Re: Updating GCC

From: Mohun Biswas (m.biswas_at_invalid.addr)
Date: 06/20/04 

Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 03:26:24 GMT

Robert Clark wrote:
>>P.S. Why do I make bootstrap? What is a bootstrap?
>
>
> GCC actually uses a two-stage build. The first stage (bootstrap) uses
> whatever compiler is installed on your system to build a special (very
> small) compiler that is then used to build the full GCC version. In this
> was the GCC folks cut down on the possibility of a compiler bug from a
> older version of GCC or a third party compiler causing problems in the new
> build.

Actually, from my observation it's a three-stage build. They build once
with the "old" compiler, then rebuild with the compiler built in stage 1
(the "bootstrap"), then one more time simply to make a comparison
binary. If the compilers built by stages 2 and 3 show any differences,
that's a red flag. If they're identical, all is well.

I'm not a gcc expert, that's just my impression of what the build does
based on having built it a good bit recently. 

-- 
Thanks,
M.Biswas

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