1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
4 @c @setfilename usegcc.info
5 @c @setfilename portgcc.info
6 @c To produce the full manual, use the "gcc.info" setfilename, and
7 @c make sure the following do NOT begin with '@c' (and the @clear lines DO)
10 @c To produce a user-only manual, use the "usegcc.info" setfilename, and
11 @c make sure the following does NOT begin with '@c':
13 @c To produce a porter-only manual, use the "portgcc.info" setfilename,
14 @c and make sure the following does NOT begin with '@c':
17 @c (For FSF printing, turn on smallbook, comment out finalout below;
18 @c that is all that is needed.)
20 @c 6/27/96 FSF DO wants smallbook fmt for 1st bound edition.
23 @c i also commented out the finalout command, so if there *are* any
24 @c overfulls, you'll (hopefully) see the rectangle in the right hand
25 @c margin. -mew 15june93
28 @c NOTE: checks/things to do:
30 @c -have bob do a search in all seven files for "mew" (ideally --mew,
31 @c but i may have forgotten the occasional "--"..).
32 @c Just checked... all have `--'! Bob 22Jul96
33 @c Use this to search: grep -n '\-\-mew' *.texi
34 @c -item/itemx, text after all (sub/sub)section titles, etc..
35 @c -consider putting the lists of options on pp 17--> etc in columns or
38 @c -continuity of phrasing; ie, bit-field vs bitfield in rtl.texi
39 @c -overfulls. do a search for "mew" in the files, and you will see
40 @c overfulls that i noted but could not deal with.
41 @c -have to add text: beginning of chapter 8
44 @c anything else? --mew 10feb93
46 @macro gcctabopt{body}
49 @macro gccoptlist{body}
54 @c Makeinfo handles the above macro OK, TeX needs manual line breaks;
55 @c they get lost at some point in handling the macro. But if @macro is
56 @c used here rather than @alias, it produces double line breaks.
67 @settitle Using and Porting the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
70 @c seems reasonable to assume at least one of INTERNALS or USING is set...
72 @settitle Using the GNU Compiler Collection
75 @settitle Porting the GNU Compiler Collection
82 @c Use with @@smallbook.
84 @c Cause even numbered pages to be printed on the left hand side of
85 @c the page and odd numbered pages to be printed on the right hand
86 @c side of the page. Using this, you can print on both sides of a
87 @c sheet of paper and have the text on the same part of the sheet.
89 @c The text on right hand pages is pushed towards the right hand
90 @c margin and the text on left hand pages is pushed toward the left
92 @c (To provide the reverse effect, set bindingoffset to -0.75in.)
95 @c \global\bindingoffset=0.75in
96 @c \global\normaloffset =0.75in
100 @dircategory Programming
102 * gcc: (gcc). The GNU Compiler Collection.
106 This file documents the use and the internals of the GNU compiler.
110 This file documents the internals of the GNU compiler.
113 This file documents the use of the GNU compiler.
116 Published by the Free Software Foundation@*
117 59 Temple Place - Suite 330@*
118 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
120 @c When you update the list of years below, search for copyright{} and
121 @c update the other copy too.
122 Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998,
123 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
125 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
126 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
127 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
128 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'' and ``Funding
129 Free Software'', the Front-Cover texts being (a) (see below), and with
130 the Back-Cover Texts being (b) (see below). A copy of the license is
131 included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
133 (a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is:
137 (b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is:
139 You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU
140 software. Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise
141 funds for GNU development.
144 @setchapternewpage odd
149 @center @titlefont{Using and Porting the GNU Compiler Collection}
154 @title Using the GNU Compiler Collection
157 @title Porting the GNU Compiler Collection
160 @center Richard M. Stallman
162 @center Last updated 9 May 2001
164 @c The version number appears five times more in this file.
168 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
169 Copyright @copyright{} 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998,
170 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
172 For GCC Version 3.1@*
174 Published by the Free Software Foundation @*
175 59 Temple Place - Suite 330@*
176 Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA@*
177 Last printed April, 1998.@*
178 Printed copies are available for $50 each.@*
181 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
182 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
183 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
184 Invariant Sections being ``GNU General Public License'', the Front-Cover
185 texts being (a) (see below), and with the Back-Cover Texts being (b)
186 (see below). A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
187 ``GNU Free Documentation License''.
189 (a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is:
193 (b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is:
195 You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU
196 software. Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise
197 funds for GNU development.
201 @node Top, G++ and GCC,, (DIR)
207 This manual documents how to run, install and port the GNU
208 compiler, as well as its new features and incompatibilities, and how to
209 report bugs. It corresponds to GCC version 3.1.
214 This manual documents how to run and install the GNU compiler,
215 as well as its new features and incompatibilities, and how to report
216 bugs. It corresponds to GCC version 3.1.
219 This manual documents how to port the GNU compiler,
220 as well as its new features and incompatibilities, and how to report
221 bugs. It corresponds to GCC version 3.1.
226 * G++ and GCC:: You can compile C or C++ programs.
227 * Standards:: Language standards supported by GCC.
228 * Invoking GCC:: Command options supported by @samp{gcc}.
229 * Installation:: How to configure, compile and install GCC.
230 * C Extensions:: GNU extensions to the C language family.
231 * C++ Extensions:: GNU extensions to the C++ language.
232 * Objective C:: GNU Objective-C runtime features.
233 * Gcov:: gcov: a GCC test coverage program.
234 * Trouble:: If you have trouble installing GCC.
235 * Bugs:: How, why and where to report bugs.
236 * Service:: How to find suppliers of support for GCC.
237 * Contributing:: How to contribute to testing and developing GCC.
238 * VMS:: Using GCC on VMS.
239 * Makefile:: List of Makefile targets.
242 * Portability:: Goals of GCC's portability features.
243 * Interface:: Function-call interface of GCC output.
244 * Passes:: Order of passes, what they do, and what each file is for.
245 * RTL:: The intermediate representation that most passes work on.
246 * Machine Desc:: How to write machine description instruction patterns.
247 * Target Macros:: How to write the machine description C macros.
248 * Config:: Writing the @file{xm-@var{machine}.h} file.
249 * Fragments:: Writing the @file{t-@var{target}} and @file{x-@var{host}} files.
252 * Funding:: How to help assure funding for free software.
253 * GNU/Linux:: Linux and the GNU Project
255 * Copying:: GNU General Public License says
256 how you can copy and share GCC.
257 * GNU Free Documentation License:: How you can copy and share this manual.
258 * Contributors:: People who have contributed to GCC.
260 * Index:: Index of concepts and symbol names.
265 @chapter Compile C, C++, Objective C, Fortran, Java or CHILL
268 Several versions of the compiler (C, C++, Objective C, Fortran, Java
269 and CHILL) are integrated; this is why we use the name
270 ``GNU Compiler Collection''. GCC can compile programs written in any of these
271 languages. The Fortran, CHILL, and Java compilers are described in
275 ``GCC'' is a common shorthand term for the GNU Compiler Collection. This is both
276 the most general name for the compiler, and the name used when the
277 emphasis is on compiling C programs (as the abbreviation formerly
278 stood for ``GNU C Compiler'').
282 When referring to C++ compilation, it is usual to call the compiler
283 ``G++''. Since there is only one compiler, it is also accurate to call
284 it ``GCC'' no matter what the language context; however, the term
285 ``G++'' is more useful when the emphasis is on compiling C++ programs.
287 We use the name ``GCC'' to refer to the compilation system as a
288 whole, and more specifically to the language-independent part of the
289 compiler. For example, we refer to the optimization options as
290 affecting the behavior of ``GCC'' or sometimes just ``the compiler''.
292 Front ends for other languages, such as Ada 95 and Pascal exist but
293 have not yet been integrated into GCC. These front-ends, like that for C++,
294 are built in subdirectories of GCC and link to it. The result is an
295 integrated compiler that can compile programs written in C, C++,
296 Objective C, or any of the languages for which you have installed front
299 In this manual, we only discuss the options for the C, Objective-C, and
300 C++ compilers and those of the GCC core. Consult the documentation
301 of the other front ends for the options to use when compiling programs
302 written in other languages.
304 @cindex compiler compared to C++ preprocessor
305 @cindex intermediate C version, nonexistent
306 @cindex C intermediate output, nonexistent
307 G++ is a @emph{compiler}, not merely a preprocessor. G++ builds object
308 code directly from your C++ program source. There is no intermediate C
309 version of the program. (By contrast, for example, some other
310 implementations use a program that generates a C program from your C++
311 source.) Avoiding an intermediate C representation of the program means
312 that you get better object code, and better debugging information. The
313 GNU debugger, GDB, works with this information in the object code to
314 give you comprehensive C++ source-level editing capabilities
315 (@pxref{C,,C and C++,gdb.info, Debugging with GDB}).
317 @c FIXME! Someone who knows something about Objective C ought to put in
318 @c a paragraph or two about it here, and move the index entry down when
319 @c there is more to point to than the general mention in the 1st par.
322 @chapter Language Standards Supported by GCC
325 @cindex ANSI C standard
329 @cindex ANSI X3.159-1989
331 @cindex ISO C standard
346 @cindex Technical Corrigenda
348 @cindex Technical Corrigendum 1
350 @cindex Technical Corrigendum 2
352 @cindex freestanding implementation
353 @cindex freestanding environment
354 @cindex hosted implementation
355 @cindex hosted environment
356 @findex __STDC_HOSTED__
358 For each language compiled by GCC for which there is a standard, GCC
359 attempts to follow one or more versions of that standard, possibly
360 with some exceptions, and possibly with some extensions.
362 GCC supports three versions of the C standard, although support for
363 the most recent version is not yet complete.
365 The original ANSI C standard (X3.159-1989) was ratified in 1989 and
366 published in 1990. This standard was ratified as an ISO standard
367 (ISO/IEC 9899:1990) later in 1990. There were no technical
368 differences between these publications, although the sections of the
369 ANSI standard were renumbered and became clauses in the ISO standard.
370 This standard, in both its forms, is commonly known as @dfn{C89}, or
371 occasionally as @dfn{C90}, from the dates of ratification. The ANSI
372 standard, but not the ISO standard, also came with a Rationale
373 document. To select this standard in GCC, use one of the options
374 @samp{-ansi}, @samp{-std=c89} or @samp{-std=iso9899:1990}; to obtain
375 all the diagnostics required by the standard, you should also specify
376 @samp{-pedantic} (or @samp{-pedantic-errors} if you want them to be
377 errors rather than warnings). @xref{C Dialect Options,,Options
378 Controlling C Dialect}.
380 Errors in the 1990 ISO C standard were corrected in two Technical
381 Corrigenda published in 1994 and 1996. GCC does not support the
384 An amendment to the 1990 standard was published in 1995. This
385 amendment added digraphs and @code{__STDC_VERSION__} to the language,
386 but otherwise concerned the library. This amendment is commonly known
387 as @dfn{AMD1}; the amended standard is sometimes known as @dfn{C94} or
388 @dfn{C95}. To select this standard in GCC, use the option
389 @samp{-std=iso9899:199409} (with, as for other standard versions,
390 @samp{-pedantic} to receive all required diagnostics).
392 A new edition of the ISO C standard was published in 1999 as ISO/IEC
393 9899:1999, and is commonly known as @dfn{C99}. GCC has incomplete
394 support for this standard version; see
395 @uref{http://gcc.gnu.org/c99status.html} for details. To select this
396 standard, use @samp{-std=c99} or @samp{-std=iso9899:1999}. (While in
397 development, drafts of this standard version were referred to as
400 GCC also has some limited support for traditional (pre-ISO) C with the
401 @samp{-traditional} option. This support may be of use for compiling
402 some very old programs that have not been updated to ISO C, but should
403 not be used for new programs. It will not work with some modern C
404 libraries such as the GNU C library.
406 By default, GCC provides some extensions to the C language that on
407 rare occasions conflict with the C standard. @xref{C
408 Extensions,,Extensions to the C Language Family}. Use of the
409 @samp{-std} options listed above will disable these extensions where
410 they conflict with the C standard version selected. You may also
411 select an extended version of the C language explicitly with
412 @samp{-std=gnu89} (for C89 with GNU extensions) or @samp{-std=gnu99}
413 (for C99 with GNU extensions). The default, if no C language dialect
414 options are given, is @samp{-std=gnu89}; this will change to
415 @samp{-std=gnu99} in some future release when the C99 support is
416 complete. Some features that are part of the C99 standard are
417 accepted as extensions in C89 mode.
419 The ISO C standard defines (in clause 4) two classes of conforming
420 implementation. A @dfn{conforming hosted implementation} supports the
421 whole standard including all the library facilities; a @dfn{conforming
422 freestanding implementation} is only required to provide certain
423 library facilities: those in @code{<float.h>}, @code{<limits.h>},
424 @code{<stdarg.h>}, and @code{<stddef.h>}; since AMD1, also those in
425 @code{<iso646.h>}; and in C99, also those in @code{<stdbool.h>} and
426 @code{<stdint.h>}. In addition, complex types, added in C99, are not
427 required for freestanding implementations. The standard also defines
428 two environments for programs, a @dfn{freestanding environment},
429 required of all implementations and which may not have library
430 facilities beyond those required of freestanding implementations,
431 where the handling of program startup and termination are
432 implementation-defined, and a @dfn{hosted environment}, which is not
433 required, in which all the library facilities are provided and startup
434 is through a function @code{int main (void)} or @code{int main (int,
435 char *[])}. An OS kernel would be a freestanding environment; a
436 program using the facilities of an operating system would normally be
437 in a hosted implementation.
