Serious Bugs In Gcc Builds

[Thomas Dineen <tdineen@ix.netcom.com>]

Gentle People:

      I am writing to you today to document several serious build
bugs in GCC releases gcc-3.4.6, gcc-4.0.4, and gcc-4.1.2.
To be honest I have wasted several days of work on reflector
interaction and attempts to work around these issues all to no
avail! I have been unable to build a usable gcc on my Solaris 8
Sparc System!

       By the way don't bother flaming back at me I am way beyond
this and thus impervious! Hopefully by fixing the issues documented
below you will open up the GCC software to be usable by a larger
audience of users.

Issue 1) The configure and build scripts insist (read that fight to the
death) on using the solaris linker (/usr/ccs/bin/ld) despite every
effort to the contrary, and this of course causes errors. The following
were my failed efforts to redirect it to the Gnu Linker (/opt/sfw/bin/gld):
a) Providing explicit command line direction to configure.
/export/home/tools/gcc/gcc-4.0.4/configure  --with-gnu-ld  --with-gnu-as
--with-as=/opt/sfw/bin/as --with-ld=/opt/sfw/bin/ld
b) Provide links in the object directory attempting to redirect it:
ln -s /opt/sfw/bin/gld ld
c) Provide links in the executable directory attempting to redirect it:
ln -s gld ld
d) Reordering the path so that the Gnu Tools would appear first.
e) Removing the Solaris Linker from the path.

Issue 2) Same as Issue 1 except for the Gnu assembler
(/opt/sfw/bin/gas).

Issue 3) After unzipping and untarring release gcc-4.1.2 I changed
the owner (chown) and file mode (chmod) to values compatible with
my environment. This caused build errors with make complaining of  files
being touched or changes which required a call to makeinfo, and a further
complaint that makeinfo was missing. A subsequent test of makeinfo --version
in the same shell as the attempted build indicated that makeinfo was 
present.

Issue 4)  What's In A Name? Or what the hell should we name it?
When I down load and install various  releases of GNU Bintools a
tool like GNU Make is sometimes called gmake and sometimes called
make. This causes confusion and thus errors in that the Gcc build scripts
use make. I would suggest standardizing on the names to prevent confusion.
To this end I would suggest that GNU Make always, always, always be
called gmake and when you want to use GNU Make in your project that
you type gmake.

Issue 5) The build process is way to complicated for the average user
to negotiate successfully. The user interface should be simplified to the
following for a native compiler:
./configure
gmake
gmake install

- A listing or the commands used in the various build attempts:
;
; Gcc Build gcc-3.4.6
;
; Use gmake gls, gas - required!
; Using csh
; Changed $path in /root/.cshrc to put /opt/sfw/bin first to pick up
; GNU Tools first.
cd /export/home/tools/gcc
gunzip gcc-3.4.6.tar.gz
tar -xvif gcc-3.4.6.tar   ; -i -> Ignore directory checksum errors.
mkdir gcc-3.4.6-obj
chmod 777 gcc-3.4.6-obj
cd gcc-3.4.6-obj
ln -s /opt/sfw/bin/gmake make
ln -s /opt/sfw/bin/gld ld
ln -s /opt/sfw/bin/gas as
/export/home/tools/gcc/gcc-3.4.6/configure  --with-gnu-ld --with-gnu-as 
--with-as=/opt/sfw/bin/as --with-ld=/opt/sfw/bin/ld
gmake DESTDIR=/export/home/tools/gcc/gcc-3.4.6-bin install

;
; Gcc Build gcc-4.0.4
;
; Use gmake gls, gas - required!
; Using csh
cd /export/home/tools/gcc
gunzip gcc-4.0.4.tar.gz
tar -xvif gcc-4.0.4.tar   ; -i -> Ignore directory checksum errors.
cd gcc-4.0.4-obj
ln -s /opt/sfw/bin/gmake make
ln -s /opt/sfw/bin/gld ld
ln -s /opt/sfw/bin/gas as
/export/home/tools/gcc/gcc-4.0.4/configure  --with-gnu-ld  --with-gnu-as 
--with-as=/opt/sfw/bin --with-ld=/opt/sfw/bin
gmake DESTDIR=/export/home/tools/gcc/gcc-4.0.4-bin install

;
; Gcc Build gcc-4.1.2
;
; Use gmake gls, gas - required!
; Using csh
cd gcc-4.1.2-obj
ln -s /opt/sfw/bin/gmake make
ln -s /opt/sfw/bin/gld ld
ln -s /opt/sfw/bin/gas as
/export/home/tools/gcc/gcc-4.1.2/configure  --with-gnu-ld  --with-gnu-as 
--with-as=/opt/sfw/bin --with-ld=/opt/sfw/bin
gmake DESTDIR=/export/home/tools/gcc/gcc-4.1.2-bin install