This is Info file gcc.info, produced by Makeinfo version 1.68 from the
input file ./gcc.texi.
INFO-DIR-SECTION Programming
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* gcc: (gcc). The GNU Compiler Collection.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
This file documents the use and the internals of the GNU compiler.
Published by the Free Software Foundation 59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998,
1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also
that the sections entitled "GNU General Public License" and "Funding
for Free Software" are included exactly as in the original, and
provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under
the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions, except that the sections entitled "GNU General Public
License" and "Funding for Free Software", and this permission notice,
may be included in translations approved by the Free Software Foundation
instead of in the original English.
File: gcc.info, Node: Installation Problems, Next: Cross-Compiler Problems, Prev: Actual Bugs, Up: Trouble
Installation Problems
=====================
This is a list of problems (and some apparent problems which don't
really mean anything is wrong) that show up during installation of GNU
CC.
* On certain systems, defining certain environment variables such as
`CC' can interfere with the functioning of `make'.
* If you encounter seemingly strange errors when trying to build the
compiler in a directory other than the source directory, it could
be because you have previously configured the compiler in the
source directory. Make sure you have done all the necessary
preparations. *Note Other Dir::.
* If you build GCC on a BSD system using a directory stored in a
System V file system, problems may occur in running `fixincludes'
if the System V file system doesn't support symbolic links. These
problems result in a failure to fix the declaration of `size_t' in
`sys/types.h'. If you find that `size_t' is a signed type and
that type mismatches occur, this could be the cause.
The solution is not to use such a directory for building GCC.
* In previous versions of GCC, the `gcc' driver program looked for
`as' and `ld' in various places; for example, in files beginning
with `/usr/local/lib/gcc-'. GCC version 2 looks for them in the
directory `/usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/TARGET/VERSION'.
Thus, to use a version of `as' or `ld' that is not the system
default, for example `gas' or GNU `ld', you must put them in that
directory (or make links to them from that directory).
* Some commands executed when making the compiler may fail (return a
non-zero status) and be ignored by `make'. These failures, which
are often due to files that were not found, are expected, and can
safely be ignored.
* It is normal to have warnings in compiling certain files about
unreachable code and about enumeration type clashes. These files'
names begin with `insn-'. Also, `real.c' may get some warnings
that you can ignore.
* Sometimes `make' recompiles parts of the compiler when installing
the compiler. In one case, this was traced down to a bug in
`make'. Either ignore the problem or switch to GNU Make.
* If you have installed a program known as purify, you may find that
it causes errors while linking `enquire', which is part of building
GCC. The fix is to get rid of the file `real-ld' which purify
installs--so that GCC won't try to use it.
* On GNU/Linux SLS 1.01, there is a problem with `libc.a': it does
not contain the obstack functions. However, GCC assumes that the
obstack functions are in `libc.a' when it is the GNU C library.
To work around this problem, change the `__GNU_LIBRARY__'
conditional around line 31 to `#if 1'.
* On some 386 systems, building the compiler never finishes because
`enquire' hangs due to a hardware problem in the motherboard--it
reports floating point exceptions to the kernel incorrectly. You
can install GCC except for `float.h' by patching out the command to
run `enquire'. You may also be able to fix the problem for real by
getting a replacement motherboard. This problem was observed in
Revision E of the Micronics motherboard, and is fixed in Revision
F. It has also been observed in the MYLEX MXA-33 motherboard.
If you encounter this problem, you may also want to consider
removing the FPU from the socket during the compilation.
Alternatively, if you are running SCO Unix, you can reboot and
force the FPU to be ignored. To do this, type `hd(40)unix auto
ignorefpu'.
* On some 386 systems, GCC crashes trying to compile `enquire.c'.
This happens on machines that don't have a 387 FPU chip. On 386
machines, the system kernel is supposed to emulate the 387 when you
don't have one. The crash is due to a bug in the emulator.
One of these systems is the Unix from Interactive Systems: 386/ix.
On this system, an alternate emulator is provided, and it does
work. To use it, execute this command as super-user:
ln /etc/emulator.rel1 /etc/emulator
and then reboot the system. (The default emulator file remains
present under the name `emulator.dflt'.)
Try using `/etc/emulator.att', if you have such a problem on the
SCO system.
Another system which has this problem is Esix. We don't know
whether it has an alternate emulator that works.
On NetBSD 0.8, a similar problem manifests itself as these error
messages:
enquire.c: In function `fprop':
enquire.c:2328: floating overflow
* On SCO systems, when compiling GCC with the system's compiler, do
not use `-O'. Some versions of the system's compiler miscompile
GCC with `-O'.
* Sometimes on a Sun 4 you may observe a crash in the program
`genflags' or `genoutput' while building GCC. This is said to be
due to a bug in `sh'. You can probably get around it by running
`genflags' or `genoutput' manually and then retrying the `make'.
* On Solaris 2, executables of GCC version 2.0.2 are commonly
available, but they have a bug that shows up when compiling current
versions of GCC: undefined symbol errors occur during assembly if
you use `-g'.
