.0.20.bin.tar.gz"> binutils-2.8.1.0.20 x86 binary for libc5</a>
<br><a href="ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/GCC/binutils-2.8.1.0.20.glibc.bin.tar.gz"> binutils-2.8.1.0.20 x86 binary for glibc2</a>
Or, you can try a
<a href="ftp://egcs.cygnus.com/pub/egcs/infrastructure/gas-970915.tar.gz"> binutils snapshot</a>; however, be aware that the binutils snapshot is untested
and may not work (or even build). Use it at your own risk.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="hpcompare">Bootstrap comparison failures on HPs</a></h2>
<p>If you bootstrap the compiler on hpux10 using the HP assembler instead of
gas, every file will fail the comparison test.
<p>The HP asembler inserts timestamps into object files it creates, causing
every file to be different. The location of the timestamp varies for each
object file, so there's no real way to work around this mis-feature.
<p>Odds are your compiler is fine, but there's no way to be certain.
<p>If you use GAS on HPs, then you will not run into this problem because
GAS never inserts timestamps into object files. For this and various other
reasons we highly recommend using GAS on HPs.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="makebugs">Bootstrap loops rebuilding cc1 over and over</a></h2>
<p>When building egcs, the build process loops rebuilding cc1 over and
over again. This happens on mips-sgi-irix5.2, and possibly other platforms.
<p>This is probably a bug somewhere in the egcs Makefile. Until we find and
fix this bug we recommend you use GNU make instead of vendor supplied make
programs.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="rpath">Dynamic linker is unable to find GCC libraries</a></h2>
<p>This problem manifests itself by programs not finding shared libraries
they depend on when the programs are started. Note this problem often manifests
itself with failures in the libio/libstdc++ tests after configuring with
--enable-shared and building egcs.
<p>GCC does not specify a runpath so that the dynamic linker can find dynamic
libraries at runtime.
<p>The short explaination is that if you always pass a -R option to the
linker, then your programs become dependent on directories which
may be NFS mounted, and programs may hang unnecessarily when an
NFS server goes down.
<p>The problem is not programs that do require the directories; those
programs are going to hang no matter what you do. The problem is
programs that do not require the directories.
<p>SunOS effectively always passed a -R option for every -L option;
this was a bad idea, and so it was removed for Solaris. We should
not recreate it.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="dejagnu">Unable to run the testsuite</a></h2>
<p>If you get a message about unable to find "standard.exp" when trying to
run the egcs testsuites, then your dejagnu is too old to run the egcs tests.
You will need to get a newer version of dejagnu; we've made a
<a href="ftp://egcs.cygnus.com/pub/egcs/infrastructure/dejagnu-971222.tar.gz">
dejagnu snapshot</a> available until a new version of dejagnu can be released.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="cross">How to build a cross compiler</a></h2>
<p> Building cross compilers is a rather complex undertaking because they
usually need additional software (cross assembler, cross linker, target
libraries, target include files, etc).
<p> We recommend reading the <a href="ftp://ftp.cygnus.com/pub/embedded/crossgcc/FAQ-0.8.1">
crossgcc FAQ</a> for information about building cross compilers.
<p> If you have all the pieces available, then `make cross' should build a
cross compiler. `make LANGUAGES="c c++" install'will install the cross
compiler.
<p> Note that if you're trying to build a cross compiler in a tree which
includes binutils-2.8 in addition to egcs, then you're going to need to
make a couple minor tweaks so that the cross assembler, linker and
nm utilities will be found.
<p>binutils-2.8 builds those files as gas.new, ld.new and nm.new; egcs gcc
looks for them using gas-new, ld-new and nm-new, so you may have to arrange
for any symlinks which point to &ltfile&gt.new to be changed to &ltfile&gt-new.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="snapshot">Snapshots, how, when, why</a></h2>
<p> We make snapshots of the egcs sources about once a week; there is no
predetermined schedule. These snapshots are intended to give everyone
access to work in progress. Any given snapshot may generate incorrect code
or even fail to build.
<p>If you plan on downloading and using snapshots, we highly recommend you
subscribe to the egcs mailing lists. See <a href="index.html#mailinglists">
mailing lists</a> on the main egcs page for instructions on how to subscribe.
<p>When using the diff files to update from older snapshots to newer snapshots,
make sure to use "-E" and "-p" arguments to patch so that empty files are
deleted and full pathnames are provided to patch. If your version of
patch does not support "-E", you'll need to get a newer version. Also note
that you may need autoconf, autoheader and various other programs if you use
diff files to update from one snapshot to the next.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="multiple">How to install both egcs and gcc2</a></h2>
<p>It may be desirable to install both egcs and gcc2 on the same system. This
can be done by using different prefix paths at configure time and a few
symlinks.
