DPorts and gcc version

[John Marino]

On 4/15/2013 16:43, Vitaly Shevtsov wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I've decided to try dports. I successfully compiled xorg-server and
> fluxbox. The I typed "fluxbox -info" and saw this:
>
> Fluxbox version: 1.3.5
> ...
> Compiler: GCC
> Compiler version: 4.4.7 2012.03.13.
>
> So my question is why gcc 4.4.7 was used to compile dports packages? I
> thought 4.7.2 is now default GCC in DragonFly.

We found out through experience with pkgsrc that around 10% of the 
packages will fail when built by gcc 4.7 due to more stringent checks. 
Since our primary intent was to build the most number of packages as 
fast as possible, the decision was made to make the default compiler for 
dports as 4.4.  We use gcc 4.7 though for programs needing libgomp, 
libssp, or those written in objective-c.  Programs written in fortran or 
Ada are compiled with an externally-built gcc 4.7.

ports makefiles have a directive USE_GCC - if the value of it is > 4.4 
then the base gcc 4.7 will be used automatically.  Over time, ports will 
be updated and build with gcc 4.6+ without issue, it's mainly old 
software that has this problem.

It is possible to override this and make gcc 4.7 build everything, but I 
would not recommend this since nobody has determined which packages will 
fail yet.  Because of dports, I recommend that people always build both 
base compilers when rebuilding dragonfly from source.


John