The solution is to compile the current version of GCC without
`-g'. That makes a working compiler which you can use to recompile
with `-g'.
* Solaris 2 comes with a number of optional OS packages. Some of
these packages are needed to use GCC fully. If you did not
install all optional packages when installing Solaris, you will
need to verify that the packages that GCC needs are installed.
To check whether an optional package is installed, use the
`pkginfo' command. To add an optional package, use the `pkgadd'
command. For further details, see the Solaris documentation.
For Solaris 2.0 and 2.1, GCC needs six packages: `SUNWarc',
`SUNWbtool', `SUNWesu', `SUNWhea', `SUNWlibm', and `SUNWtoo'.
For Solaris 2.2, GCC needs an additional seventh package:
`SUNWsprot'.
* On Solaris 2, trying to use the linker and other tools in
`/usr/ucb' to install GCC has been observed to cause trouble. For
example, the linker may hang indefinitely. The fix is to remove
`/usr/ucb' from your `PATH'.
* If you use the 1.31 version of the MIPS assembler (such as was
shipped with Ultrix 3.1), you will need to use the
-fno-delayed-branch switch when optimizing floating point code.
Otherwise, the assembler will complain when the GCC compiler fills
a branch delay slot with a floating point instruction, such as
`add.d'.
* If on a MIPS system you get an error message saying "does not have
gp sections for all it's [sic] sectons [sic]", don't worry about
it. This happens whenever you use GAS with the MIPS linker, but
there is not really anything wrong, and it is okay to use the
output file. You can stop such warnings by installing the GNU
linker.
It would be nice to extend GAS to produce the gp tables, but they
are optional, and there should not be a warning about their
absence.
* In Ultrix 4.0 on the MIPS machine, `stdio.h' does not work with GNU
CC at all unless it has been fixed with `fixincludes'. This causes
problems in building GCC. Once GCC is installed, the problems go
away.
To work around this problem, when making the stage 1 compiler,
specify this option to Make:
GCC_FOR_TARGET="./xgcc -B./ -I./include"
When making stage 2 and stage 3, specify this option:
CFLAGS="-g -I./include"
* Users have reported some problems with version 2.0 of the MIPS
compiler tools that were shipped with Ultrix 4.1. Version 2.10
which came with Ultrix 4.2 seems to work fine.
Users have also reported some problems with version 2.20 of the
MIPS compiler tools that were shipped with RISC/os 4.x. The
earlier version 2.11 seems to work fine.
* Some versions of the MIPS linker will issue an assertion failure
when linking code that uses `alloca' against shared libraries on
RISC-OS 5.0, and DEC's OSF/1 systems. This is a bug in the
linker, that is supposed to be fixed in future revisions. To
protect against this, GCC passes `-non_shared' to the linker
unless you pass an explicit `-shared' or `-call_shared' switch.
* On System V release 3, you may get this error message while
linking:
ld fatal: failed to write symbol name SOMETHING
in strings table for file WHATEVER
This probably indicates that the disk is full or your ULIMIT won't
allow the file to be as large as it needs to be.
This problem can also result because the kernel parameter `MAXUMEM'
is too small. If so, you must regenerate the kernel and make the
value much larger. The default value is reported to be 1024; a
value of 32768 is said to work. Smaller values may also work.
* On System V, if you get an error like this,
/usr/local/lib/bison.simple: In function `yyparse':
/usr/local/lib/bison.simple:625: virtual memory exhausted
that too indicates a problem with disk space, ULIMIT, or `MAXUMEM'.
* Current GCC versions probably do not work on version 2 of the NeXT
operating system.
* On NeXTStep 3.0, the Objective C compiler does not work, due,
apparently, to a kernel bug that it happens to trigger. This
problem does not happen on 3.1.
* On the Tower models 4N0 and 6N0, by default a process is not
allowed to have more than one megabyte of memory. GCC cannot
compile itself (or many other programs) with `-O' in that much
memory.
To solve this problem, reconfigure the kernel adding the following
line to the configuration file:
MAXUMEM = 4096
* On HP 9000 series 300 or 400 running HP-UX release 8.0, there is a
bug in the assembler that must be fixed before GCC can be built.
This bug manifests itself during the first stage of compilation,
while building `libgcc2.a':
_floatdisf
cc1: warning: `-g' option not supported on this version of GCC
cc1: warning: `-g1' option not supported on this version of GCC
./xgcc: Internal compiler error: program as got fatal signal 11
A patched version of the assembler is available by anonymous ftp
from `altdorf.ai.mit.edu' as the file
`archive/cph/hpux-8.0-assembler'. If you have HP software support,
the patch can also be obtained directly from HP, as described in
the following note:
This is the patched assembler, to patch SR#1653-010439, where
the assembler aborts on floating point constants.