439 GNU CC aims towards being usable as a conforming freestanding
440 implementation, or as the compiler for a conforming hosted
441 implementation. By default, it will act as the compiler for a hosted
442 implementation, defining @code{__STDC_HOSTED__} as @code{1} and
443 presuming that when the names of ISO C functions are used, they have
444 the semantics defined in the standard. To make it act as a conforming
445 freestanding implementation for a freestanding environment, use the
446 option @samp{-ffreestanding}; it will then define
447 @code{__STDC_HOSTED__} to @code{0} and not make assumptions about the
448 meanings of function names from the standard library. To build an OS
449 kernel, you may well still need to make your own arrangements for
450 linking and startup. @xref{C Dialect Options,,Options Controlling C
453 GNU CC does not provide the library facilities required only of hosted
454 implementations, nor yet all the facilities required by C99 of
455 freestanding implementations; to use the facilities of a hosted
456 environment, you will need to find them elsewhere (for example, in the
457 GNU C library). @xref{Standard Libraries,,Standard Libraries}.
459 For references to Technical Corrigenda, Rationale documents and
460 information concerning the history of C that is available online, see
461 @uref{http://gcc.gnu.org/readings.html}
463 @c FIXME: details of C++ standard.
464 @c FIXME: definitions of Java and Objective C.
466 @xref{Language,,The GNU Fortran Language, g77, Using and Porting GNU
467 Fortran}, for details of the Fortran language supported by GCC.
469 @xref{Compatibility,,Compatibility with the Java Platform, gcj, GNU gcj},
470 for details of compatibility between @code{gcj} and the Java Platform.
472 @xref{References,,Language Definition References, chill, GNU Chill},
473 for details of the CHILL standard.
477 @include install.texi
486 @chapter Known Causes of Trouble with GCC
488 @cindex installation trouble
489 @cindex known causes of trouble
491 This section describes known problems that affect users of GCC. Most
492 of these are not GCC bugs per se---if they were, we would fix them.
493 But the result for a user may be like the result of a bug.
495 Some of these problems are due to bugs in other software, some are
496 missing features that are too much work to add, and some are places
497 where people's opinions differ as to what is best.
500 * Actual Bugs:: Bugs we will fix later.
501 * Installation Problems:: Problems that manifest when you install GCC.
502 * Cross-Compiler Problems:: Common problems of cross compiling with GCC.
503 * Interoperation:: Problems using GCC with other compilers,
504 and with certain linkers, assemblers and debuggers.
505 * External Bugs:: Problems compiling certain programs.
506 * Incompatibilities:: GCC is incompatible with traditional C.
507 * Fixed Headers:: GNU C uses corrected versions of system header files.
508 This is necessary, but doesn't always work smoothly.
509 * Standard Libraries:: GNU C uses the system C library, which might not be
510 compliant with the ISO C standard.
511 * Disappointments:: Regrettable things we can't change, but not quite bugs.
512 * C++ Misunderstandings:: Common misunderstandings with GNU C++.
513 * Protoize Caveats:: Things to watch out for when using @code{protoize}.
514 * Non-bugs:: Things we think are right, but some others disagree.
515 * Warnings and Errors:: Which problems in your code get warnings,
516 and which get errors.
520 @section Actual Bugs We Haven't Fixed Yet
524 The @code{fixincludes} script interacts badly with automounters; if the
525 directory of system header files is automounted, it tends to be
526 unmounted while @code{fixincludes} is running. This would seem to be a
527 bug in the automounter. We don't know any good way to work around it.
530 The @code{fixproto} script will sometimes add prototypes for the
531 @code{sigsetjmp} and @code{siglongjmp} functions that reference the
532 @code{jmp_buf} type before that type is defined. To work around this,
533 edit the offending file and place the typedef in front of the
537 When @samp{-pedantic-errors} is specified, GCC will incorrectly give
538 an error message when a function name is specified in an expression
539 involving the comma operator.
542 @node Installation Problems
543 @section Installation Problems
545 This is a list of problems (and some apparent problems which don't
546 really mean anything is wrong) that show up during installation of GNU
551 On certain systems, defining certain environment variables such as
552 @code{CC} can interfere with the functioning of @code{make}.
555 If you encounter seemingly strange errors when trying to build the
556 compiler in a directory other than the source directory, it could be
557 because you have previously configured the compiler in the source
558 directory. Make sure you have done all the necessary preparations.
562 If you build GCC on a BSD system using a directory stored in a System
563 V file system, problems may occur in running @code{fixincludes} if the
564 System V file system doesn't support symbolic links. These problems
565 result in a failure to fix the declaration of @code{size_t} in
566 @file{sys/types.h}. If you find that @code{size_t} is a signed type and
567 that type mismatches occur, this could be the cause.
569 The solution is not to use such a directory for building GCC.
572 Some commands executed when making the compiler may fail (return a
573 non-zero status) and be ignored by @code{make}. These failures, which
574 are often due to files that were not found, are expected, and can safely
578 It is normal to have warnings in compiling certain files about
579 unreachable code and about enumeration type clashes. These files' names
580 begin with @samp{insn-}. Also, @file{real.c} may get some warnings that
584 Sometimes @code{make} recompiles parts of the compiler when installing
585 the compiler. In one case, this was traced down to a bug in
586 @code{make}. Either ignore the problem or switch to GNU Make.
589 On GNU/Linux SLS 1.01, there is a problem with @file{libc.a}: it does not
590 contain the obstack functions. However, GCC assumes that the obstack
591 functions are in @file{libc.a} when it is the GNU C library. To work
592 around this problem, change the @code{__GNU_LIBRARY__} conditional
593 around line 31 to @samp{#if 1}.
596 On SCO systems, when compiling GCC with the system's compiler,
597 do not use @samp{-O}. Some versions of the system's compiler miscompile
600 @cindex @code{genflags}, crash on Sun 4
602 Sometimes on a Sun 4 you may observe a crash in the program
603 @code{genflags} or @code{genoutput} while building GCC. This is said to
604 be due to a bug in @code{sh}. You can probably get around it by running
605 @code{genflags} or @code{genoutput} manually and then retrying the
609 On Solaris 2, executables of GCC version 2.0.2 are commonly
610 available, but they have a bug that shows up when compiling current
611 versions of GCC: undefined symbol errors occur during assembly if you
614 The solution is to compile the current version of GCC without
615 @samp{-g}. That makes a working compiler which you can use to recompile
619 Solaris 2 comes with a number of optional OS packages. Some of these
620 packages are needed to use GCC fully. If you did not install all
621 optional packages when installing Solaris, you will need to verify that
622 the packages that GCC needs are installed.
624 To check whether an optional package is installed, use
625 the @code{pkginfo} command. To add an optional package, use the
626 @code{pkgadd} command. For further details, see the Solaris
629 For Solaris 2.0 and 2.1, GCC needs six packages: @samp{SUNWarc},
630 @samp{SUNWbtool}, @samp{SUNWesu}, @samp{SUNWhea}, @samp{SUNWlibm}, and
633 For Solaris 2.2, GCC needs an additional seventh package: @samp{SUNWsprot}.
636 On Solaris 2, trying to use the linker and other tools in
637 @file{/usr/ucb} to install GCC has been observed to cause trouble.
638 For example, the linker may hang indefinitely. The fix is to remove
639 @file{/usr/ucb} from your @code{PATH}.
642 If you use the 1.31 version of the MIPS assembler (such as was shipped
643 with Ultrix 3.1), you will need to use the -fno-delayed-branch switch
644 when optimizing floating point code. Otherwise, the assembler will
645 complain when the GCC compiler fills a branch delay slot with a
646 floating point instruction, such as @code{add.d}.
649 If on a MIPS system you get an error message saying ``does not have gp
650 sections for all it's [sic] sectons [sic]'', don't worry about it. This
651 happens whenever you use GAS with the MIPS linker, but there is not
652 really anything wrong, and it is okay to use the output file. You can
653 stop such warnings by installing the GNU linker.
655 It would be nice to extend GAS to produce the gp tables, but they are
656 optional, and there should not be a warning about their absence.
659 Users have reported some problems with version 2.0 of the MIPS
660 compiler tools that were shipped with Ultrix 4.1. Version 2.10
661 which came with Ultrix 4.2 seems to work fine.
663 Users have also reported some problems with version 2.20 of the
664 MIPS compiler tools that were shipped with RISC/os 4.x. The earlier
665 version 2.11 seems to work fine.
668 Some versions of the MIPS linker will issue an assertion failure
669 when linking code that uses @code{alloca} against shared
670 libraries on RISC-OS 5.0, and DEC's OSF/1 systems. This is a bug
671 in the linker, that is supposed to be fixed in future revisions.
672 To protect against this, GCC passes @samp{-non_shared} to the
673 linker unless you pass an explicit @samp{-shared} or
674 @samp{-call_shared} switch.
677 On System V release 3, you may get this error message
681 ld fatal: failed to write symbol name @var{something}
682 in strings table for file @var{whatever}
685 This probably indicates that the disk is full or your ULIMIT won't allow
686 the file to be as large as it needs to be.
688 This problem can also result because the kernel parameter @code{MAXUMEM}
689 is too small. If so, you must regenerate the kernel and make the value
690 much larger. The default value is reported to be 1024; a value of 32768
691 is said to work. Smaller values may also work.
694 On System V, if you get an error like this,
697 /usr/local/lib/bison.simple: In function `yyparse':
698 /usr/local/lib/bison.simple:625: virtual memory exhausted
702 that too indicates a problem with disk space, ULIMIT, or @code{MAXUMEM}.
705 Current GCC versions probably do not work on version 2 of the NeXT
709 On NeXTStep 3.0, the Objective C compiler does not work, due,
710 apparently, to a kernel bug that it happens to trigger. This problem
711 does not happen on 3.1.
714 On the Tower models 4@var{n}0 and 6@var{n}0, by default a process is not
715 allowed to have more than one megabyte of memory. GCC cannot compile
716 itself (or many other programs) with @samp{-O} in that much memory.
718 To solve this problem, reconfigure the kernel adding the following line
719 to the configuration file:
726 On HP 9000 series 300 or 400 running HP-UX release 8.0, there is a bug
727 in the assembler that must be fixed before GCC can be built. This
728 bug manifests itself during the first stage of compilation, while
729 building @file{libgcc2.a}:
733 cc1: warning: `-g' option not supported on this version of GCC
734 cc1: warning: `-g1' option not supported on this version of GCC
735 ./xgcc: Internal compiler error: program as got fatal signal 11
738 A patched version of the assembler is available as the file
739 @uref{ftp://altdorf.ai.mit.edu/archive/cph/hpux-8.0-assembler}. If you
740 have HP software support, the patch can also be obtained directly from
741 HP, as described in the following note:
744 This is the patched assembler, to patch SR#1653-010439, where the
745 assembler aborts on floating point constants.
747 The bug is not really in the assembler, but in the shared library
748 version of the function ``cvtnum(3c)''. The bug on ``cvtnum(3c)'' is
749 SR#4701-078451. Anyway, the attached assembler uses the archive
750 library version of ``cvtnum(3c)'' and thus does not exhibit the bug.
753 This patch is also known as PHCO_4484.
756 On HP-UX version 8.05, but not on 8.07 or more recent versions,
757 the @code{fixproto} shell script triggers a bug in the system shell.
758 If you encounter this problem, upgrade your operating system or
759 use BASH (the GNU shell) to run @code{fixproto}.
762 There may be similar problems on System V Release 3.1 on 386 systems.
765 On the Intel Paragon (an i860 machine), if you are using operating
766 system version 1.0, you will get warnings or errors about redefinition
767 of @code{va_arg} when you build GCC.
769 If this happens, then you need to link most programs with the library
770 @file{iclib.a}. You must also modify @file{stdio.h} as follows: before
774 #if defined(__i860__) && !defined(_VA_LIST)
789 extern int vprintf(const char *, va_list );
790 extern int vsprintf(char *, const char *, va_list );
801 These problems don't exist in operating system version 1.1.
804 On the Altos 3068, programs compiled with GCC won't work unless you
805 fix a kernel bug. This happens using system versions V.2.2 1.0gT1 and
806 V.2.2 1.0e and perhaps later versions as well. See the file
810 You will get several sorts of compilation and linking errors on the
811 we32k if you don't follow the special instructions. @xref{Configurations}.
814 A bug in the HP-UX 8.05 (and earlier) shell will cause the fixproto
815 program to report an error of the form:
818 ./fixproto: sh internal 1K buffer overflow
821 To fix this, change the first line of the fixproto script to look like:
828 @node Cross-Compiler Problems
829 @section Cross-Compiler Problems
831 You may run into problems with cross compilation on certain machines,
836 Cross compilation can run into trouble for certain machines because
837 some target machines' assemblers require floating point numbers to be
838 written as @emph{integer} constants in certain contexts.
840 The compiler writes these integer constants by examining the floating
841 point value as an integer and printing that integer, because this is
842 simple to write and independent of the details of the floating point
843 representation. But this does not work if the compiler is running on
844 a different machine with an incompatible floating point format, or
845 even a different byte-ordering.
847 In addition, correct constant folding of floating point values
848 requires representing them in the target machine's format.
849 (The C standard does not quite require this, but in practice
850 it is the only way to win.)
852 It is now possible to overcome these problems by defining macros such
853 as @code{REAL_VALUE_TYPE}. But doing so is a substantial amount of
854 work for each target machine.
856 @xref{Cross-compilation}.
859 @xref{Cross-compilation,,Cross Compilation and Floating Point Format,
860 gcc.info, Using and Porting GCC}.
864 At present, the program @file{mips-tfile} which adds debug
865 support to object files on MIPS systems does not work in a cross
870 @section Interoperation
872 This section lists various difficulties encountered in using GNU C or
873 GNU C++ together with other compilers or with the assemblers, linkers,
874 libraries and debuggers on certain systems.
878 Objective C does not work on the RS/6000.
881 GNU C++ does not do name mangling in the same way as other C++
882 compilers. This means that object files compiled with one compiler
883 cannot be used with another.
