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Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2013 15:27:42 +0100 (CET)
From: Gerald Pfeifer <gerald@pfeifer.com>
To: David Naylor <naylor.b.david@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: svn commit: r332557 - head/lang/gcc
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Cc: svn-ports-head@freebsd.org, Thierry Thomas <thierry@freebsd.org>,
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On Sun, 3 Nov 2013, David Naylor wrote:
>> Yes, since lang/gcc is the canonical version that should be used
>> (and is pulled in by USE_GCC=yes, for example).  At that point
>> lang/gcc46 will be the final release of GCC 4.6, lang/gcc47
>> will track GCC 4.7 and lang/gcc will track GCC 4.7 releases.
> Could you please explain why lang/gcc is not a meta-port tracking lang/gccXY 
> as appropriate?  It sounds to me lang/gcc is more "stable" than lang/gccXY 
> where lang/gccXY may track the tip of the branch?  

Yes.  In the above, lang/gcc will track GCC 4.7 releases whereas
lang/gcc47 will track GCC 4.7 snapshots.

The lang/gcc4x ports always have been tracking snapshots until that
release went EOL upstream at which point they moved to the final
release on that branch.

lang/gcc is there to track releases and receive as few updates as
reasonably possible. 

In other words, lang/gcc is the default port to use.  lang/gcc4x
shall be used when specifically necessary (newer version of GCC
required) or by those familiar and comfortable with newer versions.

Gerald