The bug is not really in the assembler, but in the shared
library version of the function "cvtnum(3c)". The bug on
"cvtnum(3c)" is SR#4701-078451. Anyway, the attached
assembler uses the archive library version of "cvtnum(3c)"
and thus does not exhibit the bug.
This patch is also known as PHCO_4484.
* On HP-UX version 8.05, but not on 8.07 or more recent versions,
the `fixproto' shell script triggers a bug in the system shell.
If you encounter this problem, upgrade your operating system or
use BASH (the GNU shell) to run `fixproto'.
* Some versions of the Pyramid C compiler are reported to be unable
to compile GCC. You must use an older version of GCC for
bootstrapping. One indication of this problem is if you get a
crash when GCC compiles the function `muldi3' in file `libgcc2.c'.
You may be able to succeed by getting GCC version 1, installing it,
and using it to compile GCC version 2. The bug in the Pyramid C
compiler does not seem to affect GCC version 1.
* There may be similar problems on System V Release 3.1 on 386
systems.
* On the Intel Paragon (an i860 machine), if you are using operating
system version 1.0, you will get warnings or errors about
redefinition of `va_arg' when you build GCC.
If this happens, then you need to link most programs with the
library `iclib.a'. You must also modify `stdio.h' as follows:
before the lines
#if defined(__i860__) && !defined(_VA_LIST)
#include <va_list.h>
insert the line
#if __PGC__
and after the lines
extern int vprintf(const char *, va_list );
extern int vsprintf(char *, const char *, va_list );
#endif
insert the line
#endif /* __PGC__ */
These problems don't exist in operating system version 1.1.
* On the Altos 3068, programs compiled with GCC won't work unless you
fix a kernel bug. This happens using system versions V.2.2 1.0gT1
and V.2.2 1.0e and perhaps later versions as well. See the file
`README.ALTOS'.
* You will get several sorts of compilation and linking errors on the
we32k if you don't follow the special instructions. *Note
Configurations::.
* A bug in the HP-UX 8.05 (and earlier) shell will cause the fixproto
program to report an error of the form:
./fixproto: sh internal 1K buffer overflow
To fix this, change the first line of the fixproto script to look
like:
#!/bin/ksh
File: gcc.info, Node: Cross-Compiler Problems, Next: Interoperation, Prev: Installation Problems, Up: Trouble
Cross-Compiler Problems
=======================
You may run into problems with cross compilation on certain machines,
for several reasons.
* Cross compilation can run into trouble for certain machines because
some target machines' assemblers require floating point numbers to
be written as *integer* constants in certain contexts.
The compiler writes these integer constants by examining the
floating point value as an integer and printing that integer,
because this is simple to write and independent of the details of
the floating point representation. But this does not work if the
compiler is running on a different machine with an incompatible
floating point format, or even a different byte-ordering.
In addition, correct constant folding of floating point values
requires representing them in the target machine's format. (The C
standard does not quite require this, but in practice it is the
only way to win.)
It is now possible to overcome these problems by defining macros
such as `REAL_VALUE_TYPE'. But doing so is a substantial amount of
work for each target machine. *Note Cross-compilation::.
* At present, the program `mips-tfile' which adds debug support to
object files on MIPS systems does not work in a cross compile
environment.
File: gcc.info, Node: Interoperation, Next: External Bugs, Prev: Cross-Compiler Problems, Up: Trouble
Interoperation
==============
This section lists various difficulties encountered in using GNU C or
GNU C++ together with other compilers or with the assemblers, linkers,
libraries and debuggers on certain systems.
* Objective C does not work on the RS/6000.
* GNU C++ does not do name mangling in the same way as other C++
compilers. This means that object files compiled with one compiler
cannot be used with another.
This effect is intentional, to protect you from more subtle
problems. Compilers differ as to many internal details of C++
implementation, including: how class instances are laid out, how
multiple inheritance is implemented, and how virtual function
calls are handled. If the name encoding were made the same, your
programs would link against libraries provided from other
compilers--but the programs would then crash when run.
Incompatible libraries are then detected at link time, rather than
at run time.
* Older GDB versions sometimes fail to read the output of GCC version
2. If you have trouble, get GDB version 4.4 or later.
* DBX rejects some files produced by GCC, though it accepts similar
constructs in output from PCC. Until someone can supply a coherent
description of what is valid DBX input and what is not, there is
nothing I can do about these problems. You are on your own.
* The GNU assembler (GAS) does not support PIC. To generate PIC
code, you must use some other assembler, such as `/bin/as'.
* On some BSD systems, including some versions of Ultrix, use of
profiling causes static variable destructors (currently used only
in C++) not to be run.
* Use of `-I/usr/include' may cause trouble.
Many systems come with header files that won't work with GCC unless
corrected by `fixincludes'. The corrected header files go in a new
directory; GCC searches this directory before `/usr/include'. If
you use `-I/usr/include', this tells GCC to search `/usr/include'
earlier on, before the corrected headers. The result is that you
get the uncorrected header files.