885 This effect is intentional, to protect you from more subtle problems.
886 Compilers differ as to many internal details of C++ implementation,
887 including: how class instances are laid out, how multiple inheritance is
888 implemented, and how virtual function calls are handled. If the name
889 encoding were made the same, your programs would link against libraries
890 provided from other compilers---but the programs would then crash when
891 run. Incompatible libraries are then detected at link time, rather than
895 Older GDB versions sometimes fail to read the output of GCC version
896 2. If you have trouble, get GDB version 4.4 or later.
900 DBX rejects some files produced by GCC, though it accepts similar
901 constructs in output from PCC. Until someone can supply a coherent
902 description of what is valid DBX input and what is not, there is
903 nothing I can do about these problems. You are on your own.
906 The GNU assembler (GAS) does not support PIC. To generate PIC code, you
907 must use some other assembler, such as @file{/bin/as}.
910 On some BSD systems, including some versions of Ultrix, use of profiling
911 causes static variable destructors (currently used only in C++) not to
915 Use of @samp{-I/usr/include} may cause trouble.
917 Many systems come with header files that won't work with GCC unless
918 corrected by @code{fixincludes}. The corrected header files go in a new
919 directory; GCC searches this directory before @file{/usr/include}.
920 If you use @samp{-I/usr/include}, this tells GCC to search
921 @file{/usr/include} earlier on, before the corrected headers. The
922 result is that you get the uncorrected header files.
924 Instead, you should use these options (when compiling C programs):
927 -I/usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/@var{target}/@var{version}/include -I/usr/include
930 For C++ programs, GCC also uses a special directory that defines C++
931 interfaces to standard C subroutines. This directory is meant to be
932 searched @emph{before} other standard include directories, so that it
933 takes precedence. If you are compiling C++ programs and specifying
934 include directories explicitly, use this option first, then the two
938 -I/usr/local/lib/g++-include
942 @cindex @code{vfork}, for the Sun-4
944 There is a bug in @code{vfork} on the Sun-4 which causes the registers
945 of the child process to clobber those of the parent. Because of this,
946 programs that call @code{vfork} are likely to lose when compiled
947 optimized with GCC when the child code alters registers which contain
948 C variables in the parent. This affects variables which are live in the
949 parent across the call to @code{vfork}.
951 If you encounter this, you can work around the problem by declaring
952 variables @code{volatile} in the function that calls @code{vfork}, until
953 the problem goes away, or by not declaring them @code{register} and not
954 using @samp{-O} for those source files.
958 On some SGI systems, when you use @samp{-lgl_s} as an option,
959 it gets translated magically to @samp{-lgl_s -lX11_s -lc_s}.
960 Naturally, this does not happen when you use GCC.
961 You must specify all three options explicitly.
964 On a Sparc, GCC aligns all values of type @code{double} on an 8-byte
965 boundary, and it expects every @code{double} to be so aligned. The Sun
966 compiler usually gives @code{double} values 8-byte alignment, with one
967 exception: function arguments of type @code{double} may not be aligned.
969 As a result, if a function compiled with Sun CC takes the address of an
970 argument of type @code{double} and passes this pointer of type
971 @code{double *} to a function compiled with GCC, dereferencing the
972 pointer may cause a fatal signal.
974 One way to solve this problem is to compile your entire program with GNU
975 CC. Another solution is to modify the function that is compiled with
976 Sun CC to copy the argument into a local variable; local variables
977 are always properly aligned. A third solution is to modify the function
978 that uses the pointer to dereference it via the following function
979 @code{access_double} instead of directly with @samp{*}:
983 access_double (double *unaligned_ptr)
985 union d2i @{ double d; int i[2]; @};
987 union d2i *p = (union d2i *) unaligned_ptr;
998 Storing into the pointer can be done likewise with the same union.
1001 On Solaris, the @code{malloc} function in the @file{libmalloc.a} library
1002 may allocate memory that is only 4 byte aligned. Since GCC on the
1003 Sparc assumes that doubles are 8 byte aligned, this may result in a
1004 fatal signal if doubles are stored in memory allocated by the
1005 @file{libmalloc.a} library.
1007 The solution is to not use the @file{libmalloc.a} library. Use instead
1008 @code{malloc} and related functions from @file{libc.a}; they do not have
1012 Sun forgot to include a static version of @file{libdl.a} with some
1013 versions of SunOS (mainly 4.1). This results in undefined symbols when
1014 linking static binaries (that is, if you use @samp{-static}). If you
1015 see undefined symbols @code{_dlclose}, @code{_dlsym} or @code{_dlopen}
1016 when linking, compile and link against the file
1017 @file{mit/util/misc/dlsym.c} from the MIT version of X windows.
1020 The 128-bit long double format that the Sparc port supports currently
1021 works by using the architecturally defined quad-word floating point
1022 instructions. Since there is no hardware that supports these
1023 instructions they must be emulated by the operating system. Long
1024 doubles do not work in Sun OS versions 4.0.3 and earlier, because the
1025 kernel emulator uses an obsolete and incompatible format. Long doubles
1026 do not work in Sun OS version 4.1.1 due to a problem in a Sun library.
1027 Long doubles do work on Sun OS versions 4.1.2 and higher, but GCC
1028 does not enable them by default. Long doubles appear to work in Sun OS
1032 On HP-UX version 9.01 on the HP PA, the HP compiler @code{cc} does not
1033 compile GCC correctly. We do not yet know why. However, GCC
1034 compiled on earlier HP-UX versions works properly on HP-UX 9.01 and can
1035 compile itself properly on 9.01.
1038 On the HP PA machine, ADB sometimes fails to work on functions compiled
1039 with GCC. Specifically, it fails to work on functions that use
1040 @code{alloca} or variable-size arrays. This is because GCC doesn't
1041 generate HP-UX unwind descriptors for such functions. It may even be
1042 impossible to generate them.
1045 Debugging (@samp{-g}) is not supported on the HP PA machine, unless you use
1046 the preliminary GNU tools (@pxref{Installation}).
1049 Taking the address of a label may generate errors from the HP-UX
1050 PA assembler. GAS for the PA does not have this problem.
1053 Using floating point parameters for indirect calls to static functions
1054 will not work when using the HP assembler. There simply is no way for GCC
1055 to specify what registers hold arguments for static functions when using
1056 the HP assembler. GAS for the PA does not have this problem.
1059 In extremely rare cases involving some very large functions you may
1060 receive errors from the HP linker complaining about an out of bounds
1061 unconditional branch offset. This used to occur more often in previous
1062 versions of GCC, but is now exceptionally rare. If you should run
1063 into it, you can work around by making your function smaller.
1066 GCC compiled code sometimes emits warnings from the HP-UX assembler of
1070 (warning) Use of GR3 when
1071 frame >= 8192 may cause conflict.
1074 These warnings are harmless and can be safely ignored.
1077 The current version of the assembler (@file{/bin/as}) for the RS/6000
1078 has certain problems that prevent the @samp{-g} option in GCC from
1079 working. Note that @file{Makefile.in} uses @samp{-g} by default when
1080 compiling @file{libgcc2.c}.
1082 IBM has produced a fixed version of the assembler. The upgraded
1083 assembler unfortunately was not included in any of the AIX 3.2 update
1084 PTF releases (3.2.2, 3.2.3, or 3.2.3e). Users of AIX 3.1 should request
1085 PTF U403044 from IBM and users of AIX 3.2 should request PTF U416277.
1086 See the file @file{README.RS6000} for more details on these updates.
1088 You can test for the presence of a fixed assembler by using the
1096 If the command exits normally, the assembler fix already is installed.
1097 If the assembler complains that "-u" is an unknown flag, you need to
1101 On the IBM RS/6000, compiling code of the form
1112 will cause the linker to report an undefined symbol @code{foo}.
1113 Although this behavior differs from most other systems, it is not a
1114 bug because redefining an @code{extern} variable as @code{static}
1115 is undefined in ISO C.
1118 AIX on the RS/6000 provides support (NLS) for environments outside of
1119 the United States. Compilers and assemblers use NLS to support
1120 locale-specific representations of various objects including
1121 floating-point numbers ("." vs "," for separating decimal fractions).
1122 There have been problems reported where the library linked with GCC does
1123 not produce the same floating-point formats that the assembler accepts.
1124 If you have this problem, set the LANG environment variable to "C" or
1128 Even if you specify @samp{-fdollars-in-identifiers},
1129 you cannot successfully use @samp{$} in identifiers on the RS/6000 due
1130 to a restriction in the IBM assembler. GAS supports these
1134 On the RS/6000, XLC version 1.3.0.0 will miscompile @file{jump.c}. XLC
1135 version 1.3.0.1 or later fixes this problem. You can obtain XLC-1.3.0.2
1136 by requesting PTF 421749 from IBM.
1139 There is an assembler bug in versions of DG/UX prior to 5.4.2.01 that
1140 occurs when the @samp{fldcr} instruction is used. GCC uses
1141 @samp{fldcr} on the 88100 to serialize volatile memory references. Use
1142 the option @samp{-mno-serialize-volatile} if your version of the
1143 assembler has this bug.
1146 On VMS, GAS versions 1.38.1 and earlier may cause spurious warning
1147 messages from the linker. These warning messages complain of mismatched
1148 psect attributes. You can ignore them. @xref{VMS Install}.
1151 On NewsOS version 3, if you include both of the files @file{stddef.h}
1152 and @file{sys/types.h}, you get an error because there are two typedefs
1153 of @code{size_t}. You should change @file{sys/types.h} by adding these
1154 lines around the definition of @code{size_t}:
1159 @var{actual typedef here}
1165 On the Alliant, the system's own convention for returning structures
1166 and unions is unusual, and is not compatible with GCC no matter
1167 what options are used.
1172 On the IBM RT PC, the MetaWare HighC compiler (hc) uses a different
1173 convention for structure and union returning. Use the option
1174 @samp{-mhc-struct-return} to tell GCC to use a convention compatible
1177 @cindex Vax calling convention
1178 @cindex Ultrix calling convention
1180 On Ultrix, the Fortran compiler expects registers 2 through 5 to be saved
1181 by function calls. However, the C compiler uses conventions compatible
1182 with BSD Unix: registers 2 through 5 may be clobbered by function calls.
1184 GCC uses the same convention as the Ultrix C compiler. You can use
1185 these options to produce code compatible with the Fortran compiler:
1188 -fcall-saved-r2 -fcall-saved-r3 -fcall-saved-r4 -fcall-saved-r5
1192 On the WE32k, you may find that programs compiled with GCC do not
1193 work with the standard shared C library. You may need to link with
1194 the ordinary C compiler. If you do so, you must specify the following
1198 -L/usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/we32k-att-sysv/2.8.1 -lgcc -lc_s
1201 The first specifies where to find the library @file{libgcc.a}
1202 specified with the @samp{-lgcc} option.
1204 GCC does linking by invoking @code{ld}, just as @code{cc} does, and
1205 there is no reason why it @emph{should} matter which compilation program
1206 you use to invoke @code{ld}. If someone tracks this problem down,
1207 it can probably be fixed easily.
1210 On the Alpha, you may get assembler errors about invalid syntax as a
1211 result of floating point constants. This is due to a bug in the C
1212 library functions @code{ecvt}, @code{fcvt} and @code{gcvt}. Given valid
1213 floating point numbers, they sometimes print @samp{NaN}.
1216 On Irix 4.0.5F (and perhaps in some other versions), an assembler bug
1217 sometimes reorders instructions incorrectly when optimization is turned
1218 on. If you think this may be happening to you, try using the GNU
1219 assembler; GAS version 2.1 supports ECOFF on Irix.
1221 Or use the @samp{-noasmopt} option when you compile GCC with itself,
1222 and then again when you compile your program. (This is a temporary
1223 kludge to turn off assembler optimization on Irix.) If this proves to
1224 be what you need, edit the assembler spec in the file @file{specs} so
1225 that it unconditionally passes @samp{-O0} to the assembler, and never
1226 passes @samp{-O2} or @samp{-O3}.
1230 @section Problems Compiling Certain Programs
1232 @c prevent bad page break with this line
1233 Certain programs have problems compiling.
1237 Parse errors may occur compiling X11 on a Decstation running Ultrix 4.2
1238 because of problems in DEC's versions of the X11 header files
1239 @file{X11/Xlib.h} and @file{X11/Xutil.h}. People recommend adding
1240 @samp{-I/usr/include/mit} to use the MIT versions of the header files,
1241 using the @samp{-traditional} switch to turn off ISO C, or fixing the
1242 header files by adding this:
1246 #define NeedFunctionPrototypes 0
1251 On various 386 Unix systems derived from System V, including SCO, ISC,
1252 and ESIX, you may get error messages about running out of virtual memory
1253 while compiling certain programs.
1255 You can prevent this problem by linking GCC with the GNU malloc
1256 (which thus replaces the malloc that comes with the system). GNU malloc
1257 is available as a separate package, and also in the file
1258 @file{src/gmalloc.c} in the GNU Emacs 19 distribution.
1260 If you have installed GNU malloc as a separate library package, use this
1261 option when you relink GCC:
1264 MALLOC=/usr/local/lib/libgmalloc.a
1267 Alternatively, if you have compiled @file{gmalloc.c} from Emacs 19, copy
1268 the object file to @file{gmalloc.o} and use this option when you relink
1276 @node Incompatibilities
1277 @section Incompatibilities of GCC
1278 @cindex incompatibilities of GCC
1280 There are several noteworthy incompatibilities between GNU C and K&R
1281 (non-ISO) versions of C. The @samp{-traditional} option
1282 eliminates many of these incompatibilities, @emph{but not all}, by
1283 telling GNU C to behave like a K&R C compiler.
1286 @cindex string constants
1287 @cindex read-only strings
1288 @cindex shared strings
1290 GCC normally makes string constants read-only. If several
1291 identical-looking string constants are used, GCC stores only one
1294 @cindex @code{mktemp}, and constant strings
1295 One consequence is that you cannot call @code{mktemp} with a string
1296 constant argument. The function @code{mktemp} always alters the
1297 string its argument points to.
