Built GCC 3.3.3 on Cygwin, should I use it?

Built GCC 3.3.3 on Cygwin, should I use it?

[Mikael Åsberg]

Hello, I downloaded GCC 3.3.3, built it using GCC 3.3.1 that comes
with Cygwin.
My configure line was:
$ ../gcc-3.3.3/./configure --enable-languages=c,c++ --prefix=/usr/local/gcc-3.3.3 --exec-prefix=/usr/local/gcc-3.3.3

The configure script, make and make install finsihed without any errors.

When I do: $ /usr/local/gcc-3.3.3/bin/gcc --version the output is:
gcc (GCC) 3.3.3
Copyright (C) 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

$ /usr/local/gcc-3.3.3/bin/g++ --version yields:
g++ (GCC) 3.3.3
Copyright (C) 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

When I build C++ programs using GCC 3.3.3, I specify: "-L /usr/local/gcc-3.3.3/lib/",
or else I would get errors linking.
When I build C programs, that doesn't seem to be necessary (why?).

I've tried to rebuild a number of programs I have written using GCC 3.3.3 and
every single one of them seem to work as they should. Many of them are Win32
GUI programs (written in C++), some are programs using posix functions.

So my question is: What problems can I expect if continue to use GCC 3.3.3?
Should I go back to GCC 3.3.1 or is it fine to continue to use the later 
version? Any other drawbacks of this upgrade? Any benefits? If someone would
shed some light on this I would be grateful.
I don't want to break things in Cygwin and get all kinds of weird errors
but at the same time it feels good to use the latest official gcc release.

Thanks for any replies


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RE: Built GCC 3.3.3 on Cygwin, should I use it?

[Gareth Pearce]

> 
> I've tried to rebuild a number of programs I have written using GCC 3.3.3
> and
> every single one of them seem to work as they should. Many of them are
> Win32
> GUI programs (written in C++), some are programs using posix functions.
> 
> So my question is: What problems can I expect if continue to use GCC
> 3.3.3?

Other then dealing with non-standard install locations (probably leading to
the c++ issue you had), and probably missing cygwin-specific features there
shouldn’t be any 'problems'.  An example of something likely to be missing
is -mno-cygwin.

> Should I go back to GCC 3.3.1 or is it fine to continue to use the later
> version? Any other drawbacks of this upgrade? Any benefits? If someone
> would
> shed some light on this I would be grateful.

Given you have installed in a separate location it is not like you have any
problems here, you can use the installed gcc 3.3.1 when you need it - and
your own built 3.3.3 when you need that.  You haven’t 'upgraded' as such
just installed a newer version as well.

But given that you don’t know why you've installed it, perhaps you just
shouldn’t bother with it.  3.3.3 is mostly a bug fix release relative to
3.3.1 - go visit gcc.gnu.org to find out what bug fixes have occurred.  Now
if you haven’t experienced the bugs, then there is probably no point for you
to have a custom build and you should just wait for whenever the cygwin gcc
maintainer updates the cygwin gcc distribution.  However if a bit of
research finds that 3.3.3 has something you want then by all means, use it -
we're not going to stop you.  ... Well okay, I'm not going to stop you.

Gareth



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RE: Built GCC 3.3.3 on Cygwin, should I use it?

[Gareth Pearce]

> 
> I am using Cygwin and GCC to become familiar with posix, common unix
> tools, and to learn c and c++ programming (plus learning win32). So I have
> never compiled any of my programs with -mno-cygwin, but I noticed that it
> doesn't work when I use GCC 3.3.3, just as you said it wouldn't (and it
> won't work if I use any posix functions either, no matter what compiler I
> use, right?). 

Basically yes.

> So by installing a newer version I have not lost anything
> but the capability of running my programs on other computers running
> Windows but lacking Cygwin? And the benefit of installing
> is gaining a number of fixes of bugs that I may or may not encounter (I
> have looked at the list of fixes, but haven't gone into great detail)?
> 

You haven’t lost that ability at all since 3.3.1 is still there for you to
use if you need it, as you aimed for.  -mno-cygwin isn’t the only 'special
cygwin' feature though, you may run into others which are not present in the
official gcc release (from memory possibly some gcj issues as most
significant).  But with 3.3.1 to fall back on you'll be fine.  I personally
use a pre-release copy of gcc 3.4 because of its improved c++ support, and
haven’t experienced any cygwin-specific problems in my day-to-day use of it
under cygwin.  I have experienced some bugs, but that’s what I get for using
a pre-release version.

Gareth



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Re: Built GCC 3.3.3 on Cygwin, should I use it?

[Mikael Åsberg]

>> 
>> I've tried to rebuild a number of programs I have written using GCC 3.3.3
>> and
>> every single one of them seem to work as they should. Many of them are
>> Win32
>> GUI programs (written in C++), some are programs using posix functions.
>> 
>> So my question is: What problems can I expect if continue to use GCC
>> 3.3.3?

>Other then dealing with non-standard install locations (probably leading to
>the c++ issue you had), and probably missing cygwin-specific features there
>shouldn't be any 'problems'.  An example of something likely to be missing
>is -mno-cygwin.

Thanks for your quick and helpful reply, Mr Pearce!

The non-standard install location was intentional. I didn't want to overwrite any files belong to GCC 3.3.1 so I could still use that at any time, and from some small tests I have made, it seems I have managed to leave the GCC 3.3.1 install intact, which is what I wanted.

I am using Cygwin and GCC to become familiar with posix, common unix tools, and to learn c and c++ programming (plus learning win32). So I have never compiled any of my programs with -mno-cygwin, but I noticed that it doesn't work when I use GCC 3.3.3, just as you said it wouldn't (and it won't work if I use any posix functions either, no matter what compiler I use, right?). So by installing a newer version I have not lost anything but the capability of running my programs on other computers running Windows but lacking Cygwin? And the benefit of installing
is gaining a number of fixes of bugs that I may or may not encounter (I have looked at the list of fixes, but haven't gone into great detail)?

>> Should I go back to GCC 3.3.1 or is it fine to continue to use the later
>> version? Any other drawbacks of this upgrade? Any benefits? If someone
>> would
>> shed some light on this I would be grateful.

>Given you have installed in a separate location it is not like you have any
>problems here, you can use the installed gcc 3.3.1 when you need it - and
>your own built 3.3.3 when you need that.  You haven't 'upgraded' as such
>just installed a newer version as well.

>But given that you don't know why you've installed it, perhaps you just
>shouldn't bother with it.  3.3.3 is mostly a bug fix release relative to
>3.3.1 - go visit gcc.gnu.org to find out what bug fixes have occurred.  Now
>if you haven't experienced the bugs, then there is probably no point for you
>to have a custom build and you should just wait for whenever the cygwin gcc
>maintainer updates the cygwin gcc distribution.  However if a bit of
>research finds that 3.3.3 has something you want then by all means, use it -
>we're not going to stop you.  ... Well okay, I'm not going to stop you.

>Gareth

Regards, Mikael Åsberg


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