Instead, you should use these options (when compiling C programs):
-I/usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/TARGET/VERSION/include -I/usr/include
For C++ programs, GCC also uses a special directory that defines
C++ interfaces to standard C subroutines. This directory is meant
to be searched *before* other standard include directories, so
that it takes precedence. If you are compiling C++ programs and
specifying include directories explicitly, use this option first,
then the two options above:
-I/usr/local/lib/g++-include
* On some SGI systems, when you use `-lgl_s' as an option, it gets
translated magically to `-lgl_s -lX11_s -lc_s'. Naturally, this
does not happen when you use GCC. You must specify all three
options explicitly.
* On a Sparc, GCC aligns all values of type `double' on an 8-byte
boundary, and it expects every `double' to be so aligned. The Sun
compiler usually gives `double' values 8-byte alignment, with one
exception: function arguments of type `double' may not be aligned.
As a result, if a function compiled with Sun CC takes the address
of an argument of type `double' and passes this pointer of type
`double *' to a function compiled with GCC, dereferencing the
pointer may cause a fatal signal.
One way to solve this problem is to compile your entire program
with GNU CC. Another solution is to modify the function that is
compiled with Sun CC to copy the argument into a local variable;
local variables are always properly aligned. A third solution is
to modify the function that uses the pointer to dereference it via
the following function `access_double' instead of directly with
`*':
inline double
access_double (double *unaligned_ptr)
{
union d2i { double d; int i[2]; };
union d2i *p = (union d2i *) unaligned_ptr;
union d2i u;
u.i[0] = p->i[0];
u.i[1] = p->i[1];
return u.d;
}
Storing into the pointer can be done likewise with the same union.
* On Solaris, the `malloc' function in the `libmalloc.a' library may
allocate memory that is only 4 byte aligned. Since GCC on the
Sparc assumes that doubles are 8 byte aligned, this may result in a
fatal signal if doubles are stored in memory allocated by the
`libmalloc.a' library.
The solution is to not use the `libmalloc.a' library. Use instead
`malloc' and related functions from `libc.a'; they do not have
this problem.
* Sun forgot to include a static version of `libdl.a' with some
versions of SunOS (mainly 4.1). This results in undefined symbols
when linking static binaries (that is, if you use `-static'). If
you see undefined symbols `_dlclose', `_dlsym' or `_dlopen' when
linking, compile and link against the file `mit/util/misc/dlsym.c'
from the MIT version of X windows.
* The 128-bit long double format that the Sparc port supports
currently works by using the architecturally defined quad-word
floating point instructions. Since there is no hardware that
supports these instructions they must be emulated by the operating
system. Long doubles do not work in Sun OS versions 4.0.3 and
earlier, because the kernel emulator uses an obsolete and
incompatible format. Long doubles do not work in Sun OS version
4.1.1 due to a problem in a Sun library. Long doubles do work on
Sun OS versions 4.1.2 and higher, but GCC does not enable them by
default. Long doubles appear to work in Sun OS 5.x (Solaris 2.x).
* On HP-UX version 9.01 on the HP PA, the HP compiler `cc' does not
compile GCC correctly. We do not yet know why. However, GCC
compiled on earlier HP-UX versions works properly on HP-UX 9.01
and can compile itself properly on 9.01.
* On the HP PA machine, ADB sometimes fails to work on functions
compiled with GCC. Specifically, it fails to work on functions
that use `alloca' or variable-size arrays. This is because GCC
doesn't generate HP-UX unwind descriptors for such functions. It
may even be impossible to generate them.
* Debugging (`-g') is not supported on the HP PA machine, unless you
use the preliminary GNU tools (*note Installation::.).
* Taking the address of a label may generate errors from the HP-UX
PA assembler. GAS for the PA does not have this problem.
* Using floating point parameters for indirect calls to static
functions will not work when using the HP assembler. There simply
is no way for GCC to specify what registers hold arguments for
static functions when using the HP assembler. GAS for the PA does
not have this problem.
* In extremely rare cases involving some very large functions you may
receive errors from the HP linker complaining about an out of
bounds unconditional branch offset. This used to occur more often
in previous versions of GCC, but is now exceptionally rare. If
you should run into it, you can work around by making your
function smaller.
* GCC compiled code sometimes emits warnings from the HP-UX
assembler of the form:
(warning) Use of GR3 when
frame >= 8192 may cause conflict.
These warnings are harmless and can be safely ignored.
* The current version of the assembler (`/bin/as') for the RS/6000
has certain problems that prevent the `-g' option in GCC from
working. Note that `Makefile.in' uses `-g' by default when
compiling `libgcc2.c'.
IBM has produced a fixed version of the assembler. The upgraded
assembler unfortunately was not included in any of the AIX 3.2
update PTF releases (3.2.2, 3.2.3, or 3.2.3e). Users of AIX 3.1
should request PTF U403044 from IBM and users of AIX 3.2 should
request PTF U416277. See the file `README.RS6000' for more
details on these updates.