1299 @cindex @code{sscanf}, and constant strings
1300 @cindex @code{fscanf}, and constant strings
1301 @cindex @code{scanf}, and constant strings
1302 Another consequence is that @code{sscanf} does not work on some systems
1303 when passed a string constant as its format control string or input.
1304 This is because @code{sscanf} incorrectly tries to write into the string
1305 constant. Likewise @code{fscanf} and @code{scanf}.
1307 The best solution to these problems is to change the program to use
1308 @code{char}-array variables with initialization strings for these
1309 purposes instead of string constants. But if this is not possible,
1310 you can use the @samp{-fwritable-strings} flag, which directs GCC
1311 to handle string constants the same way most C compilers do.
1312 @samp{-traditional} also has this effect, among others.
1315 @code{-2147483648} is positive.
1317 This is because 2147483648 cannot fit in the type @code{int}, so
1318 (following the ISO C rules) its data type is @code{unsigned long int}.
1319 Negating this value yields 2147483648 again.
1322 GCC does not substitute macro arguments when they appear inside of
1323 string constants. For example, the following macro in GCC
1330 will produce output @code{"a"} regardless of what the argument @var{a} is.
1332 The @samp{-traditional} option directs GCC to handle such cases
1333 (among others) in the old-fashioned (non-ISO) fashion.
1335 @cindex @code{setjmp} incompatibilities
1336 @cindex @code{longjmp} incompatibilities
1338 When you use @code{setjmp} and @code{longjmp}, the only automatic
1339 variables guaranteed to remain valid are those declared
1340 @code{volatile}. This is a consequence of automatic register
1341 allocation. Consider this function:
1355 /* @r{@code{longjmp (j)} may occur in @code{fun3}.} */
1360 Here @code{a} may or may not be restored to its first value when the
1361 @code{longjmp} occurs. If @code{a} is allocated in a register, then
1362 its first value is restored; otherwise, it keeps the last value stored
1365 If you use the @samp{-W} option with the @samp{-O} option, you will
1366 get a warning when GCC thinks such a problem might be possible.
1368 The @samp{-traditional} option directs GNU C to put variables in
1369 the stack by default, rather than in registers, in functions that
1370 call @code{setjmp}. This results in the behavior found in
1371 traditional C compilers.
1374 Programs that use preprocessing directives in the middle of macro
1375 arguments do not work with GCC. For example, a program like this
1384 ISO C does not permit such a construct. It would make sense to support
1385 it when @samp{-traditional} is used, but it is too much work to
1389 K&R compilers allow comments to cross over an inclusion boundary (i.e.
1390 started in an include file and ended in the including file). I think
1391 this would be quite ugly and can't imagine it could be needed.
1393 @cindex external declaration scope
1394 @cindex scope of external declarations
1395 @cindex declaration scope
1397 Declarations of external variables and functions within a block apply
1398 only to the block containing the declaration. In other words, they
1399 have the same scope as any other declaration in the same place.
1401 In some other C compilers, a @code{extern} declaration affects all the
1402 rest of the file even if it happens within a block.
1404 The @samp{-traditional} option directs GNU C to treat all @code{extern}
1405 declarations as global, like traditional compilers.
1408 In traditional C, you can combine @code{long}, etc., with a typedef name,
1413 typedef long foo bar;
1416 In ISO C, this is not allowed: @code{long} and other type modifiers
1417 require an explicit @code{int}. Because this criterion is expressed
1418 by Bison grammar rules rather than C code, the @samp{-traditional}
1419 flag cannot alter it.
1421 @cindex typedef names as function parameters
1423 PCC allows typedef names to be used as function parameters. The
1424 difficulty described immediately above applies here too.
1427 When in @samp{-traditional} mode, GCC allows the following erroneous
1428 pair of declarations to appear together in a given scope:
1436 GCC treats all characters of identifiers as significant, even when in
1437 @samp{-traditional} mode. According to K&R-1 (2.2), ``No more than the
1438 first eight characters are significant, although more may be used.''.
1439 Also according to K&R-1 (2.2), ``An identifier is a sequence of letters
1440 and digits; the first character must be a letter. The underscore _
1441 counts as a letter.'', but GCC also allows dollar signs in identifiers.
1445 PCC allows whitespace in the middle of compound assignment operators
1446 such as @samp{+=}. GCC, following the ISO standard, does not
1447 allow this. The difficulty described immediately above applies here
1453 GCC complains about unterminated character constants inside of
1454 preprocessing conditionals that fail. Some programs have English
1455 comments enclosed in conditionals that are guaranteed to fail; if these
1456 comments contain apostrophes, GCC will probably report an error. For
1457 example, this code would produce an error:
1461 You can't expect this to work.
1465 The best solution to such a problem is to put the text into an actual
1466 C comment delimited by @samp{/*@dots{}*/}. However,
1467 @samp{-traditional} suppresses these error messages.
1470 Many user programs contain the declaration @samp{long time ();}. In the
1471 past, the system header files on many systems did not actually declare
1472 @code{time}, so it did not matter what type your program declared it to
1473 return. But in systems with ISO C headers, @code{time} is declared to
1474 return @code{time_t}, and if that is not the same as @code{long}, then
1475 @samp{long time ();} is erroneous.
1477 The solution is to change your program to use appropriate system headers
1478 (@code{<time.h>} on systems with ISO C headers) and not to declare
1479 @code{time} if the system header files declare it, or failing that to
1480 use @code{time_t} as the return type of @code{time}.
1482 @cindex @code{float} as function value type
1484 When compiling functions that return @code{float}, PCC converts it to
1485 a double. GCC actually returns a @code{float}. If you are concerned
1486 with PCC compatibility, you should declare your functions to return
1487 @code{double}; you might as well say what you mean.
1492 When compiling functions that return structures or unions, GCC
1493 output code normally uses a method different from that used on most
1494 versions of Unix. As a result, code compiled with GCC cannot call
1495 a structure-returning function compiled with PCC, and vice versa.
1497 The method used by GCC is as follows: a structure or union which is
1498 1, 2, 4 or 8 bytes long is returned like a scalar. A structure or union
1499 with any other size is stored into an address supplied by the caller
1500 (usually in a special, fixed register, but on some machines it is passed
1501 on the stack). The machine-description macros @code{STRUCT_VALUE} and
1502 @code{STRUCT_INCOMING_VALUE} tell GCC where to pass this address.
1504 By contrast, PCC on most target machines returns structures and unions
1505 of any size by copying the data into an area of static storage, and then
1506 returning the address of that storage as if it were a pointer value.
1507 The caller must copy the data from that memory area to the place where
1508 the value is wanted. GCC does not use this method because it is
1509 slower and nonreentrant.
1511 On some newer machines, PCC uses a reentrant convention for all
1512 structure and union returning. GCC on most of these machines uses a
1513 compatible convention when returning structures and unions in memory,
1514 but still returns small structures and unions in registers.
1516 You can tell GCC to use a compatible convention for all structure and
1517 union returning with the option @samp{-fpcc-struct-return}.
1519 @cindex preprocessing tokens
1520 @cindex preprocessing numbers
1522 GNU C complains about program fragments such as @samp{0x74ae-0x4000}
1523 which appear to be two hexadecimal constants separated by the minus
1524 operator. Actually, this string is a single @dfn{preprocessing token}.
1525 Each such token must correspond to one token in C. Since this does not,
1526 GNU C prints an error message. Although it may appear obvious that what
1527 is meant is an operator and two values, the ISO C standard specifically
1528 requires that this be treated as erroneous.
1530 A @dfn{preprocessing token} is a @dfn{preprocessing number} if it
1531 begins with a digit and is followed by letters, underscores, digits,
1532 periods and @samp{e+}, @samp{e-}, @samp{E+}, @samp{E-}, @samp{p+},
1533 @samp{p-}, @samp{P+}, or @samp{P-} character sequences. (In strict C89
1534 mode, the sequences @samp{p+}, @samp{p-}, @samp{P+} and @samp{P-} cannot
1535 appear in preprocessing numbers.)
1537 To make the above program fragment valid, place whitespace in front of
1538 the minus sign. This whitespace will end the preprocessing number.
1542 @section Fixed Header Files
1544 GCC needs to install corrected versions of some system header files.
1545 This is because most target systems have some header files that won't
1546 work with GCC unless they are changed. Some have bugs, some are
1547 incompatible with ISO C, and some depend on special features of other
1550 Installing GCC automatically creates and installs the fixed header
1551 files, by running a program called @code{fixincludes} (or for certain
1552 targets an alternative such as @code{fixinc.svr4}). Normally, you
1553 don't need to pay attention to this. But there are cases where it
1554 doesn't do the right thing automatically.
1558 If you update the system's header files, such as by installing a new
1559 system version, the fixed header files of GCC are not automatically
1560 updated. The easiest way to update them is to reinstall GCC. (If
1561 you want to be clever, look in the makefile and you can find a
1565 On some systems, in particular SunOS 4, header file directories contain
1566 machine-specific symbolic links in certain places. This makes it
1567 possible to share most of the header files among hosts running the
1568 same version of SunOS 4 on different machine models.
1570 The programs that fix the header files do not understand this special
1571 way of using symbolic links; therefore, the directory of fixed header
1572 files is good only for the machine model used to build it.
1574 In SunOS 4, only programs that look inside the kernel will notice the
1575 difference between machine models. Therefore, for most purposes, you
1576 need not be concerned about this.
1578 It is possible to make separate sets of fixed header files for the
1579 different machine models, and arrange a structure of symbolic links so
1580 as to use the proper set, but you'll have to do this by hand.
1583 On Lynxos, GCC by default does not fix the header files. This is
1584 because bugs in the shell cause the @code{fixincludes} script to fail.
1586 This means you will encounter problems due to bugs in the system header
1587 files. It may be no comfort that they aren't GCC's fault, but it
1588 does mean that there's nothing for us to do about them.
1591 @node Standard Libraries
1592 @section Standard Libraries
1594 GCC by itself attempts to be a conforming freestanding implementation.
1595 @xref{Standards,,Language Standards Supported by GCC}, for details of
1596 what this means. Beyond the library facilities required of such an
1597 implementation, the rest of the C library is supplied by the vendor of
1598 the operating system. If that C library doesn't conform to the C
1599 standards, then your programs might get warnings (especially when using
1600 @samp{-Wall}) that you don't expect.
1602 For example, the @code{sprintf} function on SunOS 4.1.3 returns
1603 @code{char *} while the C standard says that @code{sprintf} returns an
1604 @code{int}. The @code{fixincludes} program could make the prototype for
1605 this function match the Standard, but that would be wrong, since the
1606 function will still return @code{char *}.
1608 If you need a Standard compliant library, then you need to find one, as
1609 GCC does not provide one. The GNU C library (called @code{glibc})
1610 provides ISO C, POSIX, BSD, SystemV and X/Open compatibility for
1611 GNU/Linux and HURD-based GNU systems; no recent version of it supports
1612 other systems, though some very old versions did. Version 2.2 of the
1613 GNU C library includes nearly complete C99 support. You could also ask
1614 your operating system vendor if newer libraries are available.
1616 @node Disappointments
1617 @section Disappointments and Misunderstandings
1619 These problems are perhaps regrettable, but we don't know any practical
1624 Certain local variables aren't recognized by debuggers when you compile
1627 This occurs because sometimes GCC optimizes the variable out of
1628 existence. There is no way to tell the debugger how to compute the
1629 value such a variable ``would have had'', and it is not clear that would
1630 be desirable anyway. So GCC simply does not mention the eliminated
1631 variable when it writes debugging information.
1633 You have to expect a certain amount of disagreement between the
1634 executable and your source code, when you use optimization.
1636 @cindex conflicting types
1637 @cindex scope of declaration
1639 Users often think it is a bug when GCC reports an error for code
1643 int foo (struct mumble *);
1645 struct mumble @{ @dots{} @};
1647 int foo (struct mumble *x)
1651 This code really is erroneous, because the scope of @code{struct
1652 mumble} in the prototype is limited to the argument list containing it.
1653 It does not refer to the @code{struct mumble} defined with file scope
1654 immediately below---they are two unrelated types with similar names in
1657 But in the definition of @code{foo}, the file-scope type is used
1658 because that is available to be inherited. Thus, the definition and
1659 the prototype do not match, and you get an error.
1661 This behavior may seem silly, but it's what the ISO standard specifies.
1662 It is easy enough for you to make your code work by moving the
1663 definition of @code{struct mumble} above the prototype. It's not worth
1664 being incompatible with ISO C just to avoid an error for the example
1668 Accesses to bitfields even in volatile objects works by accessing larger
1669 objects, such as a byte or a word. You cannot rely on what size of
1670 object is accessed in order to read or write the bitfield; it may even
1671 vary for a given bitfield according to the precise usage.
1673 If you care about controlling the amount of memory that is accessed, use
1674 volatile but do not use bitfields.
1677 GCC comes with shell scripts to fix certain known problems in system
1678 header files. They install corrected copies of various header files in
1679 a special directory where only GCC will normally look for them. The
1680 scripts adapt to various systems by searching all the system header
1681 files for the problem cases that we know about.
1683 If new system header files are installed, nothing automatically arranges
1684 to update the corrected header files. You will have to reinstall GCC
1685 to fix the new header files. More specifically, go to the build
1686 directory and delete the files @file{stmp-fixinc} and
1687 @file{stmp-headers}, and the subdirectory @code{include}; then do
1688 @samp{make install} again.
1691 @cindex floating point precision
1692 On 68000 and x86 systems, for instance, you can get paradoxical results
1693 if you test the precise values of floating point numbers. For example,
1694 you can find that a floating point value which is not a NaN is not equal
1695 to itself. This results from the fact that the floating point registers
1696 hold a few more bits of precision than fit in a @code{double} in memory.
1697 Compiled code moves values between memory and floating point registers
1698 at its convenience, and moving them into memory truncates them.
