quick gcc check on Swarm builds

[Paul Johnson]

Glad you asked, since I'm knee deep in gcc right now, I have all the 
details fresh on my mind.

Which gcc to use depends on your platform and how much trouble you go 
to.  I only know much about RedHat and have succeeded with all RH 7X but 
not yet with RH8. You can grab the rpms on my website.

On RH7.3, I have succeeded with gcc.3.0.4 (after patching it with 
http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn/Swarm/Marcus_objc_gcc301.patch) and 
using the "METHOD_FUNCTIONS" flag option in swarm. I have the gcc rpms 
available too. TO see about that flag, look at the spec file that 
controls the Swarm build on RedHat:
http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn/Swarm/Swarm-2.2x_RPMSforRH7.3/swarm-jdk-2.1.140.spec


I believe gcc 3.0.4 will work OK without patching as long as your make 
of Swarm does not try to use method functions and you make on change in 
interface.el to disable method functions. (that means reverse this patch 
on Swarm: http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn/Swarm/Marcus-interface.patch) 
and do not use the -DMETHOD_FUNCTIONS flag. Please be prepared that if 
you use an unpatched gcc-3.0.4, you will see the harmless but ugly 
compiler warnings described in the Swarm FAQ

gcc 3.2 has bugs in it that block Swarm from compiling. There is a Swarm 
developer's email list swarm-hackers at Savannah where I've discussed 
them with the fellows.  The biggest problem is that the protocol and 
casting things are broken. At first I thought some horrific swarm 
changes were needed, but then I joined the gcc list and they confessed 
that there were bugs.

gcc-20020909 fixed the bugs (at my request) but a couple of patches for 
Swarm are needed to compile.

If you look here:
http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn/Swarm/
The patches I think Swarm needs are "Customize.patch" 
"ObjectSaver.patch" and "Signs.patch"

I believe (still checking) that if you patch gcc-3.2.x after 20020909 
with the "method functions" patch 
(http://lark.cc.ku.edu/~pauljohn/Swarm/Marcus_gcc301_MethodFunction.patch), 
and build swarm with the METHOD_FUNCTIONS option, all will go ok.

RH 8.0 distributed with a gcc 3.2 that does not work and I'm right now 
trying to build RPMS to replace them. The crushing aspect of this is 
that the gcc snap used in RH8.0 is 20020902,  meaning that they were 
just one week too early.  Right now I'm trying to build gcc 20021007 for 
RH8, but that is causing complications because they have raised the 
version number to 3.3 and they appear to have eliminated some old 
standards like cpp0 and tradcpp0.  I am able to compile gcc but not get 
the rpm to build, as a result, and each effort takes several hours.

Matthew M Murphy wrote:
> Paul,
>
> Just wondering what version of GCC is best to compile swarm with these
> days...
>
> Matt
>
> p.s.  I hope all has been well with you.



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


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