You can test for the presense of a fixed assembler by using the
command
as -u < /dev/null
If the command exits normally, the assembler fix already is
installed. If the assembler complains that "-u" is an unknown
flag, you need to order the fix.
* On the IBM RS/6000, compiling code of the form
extern int foo;
... foo ...
static int foo;
will cause the linker to report an undefined symbol `foo'.
Although this behavior differs from most other systems, it is not a
bug because redefining an `extern' variable as `static' is
undefined in ANSI C.
* AIX on the RS/6000 provides support (NLS) for environments outside
of the United States. Compilers and assemblers use NLS to support
locale-specific representations of various objects including
floating-point numbers ("." vs "," for separating decimal
fractions). There have been problems reported where the library
linked with GCC does not produce the same floating-point formats
that the assembler accepts. If you have this problem, set the
LANG environment variable to "C" or "En_US".
* Even if you specify `-fdollars-in-identifiers', you cannot
successfully use `$' in identifiers on the RS/6000 due to a
restriction in the IBM assembler. GAS supports these identifiers.
* On the RS/6000, XLC version 1.3.0.0 will miscompile `jump.c'. XLC
version 1.3.0.1 or later fixes this problem. You can obtain
XLC-1.3.0.2 by requesting PTF 421749 from IBM.
* There is an assembler bug in versions of DG/UX prior to 5.4.2.01
that occurs when the `fldcr' instruction is used. GCC uses
`fldcr' on the 88100 to serialize volatile memory references. Use
the option `-mno-serialize-volatile' if your version of the
assembler has this bug.
* On VMS, GAS versions 1.38.1 and earlier may cause spurious warning
messages from the linker. These warning messages complain of
mismatched psect attributes. You can ignore them. *Note VMS
Install::.
* On NewsOS version 3, if you include both of the files `stddef.h'
and `sys/types.h', you get an error because there are two typedefs
of `size_t'. You should change `sys/types.h' by adding these
lines around the definition of `size_t':
#ifndef _SIZE_T
#define _SIZE_T
ACTUAL TYPEDEF HERE
#endif
* On the Alliant, the system's own convention for returning
structures and unions is unusual, and is not compatible with GCC
no matter what options are used.
* On the IBM RT PC, the MetaWare HighC compiler (hc) uses a different
convention for structure and union returning. Use the option
`-mhc-struct-return' to tell GCC to use a convention compatible
with it.
* On Ultrix, the Fortran compiler expects registers 2 through 5 to
be saved by function calls. However, the C compiler uses
conventions compatible with BSD Unix: registers 2 through 5 may be
clobbered by function calls.
GCC uses the same convention as the Ultrix C compiler. You can use
these options to produce code compatible with the Fortran compiler:
-fcall-saved-r2 -fcall-saved-r3 -fcall-saved-r4 -fcall-saved-r5
* On the WE32k, you may find that programs compiled with GCC do not
work with the standard shared C library. You may need to link with
the ordinary C compiler. If you do so, you must specify the
following options:
-L/usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/we32k-att-sysv/2.8.1 -lgcc -lc_s
The first specifies where to find the library `libgcc.a' specified
with the `-lgcc' option.
GCC does linking by invoking `ld', just as `cc' does, and there is
no reason why it *should* matter which compilation program you use
to invoke `ld'. If someone tracks this problem down, it can
probably be fixed easily.
* On the Alpha, you may get assembler errors about invalid syntax as
a result of floating point constants. This is due to a bug in the
C library functions `ecvt', `fcvt' and `gcvt'. Given valid
floating point numbers, they sometimes print `NaN'.
* On Irix 4.0.5F (and perhaps in some other versions), an assembler
bug sometimes reorders instructions incorrectly when optimization
is turned on. If you think this may be happening to you, try
using the GNU assembler; GAS version 2.1 supports ECOFF on Irix.
Or use the `-noasmopt' option when you compile GCC with itself,
and then again when you compile your program. (This is a temporary
kludge to turn off assembler optimization on Irix.) If this
proves to be what you need, edit the assembler spec in the file
`specs' so that it unconditionally passes `-O0' to the assembler,
and never passes `-O2' or `-O3'.
File: gcc.info, Node: External Bugs, Next: Incompatibilities, Prev: Interoperation, Up: Trouble
Problems Compiling Certain Programs
===================================
Certain programs have problems compiling.
* Parse errors may occur compiling X11 on a Decstation running
Ultrix 4.2 because of problems in DEC's versions of the X11 header
files `X11/Xlib.h' and `X11/Xutil.h'. People recommend adding
`-I/usr/include/mit' to use the MIT versions of the header files,
using the `-traditional' switch to turn off ANSI C, or fixing the
header files by adding this:
#ifdef __STDC__
#define NeedFunctionPrototypes 0
#endif
* If you have trouble compiling Perl on a SunOS 4 system, it may be
because Perl specifies `-I/usr/ucbinclude'. This accesses the
unfixed header files. Perl specifies the options
-traditional -Dvolatile=__volatile__
-I/usr/include/sun -I/usr/ucbinclude
-fpcc-struct-return
most of which are unnecessary with GCC 2.4.5 and newer versions.