1700 You can partially avoid this problem by using the @samp{-ffloat-store}
1701 option (@pxref{Optimize Options}).
1704 On the MIPS, variable argument functions using @file{varargs.h}
1705 cannot have a floating point value for the first argument. The
1706 reason for this is that in the absence of a prototype in scope,
1707 if the first argument is a floating point, it is passed in a
1708 floating point register, rather than an integer register.
1710 If the code is rewritten to use the ISO standard @file{stdarg.h}
1711 method of variable arguments, and the prototype is in scope at
1712 the time of the call, everything will work fine.
1715 On the H8/300 and H8/300H, variable argument functions must be
1716 implemented using the ISO standard @file{stdarg.h} method of
1717 variable arguments. Furthermore, calls to functions using @file{stdarg.h}
1718 variable arguments must have a prototype for the called function
1719 in scope at the time of the call.
1722 @node C++ Misunderstandings
1723 @section Common Misunderstandings with GNU C++
1725 @cindex misunderstandings in C++
1726 @cindex surprises in C++
1727 @cindex C++ misunderstandings
1728 C++ is a complex language and an evolving one, and its standard
1729 definition (the ISO C++ standard) was only recently completed. As a
1730 result, your C++ compiler may occasionally surprise you, even when its
1731 behavior is correct. This section discusses some areas that frequently
1732 give rise to questions of this sort.
1735 * Static Definitions:: Static member declarations are not definitions
1736 * Temporaries:: Temporaries may vanish before you expect
1737 * Copy Assignment:: Copy Assignment operators copy virtual bases twice
1740 @node Static Definitions
1741 @subsection Declare @emph{and} Define Static Members
1743 @cindex C++ static data, declaring and defining
1744 @cindex static data in C++, declaring and defining
1745 @cindex declaring static data in C++
1746 @cindex defining static data in C++
1747 When a class has static data members, it is not enough to @emph{declare}
1748 the static member; you must also @emph{define} it. For example:
1759 This declaration only establishes that the class @code{Foo} has an
1760 @code{int} named @code{Foo::bar}, and a member function named
1761 @code{Foo::method}. But you still need to define @emph{both}
1762 @code{method} and @code{bar} elsewhere. According to the ISO
1763 standard, you must supply an initializer in one (and only one) source
1770 Other C++ compilers may not correctly implement the standard behavior.
1771 As a result, when you switch to @code{g++} from one of these compilers,
1772 you may discover that a program that appeared to work correctly in fact
1773 does not conform to the standard: @code{g++} reports as undefined
1774 symbols any static data members that lack definitions.
1777 @subsection Temporaries May Vanish Before You Expect
1779 @cindex temporaries, lifetime of
1780 @cindex portions of temporary objects, pointers to
1781 It is dangerous to use pointers or references to @emph{portions} of a
1782 temporary object. The compiler may very well delete the object before
1783 you expect it to, leaving a pointer to garbage. The most common place
1784 where this problem crops up is in classes like string classes,
1785 especially ones that define a conversion function to type @code{char *}
1786 or @code{const char *} -- which is one reason why the standard
1787 @code{string} class requires you to call the @code{c_str} member
1788 function. However, any class that returns a pointer to some internal
1789 structure is potentially subject to this problem.
1791 For example, a program may use a function @code{strfunc} that returns
1792 @code{string} objects, and another function @code{charfunc} that
1793 operates on pointers to @code{char}:
1797 void charfunc (const char *);
1802 const char *p = strfunc().c_str();
1811 In this situation, it may seem reasonable to save a pointer to the C
1812 string returned by the @code{c_str} member function and use that rather
1813 than call @code{c_str} repeatedly. However, the temporary string
1814 created by the call to @code{strfunc} is destroyed after @code{p} is
1815 initialized, at which point @code{p} is left pointing to freed memory.
1817 Code like this may run successfully under some other compilers,
1818 particularly obsolete cfront-based compilers that delete temporaries
1819 along with normal local variables. However, the GNU C++ behavior is
1820 standard-conforming, so if your program depends on late destruction of
1821 temporaries it is not portable.
1823 The safe way to write such code is to give the temporary a name, which
1824 forces it to remain until the end of the scope of the name. For
1828 string& tmp = strfunc ();
1829 charfunc (tmp.c_str ());
1832 @node Copy Assignment
1833 @subsection Implicit Copy-Assignment for Virtual Bases
1835 When a base class is virtual, only one subobject of the base class
1836 belongs to each full object. Also, the constructors and destructors are
1837 invoked only once, and called from the most-derived class. However, such
1838 objects behave unspecified when being assigned. For example:
1843 Base(char *n) : name(strdup(n))@{@}
1844 Base& operator= (const Base& other)@{
1846 name = strdup (other.name);
1850 struct A:virtual Base@{
1855 struct B:virtual Base@{
1860 struct Derived:public A, public B@{
1861 Derived():Base("Derived")@{@}
1864 void func(Derived &d1, Derived &d2)
1870 The C++ standard specifies that @samp{Base::Base} is only called once
1871 when constructing or copy-constructing a Derived object. It is
1872 unspecified whether @samp{Base::operator=} is called more than once when
1873 the implicit copy-assignment for Derived objects is invoked (as it is
1874 inside @samp{func} in the example).
1876 g++ implements the "intuitive" algorithm for copy-assignment: assign all
1877 direct bases, then assign all members. In that algorithm, the virtual
1878 base subobject can be encountered many times. In the example, copying
1879 proceeds in the following order: @samp{val}, @samp{name} (via
1880 @code{strdup}), @samp{bval}, and @samp{name} again.
1882 If application code relies on copy-assignment, a user-defined
1883 copy-assignment operator removes any uncertainties. With such an
1884 operator, the application can define whether and how the virtual base
1885 subobject is assigned.
1887 @node Protoize Caveats
1888 @section Caveats of using @code{protoize}
1890 The conversion programs @code{protoize} and @code{unprotoize} can
1891 sometimes change a source file in a way that won't work unless you
1896 @code{protoize} can insert references to a type name or type tag before
1897 the definition, or in a file where they are not defined.
1899 If this happens, compiler error messages should show you where the new
1900 references are, so fixing the file by hand is straightforward.
1903 There are some C constructs which @code{protoize} cannot figure out.
1904 For example, it can't determine argument types for declaring a
1905 pointer-to-function variable; this you must do by hand. @code{protoize}
1906 inserts a comment containing @samp{???} each time it finds such a
1907 variable; so you can find all such variables by searching for this
1908 string. ISO C does not require declaring the argument types of
1909 pointer-to-function types.
1912 Using @code{unprotoize} can easily introduce bugs. If the program
1913 relied on prototypes to bring about conversion of arguments, these
1914 conversions will not take place in the program without prototypes.
1915 One case in which you can be sure @code{unprotoize} is safe is when
1916 you are removing prototypes that were made with @code{protoize}; if
1917 the program worked before without any prototypes, it will work again
1920 You can find all the places where this problem might occur by compiling
1921 the program with the @samp{-Wconversion} option. It prints a warning
1922 whenever an argument is converted.
1925 Both conversion programs can be confused if there are macro calls in and
1926 around the text to be converted. In other words, the standard syntax
1927 for a declaration or definition must not result from expanding a macro.
1928 This problem is inherent in the design of C and cannot be fixed. If
1929 only a few functions have confusing macro calls, you can easily convert
1933 @code{protoize} cannot get the argument types for a function whose
1934 definition was not actually compiled due to preprocessing conditionals.
1935 When this happens, @code{protoize} changes nothing in regard to such
1936 a function. @code{protoize} tries to detect such instances and warn
1939 You can generally work around this problem by using @code{protoize} step
1940 by step, each time specifying a different set of @samp{-D} options for
1941 compilation, until all of the functions have been converted. There is
1942 no automatic way to verify that you have got them all, however.
1945 Confusion may result if there is an occasion to convert a function
1946 declaration or definition in a region of source code where there is more
1947 than one formal parameter list present. Thus, attempts to convert code
1948 containing multiple (conditionally compiled) versions of a single
1949 function header (in the same vicinity) may not produce the desired (or
1952 If you plan on converting source files which contain such code, it is
1953 recommended that you first make sure that each conditionally compiled
1954 region of source code which contains an alternative function header also
1955 contains at least one additional follower token (past the final right
1956 parenthesis of the function header). This should circumvent the
1960 @code{unprotoize} can become confused when trying to convert a function
1961 definition or declaration which contains a declaration for a
1962 pointer-to-function formal argument which has the same name as the
1963 function being defined or declared. We recommend you avoid such choices
1964 of formal parameter names.
1967 You might also want to correct some of the indentation by hand and break
1968 long lines. (The conversion programs don't write lines longer than
1969 eighty characters in any case.)
1973 @section Certain Changes We Don't Want to Make
1975 This section lists changes that people frequently request, but which
1976 we do not make because we think GCC is better without them.
1980 Checking the number and type of arguments to a function which has an
1981 old-fashioned definition and no prototype.
1983 Such a feature would work only occasionally---only for calls that appear
1984 in the same file as the called function, following the definition. The
1985 only way to check all calls reliably is to add a prototype for the
1986 function. But adding a prototype eliminates the motivation for this
1987 feature. So the feature is not worthwhile.
1990 Warning about using an expression whose type is signed as a shift count.
1992 Shift count operands are probably signed more often than unsigned.
1993 Warning about this would cause far more annoyance than good.
1996 Warning about assigning a signed value to an unsigned variable.
1998 Such assignments must be very common; warning about them would cause
1999 more annoyance than good.
2002 Warning when a non-void function value is ignored.
2004 Coming as I do from a Lisp background, I balk at the idea that there is
2005 something dangerous about discarding a value. There are functions that
2006 return values which some callers may find useful; it makes no sense to
2007 clutter the program with a cast to @code{void} whenever the value isn't
2011 Making @samp{-fshort-enums} the default.
2013 This would cause storage layout to be incompatible with most other C
2014 compilers. And it doesn't seem very important, given that you can get
2015 the same result in other ways. The case where it matters most is when
2016 the enumeration-valued object is inside a structure, and in that case
2017 you can specify a field width explicitly.
2020 Making bitfields unsigned by default on particular machines where ``the
2021 ABI standard'' says to do so.
2023 The ISO C standard leaves it up to the implementation whether a bitfield
2024 declared plain @code{int} is signed or not. This in effect creates two
2025 alternative dialects of C.
2027 The GNU C compiler supports both dialects; you can specify the signed
2028 dialect with @samp{-fsigned-bitfields} and the unsigned dialect with
2029 @samp{-funsigned-bitfields}. However, this leaves open the question of
2030 which dialect to use by default.
2032 Currently, the preferred dialect makes plain bitfields signed, because
2033 this is simplest. Since @code{int} is the same as @code{signed int} in
2034 every other context, it is cleanest for them to be the same in bitfields
2037 Some computer manufacturers have published Application Binary Interface
2038 standards which specify that plain bitfields should be unsigned. It is
2039 a mistake, however, to say anything about this issue in an ABI. This is
2040 because the handling of plain bitfields distinguishes two dialects of C.
2041 Both dialects are meaningful on every type of machine. Whether a
2042 particular object file was compiled using signed bitfields or unsigned
2043 is of no concern to other object files, even if they access the same
2044 bitfields in the same data structures.
2046 A given program is written in one or the other of these two dialects.
2047 The program stands a chance to work on most any machine if it is
2048 compiled with the proper dialect. It is unlikely to work at all if
2049 compiled with the wrong dialect.
2051 Many users appreciate the GNU C compiler because it provides an
2052 environment that is uniform across machines. These users would be
2053 inconvenienced if the compiler treated plain bitfields differently on
2056 Occasionally users write programs intended only for a particular machine
2057 type. On these occasions, the users would benefit if the GNU C compiler
2058 were to support by default the same dialect as the other compilers on
2059 that machine. But such applications are rare. And users writing a
2060 program to run on more than one type of machine cannot possibly benefit
2061 from this kind of compatibility.
2063 This is why GCC does and will treat plain bitfields in the same
2064 fashion on all types of machines (by default).
2066 There are some arguments for making bitfields unsigned by default on all
2067 machines. If, for example, this becomes a universal de facto standard,
2068 it would make sense for GCC to go along with it. This is something
2069 to be considered in the future.
2071 (Of course, users strongly concerned about portability should indicate
2072 explicitly in each bitfield whether it is signed or not. In this way,
2073 they write programs which have the same meaning in both C dialects.)
2076 Undefining @code{__STDC__} when @samp{-ansi} is not used.
2078 Currently, GCC defines @code{__STDC__} as long as you don't use
2079 @samp{-traditional}. This provides good results in practice.
2081 Programmers normally use conditionals on @code{__STDC__} to ask whether
2082 it is safe to use certain features of ISO C, such as function
2083 prototypes or ISO token concatenation. Since plain @samp{gcc} supports
2084 all the features of ISO C, the correct answer to these questions is
2087 Some users try to use @code{__STDC__} to check for the availability of
2088 certain library facilities. This is actually incorrect usage in an ISO
2089 C program, because the ISO C standard says that a conforming
2090 freestanding implementation should define @code{__STDC__} even though it
2091 does not have the library facilities. @samp{gcc -ansi -pedantic} is a
2092 conforming freestanding implementation, and it is therefore required to
2093 define @code{__STDC__}, even though it does not come with an ISO C
2096 Sometimes people say that defining @code{__STDC__} in a compiler that
2097 does not completely conform to the ISO C standard somehow violates the
2098 standard. This is illogical. The standard is a standard for compilers
2099 that claim to support ISO C, such as @samp{gcc -ansi}---not for other
2100 compilers such as plain @samp{gcc}. Whatever the ISO C standard says
2101 is relevant to the design of plain @samp{gcc} without @samp{-ansi} only
2102 for pragmatic reasons, not as a requirement.
