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Date:      Wed, 2 Apr 2014 21:46:19 +0100
From:      David Chisnall <theraven@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Steve Kargl <sgk@troutmask.apl.washington.edu>
Cc:        Michael Butler <imb@protected-networks.net>, FreeBSD Current <freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org>
Subject:   Re: gcc compilation broken with SVN r264042
Message-ID:  <8ED6200B-CBED-4B2A-8E9A-EB671B30F156@FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <20140402202158.GA37846@troutmask.apl.washington.edu>
References:  <533C61B8.7060809@protected-networks.net> <509CAA08-8F00-4ED8-81FF-A51F1ECDC15C@FreeBSD.org> <533C6ABE.2000801@protected-networks.net> <307BA2CF-E02A-4D82-B9E5-23AECAEA89DC@FreeBSD.org> <20140402202158.GA37846@troutmask.apl.washington.edu>

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On 2 Apr 2014, at 21:21, Steve Kargl <sgk@troutmask.apl.washington.edu> =
wrote:

> Who is "we" in "even if we don't encourage it..."? =20

"We" is the FreeBSD project, collectively.  For a larger list of things =
that "we" recommend, look at the src.conf man page, which contains a =
long list of things that we encourage, codified as the defaults for a =
build.  Building FreeBSD-HEAD/i386 with gcc is just one of a long list =
of things that we don't encourage. =20

> In fact, this is a fairly dumb idea,

Having a recommended compiler is a dumb idea?

> and *we* should encourage building
> the base system with as many different compilers as possible.

I didn't say otherwise, which is why I'm working to fix this.  I'd love =
to have the Jenkins jobs set up with external toolchain support and be =
able to plug in compilers from ports to try to build / boot / test the =
base system on a regular basis.

If you're developing FreeBSD or testing, then please compile with as =
many other compilers as you have and contribute patches (or even just =
detailed reports) if they find bugs in the code.

If, however, you want to run FreeBSD in production... well, there's a =
reason for those defaults.  Building the base system with a compiler =
that can't build the C++ stack that ports expects for FreeBSD 10 or 11 =
on i386, for example, is going to make your life exciting...

> It's called portability and allows one to find bugs that the
> annointed compiler might miss or actually cause.=20

And, more importantly, it helps determine whether bugs are bugs in the =
compiler or in the code that they're compiling.  Being able to say that =
a bug goes away with one compiler gives you a good hint that it's a =
compiler bug.  Or something in the source code that relies on undefined =
behaviour...

But all of that is irrelevant to this bug report, so perhaps we can end =
this digression.  Unless, of course, you can reproduce this failure and =
would like to help fix it, in which case I'd be very grateful for your =
assistance.

David




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