You can make a properly working Perl by setting `ccflags' to
`-fwritable-strings' (implied by the `-traditional' in the
original options) and `cppflags' to empty in `config.sh', then
typing `./doSH; make depend; make'.
* On various 386 Unix systems derived from System V, including SCO,
ISC, and ESIX, you may get error messages about running out of
virtual memory while compiling certain programs.
You can prevent this problem by linking GCC with the GNU malloc
(which thus replaces the malloc that comes with the system). GNU
malloc is available as a separate package, and also in the file
`src/gmalloc.c' in the GNU Emacs 19 distribution.
If you have installed GNU malloc as a separate library package,
use this option when you relink GCC:
MALLOC=/usr/local/lib/libgmalloc.a
Alternatively, if you have compiled `gmalloc.c' from Emacs 19, copy
the object file to `gmalloc.o' and use this option when you relink
GCC:
MALLOC=gmalloc.o
File: gcc.info, Node: Incompatibilities, Next: Fixed Headers, Prev: External Bugs, Up: Trouble
Incompatibilities of GCC
========================
There are several noteworthy incompatibilities between GNU C and most
existing (non-ANSI) versions of C. The `-traditional' option
eliminates many of these incompatibilities, *but not all*, by telling
GNU C to behave like the other C compilers.
* GCC normally makes string constants read-only. If several
identical-looking string constants are used, GCC stores only one
copy of the string.
One consequence is that you cannot call `mktemp' with a string
constant argument. The function `mktemp' always alters the string
its argument points to.
Another consequence is that `sscanf' does not work on some systems
when passed a string constant as its format control string or
input. This is because `sscanf' incorrectly tries to write into
the string constant. Likewise `fscanf' and `scanf'.
The best solution to these problems is to change the program to use
`char'-array variables with initialization strings for these
purposes instead of string constants. But if this is not possible,
you can use the `-fwritable-strings' flag, which directs GCC to
handle string constants the same way most C compilers do.
`-traditional' also has this effect, among others.
* `-2147483648' is positive.
This is because 2147483648 cannot fit in the type `int', so
(following the ANSI C rules) its data type is `unsigned long int'.
Negating this value yields 2147483648 again.
* GCC does not substitute macro arguments when they appear inside of
string constants. For example, the following macro in GCC
#define foo(a) "a"
will produce output `"a"' regardless of what the argument A is.
The `-traditional' option directs GCC to handle such cases (among
others) in the old-fashioned (non-ANSI) fashion.
* When you use `setjmp' and `longjmp', the only automatic variables
guaranteed to remain valid are those declared `volatile'. This is
a consequence of automatic register allocation. Consider this
function:
jmp_buf j;
foo ()
{
int a, b;
a = fun1 ();
if (setjmp (j))
return a;
a = fun2 ();
/* `longjmp (j)' may occur in `fun3'. */
return a + fun3 ();
}
Here `a' may or may not be restored to its first value when the
`longjmp' occurs. If `a' is allocated in a register, then its
first value is restored; otherwise, it keeps the last value stored
in it.
If you use the `-W' option with the `-O' option, you will get a
warning when GCC thinks such a problem might be possible.
The `-traditional' option directs GNU C to put variables in the
stack by default, rather than in registers, in functions that call
`setjmp'. This results in the behavior found in traditional C
compilers.
* Programs that use preprocessing directives in the middle of macro
arguments do not work with GCC. For example, a program like this
will not work:
foobar (
#define luser
hack)
ANSI C does not permit such a construct. It would make sense to
support it when `-traditional' is used, but it is too much work to
implement.
* Declarations of external variables and functions within a block
apply only to the block containing the declaration. In other
words, they have the same scope as any other declaration in the
same place.
In some other C compilers, a `extern' declaration affects all the
rest of the file even if it happens within a block.
The `-traditional' option directs GNU C to treat all `extern'
declarations as global, like traditional compilers.
* In traditional C, you can combine `long', etc., with a typedef
name, as shown here:
typedef int foo;
typedef long foo bar;
In ANSI C, this is not allowed: `long' and other type modifiers
require an explicit `int'. Because this criterion is expressed by
Bison grammar rules rather than C code, the `-traditional' flag
cannot alter it.
* PCC allows typedef names to be used as function parameters. The
difficulty described immediately above applies here too.
* PCC allows whitespace in the middle of compound assignment
operators such as `+='. GCC, following the ANSI standard, does not
allow this. The difficulty described immediately above applies
here too.
* GCC complains about unterminated character constants inside of
preprocessing conditionals that fail. Some programs have English
comments enclosed in conditionals that are guaranteed to fail; if
these comments contain apostrophes, GCC will probably report an
error. For example, this code would produce an error:
#if 0
You can't expect this to work.
#endif
The best solution to such a problem is to put the text into an
actual C comment delimited by `/*...*/'. However, `-traditional'
suppresses these error messages.