<p>Basically, configure the two compilers with different --prefix options,
then build and install each compiler. Assume you want "gcc" to be the egcs
compiler and available in /usr/local/bin; also assume that you want "gcc2"
to be the gcc2 compiler and also available in /usr/local/bin.
<p>The easiest way to do this is to configure egcs with --prefix=/usr/local/egcs
and gcc2 with --prefix=/usr/local/gcc2. Build and install both compilers.
Then make a symlink from /usr/local/bin/gcc to /usr/local/egcs/bin/gcc and
from /usr/local/bin/gcc2 to /usr/local/gcc2/bin/gcc. Create similar links
for the "g++", "c++" and "g77" compiler drivers.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="linuxkernel">Problems building Linux kernels</a></h2>
<p>If you installed a recent binutils/gas snapshot on your Linux system,
you may not be able to build the kernel because objdump does not understand
the "-k" switch. The solution for this problem is to remove /usr/bin/encaps.
<p>The reason you must remove /usr/bin/encaps is because it is an obsolete
program that was part of older binutils distributions; the Linux kernel's
Makefile looks for this program to decide if you have an old or a new
binutils. Problems occur if you installed a new binutils but haven't
removed encaps, because the Makefile thinks you have the old one. So zap
it; trust us, you won't miss it.
<p>You may get an internal compiler error compiling process.c in newer
versions of the Linux kernel on x86 machines. This is a bug in an asm
statement in process.c, not a bug in egcs. XXX How to fix?!?
<p>You may get errors with the X driver of the form
<pre>
_X11TransSocketUNIXConnect: Can't connect: errno = 111
</pre>
<p>It's a kernel bug. The function sys_iopl in arch/i386/kernel/ioport.c
does an illegal hack which used to work but is now broken since GCC optimizes
more aggressively . The newer 2.1.x kernels already have a fix which should
also work in 2.0.32.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="memexhausted">Virtual memory exhausted error</a></h2>
<p> This error means your system ran out of memory; this can happen for large
files, particularly when optimizing. If you're getting this error you should
consider trying to simplify your files or reducing the optimization level.
<p>Note that using -pedantic or -Wreturn-type can cause an explosion in the
amount of memory needed for template-heavy C++ code, such as code that uses
STL. Also note that -Wall includes -Wreturn-type, so if you use -Wall you
will need to specify -Wno-return-type to turn it off.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="gas">GCC can not find GAS</a></h2>
<p>Some configurations like irix4, irix5, hpux* require the use of the GNU
assembler intead of the system assembler. To ensure that egcs finds the GNU
assembler, you should configure the GNU assembler with the same --prefix
option as you used for egcs. Then build & install the GNU assembler. After
the GNU assembler has been installed, proceed with building egcs.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="rh5.0">egcs does not work on Red Hat 5.0</a></h2>
<p> This entry is obsolete with the release of egcs-1.0.1 which should
handle Red Hat 5.0 correctly.
<p> egcs-1.0 does not currently work with Red Hat 5.0 on some platforms; we'll
update this entry with more information as it becomes available.
<p> You may want to try this
<a href="http://www.cygnus.com/ml/egcs/1997-Dec/0594.html"> proposed patch</a>
for Red Hat 5.0. Please let us know if you use this patch and whether or
not it works.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="x86solaris">Unable to bootstrap on x86 Solaris 2.{5,6}</a></h2>
<p> This entry is obsolete with the release of egcs-1.0.1 which should
handle x86 Solaris systems correctly.
<p>This patch should fix the problem
<pre>
Index: t-sol2
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/cvsfiles/egcs/gcc/config/i386/t-sol2,v
retrieving revision 1.2
diff -c -3 -p -r1.2 t-sol2
*** t-sol2 1997/09/04 23:54:04 1.2
--- t-sol2 1997/12/04 07:19:07
*************** crtn.o: $(srcdir)/config/i386/sol2-cn.as
*** 31,36 ****
# to produce a shared library, but since we don't know ahead of time when
# we will be doing that, we just always use -fPIC when compiling the
# routines in crtstuff.c.
! CRTSTUFF_T_CFLAGS = -fPIC
TARGET_LIBGCC2_CFLAGS = -fPIC
--- 31,40 ----
# to produce a shared library, but since we don't know ahead of time when
# we will be doing that, we just always use -fPIC when compiling the
# routines in crtstuff.c.
+ #
+ # We must also enable optimization to avoid having any code appear after
+ # the call & alignment statement, but before we switch back to the
+ # .text section.
! CRTSTUFF_T_CFLAGS = -fPIC -O2
TARGET_LIBGCC2_CFLAGS = -fPIC
</pre>
<hr>
<h2> <a name="windows">EGCS with Windows</a></h2>
<p>egcs does not currently support windows, either natively or with the
cygwin32 dll. However Mumit Khan has been working on supporting Windows
with egcs. You should check out his site if you're interested in Windows
support.
