Re: Checking for GCC 4

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Fri, 2006-02-03 at 00:00 -0500, Paul Smith wrote:
> %% Ralf Corsepius <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>   rc> On Thu, 2006-02-02 at 16:35 -0500, Paul Smith wrote:
>   >> %% Harlan Stenn <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>   hs> Sometimes it's Really Hard to check for features/problems.
>   hs> Really Really Hard.
> 
>   >> This is especially true when cross-compiling.
> 
>   rc> Simply not true, esp. in case of compilers.
> 
> It IS true.
> 
>   rc> Compilers are always running natively on the host.
> 
> Yes, but many features of the compiler cannot be tested just by
> compiling code: you actually have to run the code to determine whether
> it works one way or the other way.
Which compiler or language feature requires you to run code on a target?

> Of course there are some obvious things that are syntax related that can
> be checked at compile time, but definitely not everything.
Examples please.

Note: We are talking about compiler (== toolchain) features and packages
suffering from the toolchain having changed it's behavior. Compilers
never, ever run anything on a target. They are self-contained native
programs and do not/are not able to use any piece of information to be
retrieved at run-time from the target.

Ralf