Re: Can't build Ada

[Alexandre Oliva <oliva@gnu.org>]

On Nov 25, 2022, Paul Koning via Gcc <gcc@gcc.gnu.org> wrote:

> They don't seem to have anything to do with missing compilers, but
> rather with the use of language features too new for the available
> (downloadable) Gnat.

The gnat1 front-end requires some of the Ada runtime (libgnat)
components.  They get built as part of cross builds, so that the
compiler itself uses the features present in the runtime.

For bootstrapping purposes, stage1's gnat builds in a
less-runtime-demanding mode, that gets linked with the runtime of the
compiler used to build stage1, and that is then used to build the
runtime and later stages.

With this arrangement, the runtime components used by the compiler
itself may rely on language features that the build compiler doesn't
offer, at the cost of requiring cross builds to use a compiler that
supports those features.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, happy hacker                https://FSFLA.org/blogs/lxo/
   Free Software Activist                       GNU Toolchain Engineer
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