2104 GCC normally defines @code{__STDC__} to be 1, and in addition
2105 defines @code{__STRICT_ANSI__} if you specify the @option{-ansi} option,
2106 or a @option{-std} option for strict conformance to some version of ISO C.
2107 On some hosts, system include files use a different convention, where
2108 @code{__STDC__} is normally 0, but is 1 if the user specifies strict
2109 conformance to the C Standard. GCC follows the host convention when
2110 processing system include files, but when processing user files it follows
2111 the usual GNU C convention.
2114 Undefining @code{__STDC__} in C++.
2116 Programs written to compile with C++-to-C translators get the
2117 value of @code{__STDC__} that goes with the C compiler that is
2118 subsequently used. These programs must test @code{__STDC__}
2119 to determine what kind of C preprocessor that compiler uses:
2120 whether they should concatenate tokens in the ISO C fashion
2121 or in the traditional fashion.
2123 These programs work properly with GNU C++ if @code{__STDC__} is defined.
2124 They would not work otherwise.
2126 In addition, many header files are written to provide prototypes in ISO
2127 C but not in traditional C. Many of these header files can work without
2128 change in C++ provided @code{__STDC__} is defined. If @code{__STDC__}
2129 is not defined, they will all fail, and will all need to be changed to
2130 test explicitly for C++ as well.
2133 Deleting ``empty'' loops.
2135 Historically, GCC has not deleted ``empty'' loops under the
2136 assumption that the most likely reason you would put one in a program is
2137 to have a delay, so deleting them will not make real programs run any
2140 However, the rationale here is that optimization of a nonempty loop
2141 cannot produce an empty one, which holds for C but is not always the
2144 Moreover, with @samp{-funroll-loops} small ``empty'' loops are already
2145 removed, so the current behavior is both sub-optimal and inconsistent
2146 and will change in the future.
2149 Making side effects happen in the same order as in some other compiler.
2151 @cindex side effects, order of evaluation
2152 @cindex order of evaluation, side effects
2153 It is never safe to depend on the order of evaluation of side effects.
2154 For example, a function call like this may very well behave differently
2155 from one compiler to another:
2158 void func (int, int);
2164 There is no guarantee (in either the C or the C++ standard language
2165 definitions) that the increments will be evaluated in any particular
2166 order. Either increment might happen first. @code{func} might get the
2167 arguments @samp{2, 3}, or it might get @samp{3, 2}, or even @samp{2, 2}.
2170 Not allowing structures with volatile fields in registers.
2172 Strictly speaking, there is no prohibition in the ISO C standard
2173 against allowing structures with volatile fields in registers, but
2174 it does not seem to make any sense and is probably not what you wanted
2175 to do. So the compiler will give an error message in this case.
2178 Making certain warnings into errors by default.
2180 Some ISO C testsuites report failure when the compiler does not produce
2181 an error message for a certain program.
2183 ISO C requires a ``diagnostic'' message for certain kinds of invalid
2184 programs, but a warning is defined by GCC to count as a diagnostic. If
2185 GCC produces a warning but not an error, that is correct ISO C support.
2186 If test suites call this ``failure'', they should be run with the GCC
2187 option @samp{-pedantic-errors}, which will turn these warnings into
2192 @node Warnings and Errors
2193 @section Warning Messages and Error Messages
2195 @cindex error messages
2196 @cindex warnings vs errors
2197 @cindex messages, warning and error
2198 The GNU compiler can produce two kinds of diagnostics: errors and
2199 warnings. Each kind has a different purpose:
2203 @emph{Errors} report problems that make it impossible to compile your
2204 program. GCC reports errors with the source file name and line
2205 number where the problem is apparent.
2208 @emph{Warnings} report other unusual conditions in your code that
2209 @emph{may} indicate a problem, although compilation can (and does)
2210 proceed. Warning messages also report the source file name and line
2211 number, but include the text @samp{warning:} to distinguish them
2212 from error messages.
2215 Warnings may indicate danger points where you should check to make sure
2216 that your program really does what you intend; or the use of obsolete
2217 features; or the use of nonstandard features of GNU C or C++. Many
2218 warnings are issued only if you ask for them, with one of the @samp{-W}
2219 options (for instance, @samp{-Wall} requests a variety of useful
2222 GCC always tries to compile your program if possible; it never
2223 gratuitously rejects a program whose meaning is clear merely because
2224 (for instance) it fails to conform to a standard. In some cases,
2225 however, the C and C++ standards specify that certain extensions are
2226 forbidden, and a diagnostic @emph{must} be issued by a conforming
2227 compiler. The @samp{-pedantic} option tells GCC to issue warnings in
2228 such cases; @samp{-pedantic-errors} says to make them errors instead.
2229 This does not mean that @emph{all} non-ISO constructs get warnings
2232 @xref{Warning Options,,Options to Request or Suppress Warnings}, for
2233 more detail on these and related command-line options.
2236 @chapter Reporting Bugs
2238 @cindex reporting bugs
2240 Your bug reports play an essential role in making GCC reliable.
2242 When you encounter a problem, the first thing to do is to see if it is
2243 already known. @xref{Trouble}. If it isn't known, then you should
2246 Reporting a bug may help you by bringing a solution to your problem, or
2247 it may not. (If it does not, look in the service directory; see
2248 @ref{Service}.) In any case, the principal function of a bug report is
2249 to help the entire community by making the next version of GCC work
2250 better. Bug reports are your contribution to the maintenance of GCC.
2252 Since the maintainers are very overloaded, we cannot respond to every
2253 bug report. However, if the bug has not been fixed, we are likely to
2254 send you a patch and ask you to tell us whether it works.
2256 In order for a bug report to serve its purpose, you must include the
2257 information that makes for fixing the bug.
2260 * Criteria: Bug Criteria. Have you really found a bug?
2261 * Where: Bug Lists. Where to send your bug report.
2262 * Reporting: Bug Reporting. How to report a bug effectively.
2263 * GNATS: gccbug. You can use a bug reporting tool.
2264 * Patches: Sending Patches. How to send a patch for GCC.
2265 * Known: Trouble. Known problems.
2266 * Help: Service. Where to ask for help.
2269 @node Bug Criteria,Bug Lists,,Bugs
2270 @section Have You Found a Bug?
2271 @cindex bug criteria
2273 If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines:
2276 @cindex fatal signal
2279 If the compiler gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is a
2280 compiler bug. Reliable compilers never crash.
2282 @cindex invalid assembly code
2283 @cindex assembly code, invalid
2285 If the compiler produces invalid assembly code, for any input whatever
2286 (except an @code{asm} statement), that is a compiler bug, unless the
2287 compiler reports errors (not just warnings) which would ordinarily
2288 prevent the assembler from being run.
2290 @cindex undefined behavior
2291 @cindex undefined function value
2292 @cindex increment operators
2294 If the compiler produces valid assembly code that does not correctly
2295 execute the input source code, that is a compiler bug.
2297 However, you must double-check to make sure, because you may have run
2298 into an incompatibility between GNU C and traditional C
2299 (@pxref{Incompatibilities}). These incompatibilities might be considered
2300 bugs, but they are inescapable consequences of valuable features.
2302 Or you may have a program whose behavior is undefined, which happened
2303 by chance to give the desired results with another C or C++ compiler.
2305 For example, in many nonoptimizing compilers, you can write @samp{x;}
2306 at the end of a function instead of @samp{return x;}, with the same
2307 results. But the value of the function is undefined if @code{return}
2308 is omitted; it is not a bug when GCC produces different results.
2310 Problems often result from expressions with two increment operators,
2311 as in @code{f (*p++, *p++)}. Your previous compiler might have
2312 interpreted that expression the way you intended; GCC might
2313 interpret it another way. Neither compiler is wrong. The bug is
2316 After you have localized the error to a single source line, it should
2317 be easy to check for these things. If your program is correct and
2318 well defined, you have found a compiler bug.
2321 If the compiler produces an error message for valid input, that is a
2324 @cindex invalid input
2326 If the compiler does not produce an error message for invalid input,
2327 that is a compiler bug. However, you should note that your idea of
2328 ``invalid input'' might be my idea of ``an extension'' or ``support
2329 for traditional practice''.
2332 If you are an experienced user of one of the languages GCC supports, your
2333 suggestions for improvement of GCC are welcome in any case.
2336 @node Bug Lists,Bug Reporting,Bug Criteria,Bugs
2337 @section Where to Report Bugs
2338 @cindex bug report mailing lists
2339 @kindex gcc-bugs@@gcc.gnu.org or bug-gcc@@gnu.org
2340 Send bug reports for the GNU Compiler Collection to
2341 @email{gcc-bugs@@gcc.gnu.org}. In accordance with the GNU-wide
2342 convention, in which bug reports for tool ``foo'' are sent
2343 to @samp{bug-foo@@gnu.org}, the address @email{bug-gcc@@gnu.org}
2344 may also be used; it will forward to the address given above.
2346 Please read @uref{http://gcc.gnu.org/bugs.html} for additional and/or
2347 more up-to-date bug reporting instructions before you post a bug report.
2349 @node Bug Reporting,gccbug,Bug Lists,Bugs
2350 @section How to Report Bugs
2351 @cindex compiler bugs, reporting
2353 The fundamental principle of reporting bugs usefully is this:
2354 @strong{report all the facts}. If you are not sure whether to state a
2355 fact or leave it out, state it!
2357 Often people omit facts because they think they know what causes the
2358 problem and they conclude that some details don't matter. Thus, you might
2359 assume that the name of the variable you use in an example does not matter.
2360 Well, probably it doesn't, but one cannot be sure. Perhaps the bug is a
2361 stray memory reference which happens to fetch from the location where that
2362 name is stored in memory; perhaps, if the name were different, the contents
2363 of that location would fool the compiler into doing the right thing despite
2364 the bug. Play it safe and give a specific, complete example. That is the
2365 easiest thing for you to do, and the most helpful.
2367 Keep in mind that the purpose of a bug report is to enable someone to
2368 fix the bug if it is not known. It isn't very important what happens if
2369 the bug is already known. Therefore, always write your bug reports on
2370 the assumption that the bug is not known.
2372 Sometimes people give a few sketchy facts and ask, ``Does this ring a
2373 bell?'' This cannot help us fix a bug, so it is basically useless. We
2374 respond by asking for enough details to enable us to investigate.
2375 You might as well expedite matters by sending them to begin with.
2377 Try to make your bug report self-contained. If we have to ask you for
2378 more information, it is best if you include all the previous information
2379 in your response, as well as the information that was missing.
2381 Please report each bug in a separate message. This makes it easier for
2382 us to track which bugs have been fixed and to forward your bugs reports
2383 to the appropriate maintainer.
2385 To enable someone to investigate the bug, you should include all these
2390 The version of GCC. You can get this by running it with the
2393 Without this, we won't know whether there is any point in looking for
2394 the bug in the current version of GCC.
2397 A complete input file that will reproduce the bug. If the bug is in the
2398 C preprocessor, send a source file and any header files that it
2399 requires. If the bug is in the compiler proper (@file{cc1}), send the
2400 preprocessor output generated by adding @samp{-save-temps} to the
2401 compilation command (@pxref{Debugging Options}). When you do this, use
2402 the same @samp{-I}, @samp{-D} or @samp{-U} options that you used in
2403 actual compilation. Then send the @var{input}.i or @var{input}.ii files
2406 A single statement is not enough of an example. In order to compile it,
2407 it must be embedded in a complete file of compiler input; and the bug
2408 might depend on the details of how this is done.
2410 Without a real example one can compile, all anyone can do about your bug
2411 report is wish you luck. It would be futile to try to guess how to
2412 provoke the bug. For example, bugs in register allocation and reloading
2413 frequently depend on every little detail of the function they happen in.
2415 Even if the input file that fails comes from a GNU program, you should
2416 still send the complete test case. Don't ask the GCC maintainers to
2417 do the extra work of obtaining the program in question---they are all
2418 overworked as it is. Also, the problem may depend on what is in the
2419 header files on your system; it is unreliable for the GCC maintainers
2420 to try the problem with the header files available to them. By sending
2421 CPP output, you can eliminate this source of uncertainty and save us
2422 a certain percentage of wild goose chases.
2425 The command arguments you gave GCC to compile that example
2426 and observe the bug. For example, did you use @samp{-O}? To guarantee
2427 you won't omit something important, list all the options.
2429 If we were to try to guess the arguments, we would probably guess wrong
2430 and then we would not encounter the bug.
2433 The type of machine you are using, and the operating system name and
2437 The operands you gave to the @code{configure} command when you installed
2441 A complete list of any modifications you have made to the compiler
2442 source. (We don't promise to investigate the bug unless it happens in
2443 an unmodified compiler. But if you've made modifications and don't tell
2444 us, then you are sending us on a wild goose chase.)
2446 Be precise about these changes. A description in English is not
2447 enough---send a context diff for them.
2449 Adding files of your own (such as a machine description for a machine we
2450 don't support) is a modification of the compiler source.
2453 Details of any other deviations from the standard procedure for installing
2457 A description of what behavior you observe that you believe is
2458 incorrect. For example, ``The compiler gets a fatal signal,'' or,
2459 ``The assembler instruction at line 208 in the output is incorrect.''
2461 Of course, if the bug is that the compiler gets a fatal signal, then one
2462 can't miss it. But if the bug is incorrect output, the maintainer might
2463 not notice unless it is glaringly wrong. None of us has time to study
2464 all the assembler code from a 50-line C program just on the chance that
2465 one instruction might be wrong. We need @emph{you} to do this part!
2467 Even if the problem you experience is a fatal signal, you should still
2468 say so explicitly. Suppose something strange is going on, such as, your
2469 copy of the compiler is out of synch, or you have encountered a bug in
2470 the C library on your system. (This has happened!) Your copy might
2471 crash and the copy here would not. If you @i{said} to expect a crash,
2472 then when the compiler here fails to crash, we would know that the bug
2473 was not happening. If you don't say to expect a crash, then we would
2474 not know whether the bug was happening. We would not be able to draw
2475 any conclusion from our observations.
