checking tool status on RedHat systems 7.1

[pauljohn]

Dear RedHat users:

Marcus's patch for gcc3.0.1 applied great and I can build
gcc-3.0.1. (packaging is another problem... see below)

Concerning tools for building swarm, can I ask the status of:

1. hdf5.  Is 1.4.2 good for you?  Am I safe to start building
swarm rpms against it?

2. jikes.  Are you using the one RedHat distributes now?

3. gcc-3.0.1.  I'm trying to build new gcc-3.0.1 rpms and it is
a complicated set of packages. It seems like more Swarm users
are trying the swarm-gcj support and I want to try to support
that with rpms.  

I decided to try to start from the SPEC file that RedHat's
roswell beta uses.  It packages so that so that gcc3 is the name
of the executable and of the package, so fewer name conflicts
arise.  They appear to assume users will install both the old
gcc (2.96.whatever) as well as gcc3. They are building from a
tarball from gcc cvs that was taken in early august, I plan to
just replace that with the gcc-3.0.1 official release. 

I expect I'll have to just ask the RedHat folk directly, but in
case anybody has looked at this already, perhaps you can spare
me the humiliation:
 
1. The RedHat gcc3.spec file requires a newer binutils than in
RH7.1:

BuildRequires: binutils >= 2.11.90.0.8-3

I can't upgrade binutils without upgrading glibc (or so rpm
tells me), and so I'm just inclined to comment out this
BuildRequires statement.  gcc-3.0.1 builds with the binutils I
have (binutils-2.10.91.0.2-3).

What do you think?

2.  Why does RedHat not distribute cpp with gcc3? Until now,
there has always been a cpp package.  I GUESS they expect me to
use cpp from gcc-2.96 and not bother with cpp3? HOwever, their
gcc3 package does have file cpp0 in there. What's up with that?

3. In their SPEC file, there is a requirement I can't understand
for libgcj.  Why would the libgcj3 package require the previous
installation of libgcj?

%package -n libgcj3
Summary: Java runtime library for gcc.
Group: System Environment/Libraries
Requires: zip >= 2.1
%ifnarch ia64
Requires: libgcj >= 2.96-26
%endif
Obsoletes: gcc-libgcj
Prereq: /sbin/install-info

I don't understand why they would require a libgcj from gcc-2.96
for this.  Since I've been using gcc-2.95.3 instead of RH's
2.96.x, I'm not able to meet this requirement.

Well, as I said, I expect to ask elsewhere about the gcc things,
but in case you know, let me know.

Or maybe you think that I should just forget about RedHat's spec
file and build it the old way!

-- 
Paul E. Johnson                       email: address@hidden
Dept. of Political Science           
http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~pauljohn
University of Kansas                  Office: (785) 864-9086
Lawrence, Kansas 66045                FAX: (785) 864-5700

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