<a href="http://www.xraylith.wisc.edu/~khan/software/gnu-win32">GNU Win32 related projects</a>
<hr>
<h2> <a name="os2">EGCS with OS/2</a></h2>
<p>egcs does not currently support OS/2. However, Andrew Zabolotny has been
working on a generic os/2 port with pgcc. The current code code can be found
at <a href="http://www.goof.com/pcg/os2">http://www.goof.com/pcg/os2</a>.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="environ">cpp: Usage:... Error</a></h2>
<p>If you get an error like this when building egcs (particularly when building
__mulsi3), then you likely have a problem with your environment variables.
<pre>
cpp: Usage: /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i586-unknown-linux-gnulibc1/2.7.2.3/cpp
[switches] input output
</pre>
<p>First look for an explicit '.' in either LIBRARY_PATH or GCC_EXEC_PREFIX
from your environment. If you do not find an explicit '.', look for
an empty pathname in those variables. Note that ':' at either the start
or end of these variables is an implicit '.' and will cause problems.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="kde">EGCS will not build KDE</a></h2>
<p> Previous versions of g++ accepted (as a GNU extension)
constructor-arguments for the objects in an array of objects
dynamically allocated with new. Here's an example of this construct:
<pre>
struct S { S(int); }
void f() { new S[3](6); }
</pre>
<p>However, this construct is not allowed by the ANSI/ISO Standard, and
is no longer accepted by g++.
<p> KDE uses such constructs and therefore will not build with egcs; note
patches are available to fix KDE.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="friend">Friend Templates<a></h2>
<p>In order to make a specialization of a template function a friend of a
(possibly template) class, you must explicitly state that the friend
function is a template, by appending angle brackets to its name, and
this template function must have been declared already. An error in
the last public comment draft of the ANSI/ISO C++ Standard has led
people to believe that was not necessary, but it is, and it was fixed
in the final version of the Standard.
<hr>
<h2> <a name="libg++">Where to find libg++<a></h2>
<p>Many folks have been asking where to find libg++ for egcs. First we
should point out that few programs actually need libg++; most only need
libstdc++/libio which are included in the egcs distribution.
<p>If you do need libg++ you can get a libg++ snapshot which works with egcs
from <a href="ftp://ftp.yggdrasil.com/private/hjl/libg++-2.8.1-980119.tar.gz">
ftp://ftp.yggdrasil.com/private/hjl/libg++-2.8.1-980119.tar.gz</a>
<hr>
<h2> <a name="autoconf/bison++">Why do I need autoconf/bison<a></h2>
<p>If you're using diffs up dated from one snapshot to the next, or
if you're using the CVS repository, you may need autoconf, bison, or
possibly other tools to rebuild egcs.
<p>This is necessary because neither diff nor cvs keep timestamps
correct. So it is possible for "make" to think a generated file is
out of date.
<p>If you do not have autoconf, bison, etc, then you can issue the
following commands to touch all the generated files.
<pre>
touch `find egcs -name configure -print`
touch egcs/gcc/c-parse.y
touch egcs/gcc/objc/objc-parse.y
touch egcs/gcc/{cstamp-h.in,c-gperf.h,c-parse.c,c-parse.h,cexp.c}
touch egcs/gcc/cp/{parse.c,parse.h}
touch egcs/gcc/objc/objc-parse.c
</pre>
<hr>
<h2> <a name="aix">EGCS does not work on AIX 4.3<a></h2>
<p>EGCS does not currently support AIX4.3; however, if you want to try
and make it work with AIX 4.3 we highly recommend you get the
fix for APAR IX74254 (64BIT DISASSEMBLED OUPUT FROM COMPILER FAILS TO
ASSEMBLE/BIND) which is available from IBM Customer Support and IBM's
service.boulder.ibm.com website.
<hr>
<h2><a name="gdb">Problems debugging egcs code</a></h2>
<p>On some systems egcs will produce dwarf debug records by default; however
the current gdb-4.16 release may not be able to read such debug records.
<p>You can either use the argument "-gstabs" instead of "-g" or pick up
the current beta copy of gdb-4.17 to work around the problem.
<hr>
<h2><a name="conflicts">Conflicts when using cvs update</a></h2>
<p>It is not uncommon to get cvs conflict messages for some generated files
when updating your local sources from the CVS repository. Typically such
conflicts occur with bison or autoconf generated files.
<p>As long as you haven't been making modifications to the generated files
or the generator files, it is safe to delete the offending file, then run
cvs update again to get a new copy.
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<p><a href="index.html">Return to the egcs home page</a>
<p><i>Last modified: March 04, 1998</i>
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