* Many user programs contain the declaration `long time ();'. In the
past, the system header files on many systems did not actually
declare `time', so it did not matter what type your program
declared it to return. But in systems with ANSI C headers, `time'
is declared to return `time_t', and if that is not the same as
`long', then `long time ();' is erroneous.
The solution is to change your program to use `time_t' as the
return type of `time'.
* When compiling functions that return `float', PCC converts it to a
double. GCC actually returns a `float'. If you are concerned
with PCC compatibility, you should declare your functions to return
`double'; you might as well say what you mean.
* When compiling functions that return structures or unions, GCC
output code normally uses a method different from that used on most
versions of Unix. As a result, code compiled with GCC cannot call
a structure-returning function compiled with PCC, and vice versa.
The method used by GCC is as follows: a structure or union which is
1, 2, 4 or 8 bytes long is returned like a scalar. A structure or
union with any other size is stored into an address supplied by
the caller (usually in a special, fixed register, but on some
machines it is passed on the stack). The machine-description
macros `STRUCT_VALUE' and `STRUCT_INCOMING_VALUE' tell GCC where
to pass this address.
By contrast, PCC on most target machines returns structures and
unions of any size by copying the data into an area of static
storage, and then returning the address of that storage as if it
were a pointer value. The caller must copy the data from that
memory area to the place where the value is wanted. GCC does not
use this method because it is slower and nonreentrant.
On some newer machines, PCC uses a reentrant convention for all
structure and union returning. GCC on most of these machines uses
a compatible convention when returning structures and unions in
memory, but still returns small structures and unions in registers.
You can tell GCC to use a compatible convention for all structure
and union returning with the option `-fpcc-struct-return'.
* GNU C complains about program fragments such as `0x74ae-0x4000'
which appear to be two hexadecimal constants separated by the minus
operator. Actually, this string is a single "preprocessing token".
Each such token must correspond to one token in C. Since this
does not, GNU C prints an error message. Although it may appear
obvious that what is meant is an operator and two values, the ANSI
C standard specifically requires that this be treated as erroneous.
A "preprocessing token" is a "preprocessing number" if it begins
with a digit and is followed by letters, underscores, digits,
periods and `e+', `e-', `E+', or `E-' character sequences.
To make the above program fragment valid, place whitespace in
front of the minus sign. This whitespace will end the
preprocessing number.
File: gcc.info, Node: Fixed Headers, Next: Standard Libraries, Prev: Incompatibilities, Up: Trouble
Fixed Header Files
==================
GCC needs to install corrected versions of some system header files.
This is because most target systems have some header files that won't
work with GCC unless they are changed. Some have bugs, some are
incompatible with ANSI C, and some depend on special features of other
compilers.
Installing GCC automatically creates and installs the fixed header
files, by running a program called `fixincludes' (or for certain
targets an alternative such as `fixinc.svr4'). Normally, you don't
need to pay attention to this. But there are cases where it doesn't do
the right thing automatically.
* If you update the system's header files, such as by installing a
new system version, the fixed header files of GCC are not
automatically updated. The easiest way to update them is to
reinstall GCC. (If you want to be clever, look in the makefile
and you can find a shortcut.)
* On some systems, in particular SunOS 4, header file directories
contain machine-specific symbolic links in certain places. This
makes it possible to share most of the header files among hosts
running the same version of SunOS 4 on different machine models.
The programs that fix the header files do not understand this
special way of using symbolic links; therefore, the directory of
fixed header files is good only for the machine model used to
build it.
In SunOS 4, only programs that look inside the kernel will notice
the difference between machine models. Therefore, for most
purposes, you need not be concerned about this.
It is possible to make separate sets of fixed header files for the
different machine models, and arrange a structure of symbolic
links so as to use the proper set, but you'll have to do this by
hand.
* On Lynxos, GCC by default does not fix the header files. This is
because bugs in the shell cause the `fixincludes' script to fail.
This means you will encounter problems due to bugs in the system
header files. It may be no comfort that they aren't GCC's fault,
but it does mean that there's nothing for us to do about them.
File: gcc.info, Node: Standard Libraries, Next: Disappointments, Prev: Fixed Headers, Up: Trouble
Standard Libraries
==================
GCC by itself attempts to be what the ISO/ANSI C standard calls a
"conforming freestanding implementation". This means all ANSI C
language features are available, as well as the contents of `float.h',
`limits.h', `stdarg.h', and `stddef.h'. The rest of the C library is
supplied by the vendor of the operating system. If that C library
doesn't conform to the C standards, then your programs might get
warnings (especially when using `-Wall') that you don't expect.
For example, the `sprintf' function on SunOS 4.1.3 returns `char *'
while the C standard says that `sprintf' returns an `int'. The
`fixincludes' program could make the prototype for this function match
the Standard, but that would be wrong, since the function will still
return `char *'.