2477 If the problem is a diagnostic when compiling GCC with some other
2478 compiler, say whether it is a warning or an error.
2480 Often the observed symptom is incorrect output when your program is run.
2481 Sad to say, this is not enough information unless the program is short
2482 and simple. None of us has time to study a large program to figure out
2483 how it would work if compiled correctly, much less which line of it was
2484 compiled wrong. So you will have to do that. Tell us which source line
2485 it is, and what incorrect result happens when that line is executed. A
2486 person who understands the program can find this as easily as finding a
2487 bug in the program itself.
2490 If you send examples of assembler code output from GCC,
2491 please use @samp{-g} when you make them. The debugging information
2492 includes source line numbers which are essential for correlating the
2493 output with the input.
2496 If you wish to mention something in the GCC source, refer to it by
2497 context, not by line number.
2499 The line numbers in the development sources don't match those in your
2500 sources. Your line numbers would convey no useful information to the
2504 Additional information from a debugger might enable someone to find a
2505 problem on a machine which he does not have available. However, you
2506 need to think when you collect this information if you want it to have
2507 any chance of being useful.
2509 @cindex backtrace for bug reports
2510 For example, many people send just a backtrace, but that is never
2511 useful by itself. A simple backtrace with arguments conveys little
2512 about GCC because the compiler is largely data-driven; the same
2513 functions are called over and over for different RTL insns, doing
2514 different things depending on the details of the insn.
2516 Most of the arguments listed in the backtrace are useless because they
2517 are pointers to RTL list structure. The numeric values of the
2518 pointers, which the debugger prints in the backtrace, have no
2519 significance whatever; all that matters is the contents of the objects
2520 they point to (and most of the contents are other such pointers).
2522 In addition, most compiler passes consist of one or more loops that
2523 scan the RTL insn sequence. The most vital piece of information about
2524 such a loop---which insn it has reached---is usually in a local variable,
2528 What you need to provide in addition to a backtrace are the values of
2529 the local variables for several stack frames up. When a local
2530 variable or an argument is an RTX, first print its value and then use
2531 the GDB command @code{pr} to print the RTL expression that it points
2532 to. (If GDB doesn't run on your machine, use your debugger to call
2533 the function @code{debug_rtx} with the RTX as an argument.) In
2534 general, whenever a variable is a pointer, its value is no use
2535 without the data it points to.
2538 Here are some things that are not necessary:
2542 A description of the envelope of the bug.
2544 Often people who encounter a bug spend a lot of time investigating
2545 which changes to the input file will make the bug go away and which
2546 changes will not affect it.
2548 This is often time consuming and not very useful, because the way we
2549 will find the bug is by running a single example under the debugger with
2550 breakpoints, not by pure deduction from a series of examples. You might
2551 as well save your time for something else.
2553 Of course, if you can find a simpler example to report @emph{instead} of
2554 the original one, that is a convenience. Errors in the output will be
2555 easier to spot, running under the debugger will take less time, etc.
2556 Most GCC bugs involve just one function, so the most straightforward
2557 way to simplify an example is to delete all the function definitions
2558 except the one where the bug occurs. Those earlier in the file may be
2559 replaced by external declarations if the crucial function depends on
2560 them. (Exception: inline functions may affect compilation of functions
2561 defined later in the file.)
2563 However, simplification is not vital; if you don't want to do this,
2564 report the bug anyway and send the entire test case you used.
2567 In particular, some people insert conditionals @samp{#ifdef BUG} around
2568 a statement which, if removed, makes the bug not happen. These are just
2569 clutter; we won't pay any attention to them anyway. Besides, you should
2570 send us cpp output, and that can't have conditionals.
2573 A patch for the bug.
2575 A patch for the bug is useful if it is a good one. But don't omit the
2576 necessary information, such as the test case, on the assumption that a
2577 patch is all we need. We might see problems with your patch and decide
2578 to fix the problem another way, or we might not understand it at all.
2580 Sometimes with a program as complicated as GCC it is very hard to
2581 construct an example that will make the program follow a certain path
2582 through the code. If you don't send the example, we won't be able to
2583 construct one, so we won't be able to verify that the bug is fixed.
2585 And if we can't understand what bug you are trying to fix, or why your
2586 patch should be an improvement, we won't install it. A test case will
2587 help us to understand.
2589 @xref{Sending Patches}, for guidelines on how to make it easy for us to
2590 understand and install your patches.
2593 A guess about what the bug is or what it depends on.
2595 Such guesses are usually wrong. Even I can't guess right about such
2596 things without first using the debugger to find the facts.
2601 We have no way of examining a core dump for your type of machine
2602 unless we have an identical system---and if we do have one,
2603 we should be able to reproduce the crash ourselves.
2606 @node gccbug,Sending Patches, Bug Reporting, Bugs
2607 @section The gccbug script
2608 @cindex gccbug script
2610 To simplify creation of bug reports, and to allow better tracking of
2611 reports, we use the GNATS bug tracking system. Part of that system is
2612 the @code{gccbug} script. This is a Unix shell script, so you need a
2613 shell to run it. It is normally installed in the same directory where
2614 @code{gcc} is installed.
2616 The gccbug script is derived from send-pr, @pxref{using
2617 send-pr,,Creating new Problem Reports,send-pr,Reporting Problems}. When
2618 invoked, it starts a text editor so you can fill out the various fields
2619 of the report. When the you quit the editor, the report is automatically
2620 send to the bug reporting address.
2622 A number of fields in this bug report form are specific to GCC, and are
2627 @cindex @code{Category} field
2628 @cindex @code{>Category:}
2630 The category of a GCC problem can be one of the following:
2634 A problem with the C compiler proper.
2638 A problem with the C++ compiler.
2642 A problem with the Fortran 77.
2645 A problem with the Java compiler.
2648 A problem with the Objective C compiler.
2651 A problem with the C++ standard library.
2654 A problem with the Fortran 77 library.
2657 A problem with the Objective C library.
2660 The problem occurs only when generating optimized code.
2663 The problem occurs only when generating code for debugging.
2666 The problem is specific to the target architecture.
2669 The problem is independent from target architecture and programming
2673 It is a problem in some other part of the GCC software.
2676 There is a problem with the GCC home page.
2680 @cindex @code{Class} field
2681 @cindex @code{>Class:}
2683 The class of a problem can be one of the following:
2686 @cindex @emph{doc-bug} class
2688 A problem with the documentation.
2690 @cindex @emph{accepts-illegal} class
2691 @item accepts-illegal
2692 GCC fails to reject erroneous code.
2694 @cindex @emph{rejects-legal} class
2696 GCC gives an error message for correct code.
2698 @cindex @emph{wrong-code} class
2700 The machine code generated by gcc is incorrect.
2702 @cindex @emph{ice-on-legal-code} class
2703 @item ice-on-legal-code
2704 GCC gives an Internal Compiler Error (ICE) for correct code.
2706 @cindex @emph{ice-on-illegal-code} class
2707 @item ice-on-illegal-code
2708 GCC gives an ICE instead of reporting an error
2710 @cindex @emph{pessimizes-code} class
2711 @item pessimizes-code
2712 GCC misses an important optimization opportunity.
2714 @cindex @emph{sw-bug} class
2716 A general product problem. (@samp{sw} stands for ``software''.)
2718 @cindex @emph{change-request} class
2719 @item change-request
2720 A request for a change in behavior, etc.
2722 @cindex @emph{support} class
2724 A support problem or question.
2726 @cindex @emph{duplicate} class
2727 @item duplicate (@var{pr-number})
2728 Duplicate PR. @var{pr-number} should be the number of the original PR.
2731 The default is @samp{sw-bug}.
2737 @node Sending Patches,, gccbug, Bugs
2738 @section Sending Patches for GCC
2740 If you would like to write bug fixes or improvements for the GNU C
2741 compiler, that is very helpful. Send suggested fixes to the patches
2742 mailing list, @email{gcc-patches@@gcc.gnu.org}.
2744 Please follow these guidelines so we can study your patches efficiently.
2745 If you don't follow these guidelines, your information might still be
2746 useful, but using it will take extra work. Maintaining GNU C is a lot
2747 of work in the best of circumstances, and we can't keep up unless you do
2752 Send an explanation with your changes of what problem they fix or what
2753 improvement they bring about. For a bug fix, just include a copy of the
2754 bug report, and explain why the change fixes the bug.
2756 (Referring to a bug report is not as good as including it, because then
2757 we will have to look it up, and we have probably already deleted it if
2758 we've already fixed the bug.)
2761 Always include a proper bug report for the problem you think you have
2762 fixed. We need to convince ourselves that the change is right before
2763 installing it. Even if it is right, we might have trouble judging it if
2764 we don't have a way to reproduce the problem.
2767 Include all the comments that are appropriate to help people reading the
2768 source in the future understand why this change was needed.
2771 Don't mix together changes made for different reasons.
2772 Send them @emph{individually}.
2774 If you make two changes for separate reasons, then we might not want to
2775 install them both. We might want to install just one. If you send them
2776 all jumbled together in a single set of diffs, we have to do extra work
2777 to disentangle them---to figure out which parts of the change serve
2778 which purpose. If we don't have time for this, we might have to ignore
2779 your changes entirely.
2781 If you send each change as soon as you have written it, with its own
2782 explanation, then the two changes never get tangled up, and we can
2783 consider each one properly without any extra work to disentangle them.
2785 Ideally, each change you send should be impossible to subdivide into
2786 parts that we might want to consider separately, because each of its
2787 parts gets its motivation from the other parts.
2790 Send each change as soon as that change is finished. Sometimes people
2791 think they are helping us by accumulating many changes to send them all
2792 together. As explained above, this is absolutely the worst thing you
2795 Since you should send each change separately, you might as well send it
2796 right away. That gives us the option of installing it immediately if it
2800 Use @samp{diff -c} to make your diffs. Diffs without context are hard
2801 for us to install reliably. More than that, they make it hard for us to
2802 study the diffs to decide whether we want to install them. Unidiff
2803 format is better than contextless diffs, but not as easy to read as
2806 If you have GNU diff, use @samp{diff -cp}, which shows the name of the
2807 function that each change occurs in.
2810 Write the change log entries for your changes. We get lots of changes,
2811 and we don't have time to do all the change log writing ourselves.
2813 Read the @file{ChangeLog} file to see what sorts of information to put
2814 in, and to learn the style that we use. The purpose of the change log
2815 is to show people where to find what was changed. So you need to be
2816 specific about what functions you changed; in large functions, it's
2817 often helpful to indicate where within the function the change was.
2819 On the other hand, once you have shown people where to find the change,
2820 you need not explain its purpose. Thus, if you add a new function, all
2821 you need to say about it is that it is new. If you feel that the
2822 purpose needs explaining, it probably does---but the explanation will be
2823 much more useful if you put it in comments in the code.
2825 If you would like your name to appear in the header line for who made
2826 the change, send us the header line.
2829 When you write the fix, keep in mind that we can't install a change that
2830 would break other systems.
2832 People often suggest fixing a problem by changing machine-independent
2833 files such as @file{toplev.c} to do something special that a particular
2834 system needs. Sometimes it is totally obvious that such changes would
2835 break GCC for almost all users. We can't possibly make a change like
2836 that. At best it might tell us how to write another patch that would
2837 solve the problem acceptably.
2839 Sometimes people send fixes that @emph{might} be an improvement in
2840 general---but it is hard to be sure of this. It's hard to install
2841 such changes because we have to study them very carefully. Of course,
2842 a good explanation of the reasoning by which you concluded the change
2843 was correct can help convince us.
2845 The safest changes are changes to the configuration files for a
2846 particular machine. These are safe because they can't create new bugs
2849 Please help us keep up with the workload by designing the patch in a
2850 form that is good to install.
2854 @chapter How To Get Help with GCC
2856 If you need help installing, using or changing GCC, there are two
2861 Send a message to a suitable network mailing list. First try
2862 @email{gcc-help@@gcc.gnu.org} (for help installing or using GCC), and if
2863 that brings no response, try @email{gcc@@gcc.gnu.org}. For help
2864 changing GCC, ask @email{gcc@@gcc.gnu.org}. If you think you have found
2865 a bug in GCC, please report it following the instructions at
2866 @pxref{Bug Reporting}.
2869 Look in the service directory for someone who might help you for a fee.
2870 The service directory is found at
2871 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/prep/service.html}.
2874 @c For further information, see
2875 @c @uref{http://gcc.gnu.org/cgi-bin/fom.cgi?file=12}.
2876 @c FIXME: this URL may be too volatile, this FAQ entry needs to move to
2877 @c the regular web pages before we can uncomment the reference.
2880 @chapter Contributing to GCC Development
2882 If you would like to help pretest GCC releases to assure they work well,
2883 our current development sources are available by CVS (see
2884 @uref{http://gcc.gnu.org/cvs.html}). Source and binary snapshots are
2885 also available for FTP; see @uref{http://gcc.gnu.org/snapshots.html}.
2887 If you would like to work on improvements to GCC, please read
2888 @uref{http://gcc.gnu.org/contribute.html} and
2889 @uref{http://gcc.gnu.org/contributewhy.html} for information on how to
2890 make useful contributions and avoid duplication of effort. Suggested
2891 projects are listed at @uref{http://gcc.gnu.org/projects/}.
2894 @chapter Using GCC on VMS
2896 @c prevent bad page break with this line
2897 Here is how to use GCC on VMS.
2900 * Include Files and VMS:: Where the preprocessor looks for the include files.
2901 * Global Declarations:: How to do globaldef, globalref and globalvalue with
2903 * VMS Misc:: Misc information.