If you need a Standard compliant library, then you need to find one,
as GCC does not provide one. The GNU C library (called `glibc') has
been ported to a number of operating systems, and provides ANSI/ISO,
POSIX, BSD and SystemV compatibility. You could also ask your operating
system vendor if newer libraries are available.
File: gcc.info, Node: Disappointments, Next: C++ Misunderstandings, Prev: Standard Libraries, Up: Trouble
Disappointments and Misunderstandings
=====================================
These problems are perhaps regrettable, but we don't know any
practical way around them.
* Certain local variables aren't recognized by debuggers when you
compile with optimization.
This occurs because sometimes GCC optimizes the variable out of
existence. There is no way to tell the debugger how to compute the
value such a variable "would have had", and it is not clear that
would be desirable anyway. So GCC simply does not mention the
eliminated variable when it writes debugging information.
You have to expect a certain amount of disagreement between the
executable and your source code, when you use optimization.
* Users often think it is a bug when GCC reports an error for code
like this:
int foo (struct mumble *);
struct mumble { ... };
int foo (struct mumble *x)
{ ... }
This code really is erroneous, because the scope of `struct
mumble' in the prototype is limited to the argument list
containing it. It does not refer to the `struct mumble' defined
with file scope immediately below--they are two unrelated types
with similar names in different scopes.
But in the definition of `foo', the file-scope type is used
because that is available to be inherited. Thus, the definition
and the prototype do not match, and you get an error.
This behavior may seem silly, but it's what the ANSI standard
specifies. It is easy enough for you to make your code work by
moving the definition of `struct mumble' above the prototype.
It's not worth being incompatible with ANSI C just to avoid an
error for the example shown above.
* Accesses to bitfields even in volatile objects works by accessing
larger objects, such as a byte or a word. You cannot rely on what
size of object is accessed in order to read or write the bitfield;
it may even vary for a given bitfield according to the precise
usage.
If you care about controlling the amount of memory that is
accessed, use volatile but do not use bitfields.
* GCC comes with shell scripts to fix certain known problems in
system header files. They install corrected copies of various
header files in a special directory where only GCC will normally
look for them. The scripts adapt to various systems by searching
all the system header files for the problem cases that we know
about.
If new system header files are installed, nothing automatically
arranges to update the corrected header files. You will have to
reinstall GCC to fix the new header files. More specifically, go
to the build directory and delete the files `stmp-fixinc' and
`stmp-headers', and the subdirectory `include'; then do `make
install' again.
* On 68000 and x86 systems, for instance, you can get paradoxical
results if you test the precise values of floating point numbers.
For example, you can find that a floating point value which is not
a NaN is not equal to itself. This results from the fact that the
floating point registers hold a few more bits of precision than
fit in a `double' in memory. Compiled code moves values between
memory and floating point registers at its convenience, and moving
them into memory truncates them.
You can partially avoid this problem by using the `-ffloat-store'
option (*note Optimize Options::.).
* On the MIPS, variable argument functions using `varargs.h' cannot
have a floating point value for the first argument. The reason
for this is that in the absence of a prototype in scope, if the
first argument is a floating point, it is passed in a floating
point register, rather than an integer register.
If the code is rewritten to use the ANSI standard `stdarg.h'
method of variable arguments, and the prototype is in scope at the
time of the call, everything will work fine.
* On the H8/300 and H8/300H, variable argument functions must be
implemented using the ANSI standard `stdarg.h' method of variable
arguments. Furthermore, calls to functions using `stdarg.h'
variable arguments must have a prototype for the called function
in scope at the time of the call.
File: gcc.info, Node: C++ Misunderstandings, Next: Protoize Caveats, Prev: Disappointments, Up: Trouble
Common Misunderstandings with GNU C++
=====================================
C++ is a complex language and an evolving one, and its standard
definition (the ISO C++ standard) was only recently completed. As a
result, your C++ compiler may occasionally surprise you, even when its
behavior is correct. This section discusses some areas that frequently
give rise to questions of this sort.
* Menu:
* Static Definitions:: Static member declarations are not definitions
* Temporaries:: Temporaries may vanish before you expect
* Copy Assignment:: Copy Assignment operators copy virtual bases twice
File: gcc.info, Node: Static Definitions, Next: Temporaries, Up: C++ Misunderstandings
Declare *and* Define Static Members
-----------------------------------
When a class has static data members, it is not enough to *declare*
the static member; you must also *define* it. For example:
class Foo
{
...
void method();
static int bar;
};
This declaration only establishes that the class `Foo' has an `int'
named `Foo::bar', and a member function named `Foo::method'. But you
still need to define *both* `method' and `bar' elsewhere. According to
the draft ANSI standard, you must supply an initializer in one (and
only one) source file, such as:
int Foo::bar = 0;
Other C++ compilers may not correctly implement the standard
behavior. As a result, when you switch to `g++' from one of these
compilers, you may discover that a program that appeared to work
correctly in fact does not conform to the standard: `g++' reports as
undefined symbols any static data members that lack definitions.