2906 @node Include Files and VMS
2907 @section Include Files and VMS
2909 @cindex include files and VMS
2910 @cindex VMS and include files
2911 @cindex header files and VMS
2912 Due to the differences between the filesystems of Unix and VMS, GCC
2913 attempts to translate file names in @samp{#include} into names that VMS
2914 will understand. The basic strategy is to prepend a prefix to the
2915 specification of the include file, convert the whole filename to a VMS
2916 filename, and then try to open the file. GCC tries various prefixes
2917 one by one until one of them succeeds:
2921 The first prefix is the @samp{GNU_CC_INCLUDE:} logical name: this is
2922 where GNU C header files are traditionally stored. If you wish to store
2923 header files in non-standard locations, then you can assign the logical
2924 @samp{GNU_CC_INCLUDE} to be a search list, where each element of the
2925 list is suitable for use with a rooted logical.
2928 The next prefix tried is @samp{SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSLIB.]}. This is where
2929 VAX-C header files are traditionally stored.
2932 If the include file specification by itself is a valid VMS filename, the
2933 preprocessor then uses this name with no prefix in an attempt to open
2937 If the file specification is not a valid VMS filename (i.e. does not
2938 contain a device or a directory specifier, and contains a @samp{/}
2939 character), the preprocessor tries to convert it from Unix syntax to
2942 Conversion works like this: the first directory name becomes a device,
2943 and the rest of the directories are converted into VMS-format directory
2944 names. For example, the name @file{X11/foobar.h} is
2945 translated to @file{X11:[000000]foobar.h} or @file{X11:foobar.h},
2946 whichever one can be opened. This strategy allows you to assign a
2947 logical name to point to the actual location of the header files.
2950 If none of these strategies succeeds, the @samp{#include} fails.
2953 Include directives of the form:
2960 are a common source of incompatibility between VAX-C and GCC. VAX-C
2961 treats this much like a standard @code{#include <foobar.h>} directive.
2962 That is incompatible with the ISO C behavior implemented by GCC: to
2963 expand the name @code{foobar} as a macro. Macro expansion should
2964 eventually yield one of the two standard formats for @code{#include}:
2967 #include "@var{file}"
2968 #include <@var{file}>
2971 If you have this problem, the best solution is to modify the source to
2972 convert the @code{#include} directives to one of the two standard forms.
2973 That will work with either compiler. If you want a quick and dirty fix,
2974 define the file names as macros with the proper expansion, like this:
2977 #define stdio <stdio.h>
2981 This will work, as long as the name doesn't conflict with anything else
2984 Another source of incompatibility is that VAX-C assumes that:
2991 is actually asking for the file @file{foobar.h}. GCC does not
2992 make this assumption, and instead takes what you ask for literally;
2993 it tries to read the file @file{foobar}. The best way to avoid this
2994 problem is to always specify the desired file extension in your include
2997 GCC for VMS is distributed with a set of include files that is
2998 sufficient to compile most general purpose programs. Even though the
2999 GCC distribution does not contain header files to define constants
3000 and structures for some VMS system-specific functions, there is no
3001 reason why you cannot use GCC with any of these functions. You first
3002 may have to generate or create header files, either by using the public
3003 domain utility @code{UNSDL} (which can be found on a DECUS tape), or by
3004 extracting the relevant modules from one of the system macro libraries,
3005 and using an editor to construct a C header file.
3007 A @code{#include} file name cannot contain a DECNET node name. The
3008 preprocessor reports an I/O error if you attempt to use a node name,
3009 whether explicitly, or implicitly via a logical name.
3011 @node Global Declarations
3012 @section Global Declarations and VMS
3016 @findex GLOBALVALUEDEF
3017 @findex GLOBALVALUEREF
3018 GCC does not provide the @code{globalref}, @code{globaldef} and
3019 @code{globalvalue} keywords of VAX-C. You can get the same effect with
3020 an obscure feature of GAS, the GNU assembler. (This requires GAS
3021 version 1.39 or later.) The following macros allow you to use this
3022 feature in a fairly natural way:
3026 #define GLOBALREF(TYPE,NAME) \
3028 asm ("_$$PsectAttributes_GLOBALSYMBOL$$" #NAME)
3029 #define GLOBALDEF(TYPE,NAME,VALUE) \
3031 asm ("_$$PsectAttributes_GLOBALSYMBOL$$" #NAME) \
3033 #define GLOBALVALUEREF(TYPE,NAME) \
3034 const TYPE NAME[1] \
3035 asm ("_$$PsectAttributes_GLOBALVALUE$$" #NAME)
3036 #define GLOBALVALUEDEF(TYPE,NAME,VALUE) \
3037 const TYPE NAME[1] \
3038 asm ("_$$PsectAttributes_GLOBALVALUE$$" #NAME) \
3041 #define GLOBALREF(TYPE,NAME) \
3043 #define GLOBALDEF(TYPE,NAME,VALUE) \
3044 globaldef TYPE NAME = VALUE
3045 #define GLOBALVALUEDEF(TYPE,NAME,VALUE) \
3046 globalvalue TYPE NAME = VALUE
3047 #define GLOBALVALUEREF(TYPE,NAME) \
3048 globalvalue TYPE NAME
3053 (The @code{_$$PsectAttributes_GLOBALSYMBOL} prefix at the start of the
3054 name is removed by the assembler, after it has modified the attributes
3055 of the symbol). These macros are provided in the VMS binaries
3056 distribution in a header file @file{GNU_HACKS.H}. An example of the
3060 GLOBALREF (int, ijk);
3061 GLOBALDEF (int, jkl, 0);
3064 The macros @code{GLOBALREF} and @code{GLOBALDEF} cannot be used
3065 straightforwardly for arrays, since there is no way to insert the array
3066 dimension into the declaration at the right place. However, you can
3067 declare an array with these macros if you first define a typedef for the
3068 array type, like this:
3071 typedef int intvector[10];
3072 GLOBALREF (intvector, foo);
3075 Array and structure initializers will also break the macros; you can
3076 define the initializer to be a macro of its own, or you can expand the
3077 @code{GLOBALDEF} macro by hand. You may find a case where you wish to
3078 use the @code{GLOBALDEF} macro with a large array, but you are not
3079 interested in explicitly initializing each element of the array. In
3080 such cases you can use an initializer like: @code{@{0,@}}, which will
3081 initialize the entire array to @code{0}.
3083 A shortcoming of this implementation is that a variable declared with
3084 @code{GLOBALVALUEREF} or @code{GLOBALVALUEDEF} is always an array. For
3085 example, the declaration:
3088 GLOBALVALUEREF(int, ijk);
3092 declares the variable @code{ijk} as an array of type @code{int [1]}.
3093 This is done because a globalvalue is actually a constant; its ``value''
3094 is what the linker would normally consider an address. That is not how
3095 an integer value works in C, but it is how an array works. So treating
3096 the symbol as an array name gives consistent results---with the
3097 exception that the value seems to have the wrong type. @strong{Don't
3098 try to access an element of the array.} It doesn't have any elements.
3099 The array ``address'' may not be the address of actual storage.
3101 The fact that the symbol is an array may lead to warnings where the
3102 variable is used. Insert type casts to avoid the warnings. Here is an
3103 example; it takes advantage of the ISO C feature allowing macros that
3104 expand to use the same name as the macro itself.
3107 GLOBALVALUEREF (int, ss$_normal);
3108 GLOBALVALUEDEF (int, xyzzy,123);
3110 #define ss$_normal ((int) ss$_normal)
3111 #define xyzzy ((int) xyzzy)
3115 Don't use @code{globaldef} or @code{globalref} with a variable whose
3116 type is an enumeration type; this is not implemented. Instead, make the
3117 variable an integer, and use a @code{globalvaluedef} for each of the
3118 enumeration values. An example of this would be:
3122 GLOBALDEF (int, color, 0);
3123 GLOBALVALUEDEF (int, RED, 0);
3124 GLOBALVALUEDEF (int, BLUE, 1);
3125 GLOBALVALUEDEF (int, GREEN, 3);
3127 enum globaldef color @{RED, BLUE, GREEN = 3@};
3132 @section Other VMS Issues
3134 @cindex exit status and VMS
3135 @cindex return value of @code{main}
3136 @cindex @code{main} and the exit status
3137 GCC automatically arranges for @code{main} to return 1 by default if
3138 you fail to specify an explicit return value. This will be interpreted
3139 by VMS as a status code indicating a normal successful completion.
3140 Version 1 of GCC did not provide this default.
3142 GCC on VMS works only with the GNU assembler, GAS. You need version
3143 1.37 or later of GAS in order to produce value debugging information for
3144 the VMS debugger. Use the ordinary VMS linker with the object files
3147 @cindex shared VMS run time system
3148 @cindex @file{VAXCRTL}
3149 Under previous versions of GCC, the generated code would occasionally
3150 give strange results when linked to the sharable @file{VAXCRTL} library.
3151 Now this should work.
3153 A caveat for use of @code{const} global variables: the @code{const}
3154 modifier must be specified in every external declaration of the variable
3155 in all of the source files that use that variable. Otherwise the linker
3156 will issue warnings about conflicting attributes for the variable. Your
3157 program will still work despite the warnings, but the variable will be
3158 placed in writable storage.
3160 @cindex name augmentation
3161 @cindex case sensitivity and VMS
3162 @cindex VMS and case sensitivity
3163 Although the VMS linker does distinguish between upper and lower case
3164 letters in global symbols, most VMS compilers convert all such symbols
3165 into upper case and most run-time library routines also have upper case
3166 names. To be able to reliably call such routines, GCC (by means of
3167 the assembler GAS) converts global symbols into upper case like other
3168 VMS compilers. However, since the usual practice in C is to distinguish
3169 case, GCC (via GAS) tries to preserve usual C behavior by augmenting
3170 each name that is not all lower case. This means truncating the name
3171 to at most 23 characters and then adding more characters at the end
3172 which encode the case pattern of those 23. Names which contain at
3173 least one dollar sign are an exception; they are converted directly into
3174 upper case without augmentation.
3176 Name augmentation yields bad results for programs that use precompiled
3177 libraries (such as Xlib) which were generated by another compiler. You
3178 can use the compiler option @samp{/NOCASE_HACK} to inhibit augmentation;
3179 it makes external C functions and variables case-independent as is usual
3180 on VMS. Alternatively, you could write all references to the functions
3181 and variables in such libraries using lower case; this will work on VMS,
3182 but is not portable to other systems. The compiler option @samp{/NAMES}
3183 also provides control over global name handling.
3185 Function and variable names are handled somewhat differently with GNU
3186 C++. The GNU C++ compiler performs @dfn{name mangling} on function
3187 names, which means that it adds information to the function name to
3188 describe the data types of the arguments that the function takes. One
3189 result of this is that the name of a function can become very long.
3190 Since the VMS linker only recognizes the first 31 characters in a name,
3191 special action is taken to ensure that each function and variable has a
3192 unique name that can be represented in 31 characters.
3194 If the name (plus a name augmentation, if required) is less than 32
3195 characters in length, then no special action is performed. If the name
3196 is longer than 31 characters, the assembler (GAS) will generate a
3197 hash string based upon the function name, truncate the function name to
3198 23 characters, and append the hash string to the truncated name. If the
3199 @samp{/VERBOSE} compiler option is used, the assembler will print both
3200 the full and truncated names of each symbol that is truncated.
3202 The @samp{/NOCASE_HACK} compiler option should not be used when you are
3203 compiling programs that use libg++. libg++ has several instances of
3204 objects (i.e. @code{Filebuf} and @code{filebuf}) which become
3205 indistinguishable in a case-insensitive environment. This leads to
3206 cases where you need to inhibit augmentation selectively (if you were
3207 using libg++ and Xlib in the same program, for example). There is no
3208 special feature for doing this, but you can get the result by defining a
3209 macro for each mixed case symbol for which you wish to inhibit
3210 augmentation. The macro should expand into the lower case equivalent of
3211 itself. For example:
3214 #define StuDlyCapS studlycaps
3217 These macro definitions can be placed in a header file to minimize the
3218 number of changes to your source code.
3221 @chapter Makefile Targets
3222 @cindex makefile targets
3223 @cindex targets, makefile
3227 This is the default target. Depending on what your build/host/target
3228 configuration is, it coordinates all the things that need to be built.
3231 Produce info-formatted documentation. Also, @code{make dvi} is
3232 available for DVI-formatted documentation, and @code{make
3233 generated-manpages} to generate man pages.
3236 Delete the files made while building the compiler.
3239 That, and all the other files built by @code{make all}.
3242 That, and all the files created by @code{configure}.
3245 That, and any temporary or intermediate files, like emacs backup files.
3247 @item maintainer-clean
3248 Distclean plus any file that can be generated from other files. Note
3249 that additional tools may be required beyond what is normally needed to
3256 Deletes installed files.
3259 Run the testsuite. This creates a @file{testsuite} subdirectory that
3260 has various @file{.sum} and @file{.log} files containing the results of
3261 the testing. You can run subsets with, for example, @code{make check-gcc}.
3262 You can specify specific tests by setting RUNTESTFLAGS to be the name
3263 of the @file{.exp} file, optionally followed by (for some tests) an equals
3264 and a file wildcard, like:
3267 make check-gcc RUNTESTFLAGS="execute.exp=19980413-*"
3270 Note that running the testsuite may require additional tools be
3271 installed, such as TCL or dejagnu.
3274 Builds gcc three times - once with the native compiler, once with the
3275 native-built compiler it just built, and once with the compiler it built
3276 the second time. In theory, the last two should produce the same
3277 results, which @code{make compare} can check. Each step of this process
3278 is called a "stage", and the results of each stage N (N=1..3) are copied
3279 to a subdirectory @file{stageN/}.
3281 @item bootstrap-lean
3282 Like @code{bootstrap}, except that the various stages are removed once
3283 they're no longer needed. This saves disk space.
3286 Once bootstrapped, this incrementally rebuilds each of the three stages,
3287 one at a time. It does this by "bubbling" the stages up from their
3288 stubdirectories, rebuilding them, and copying them back to their
3289 subdirectories. This will allow you to, for example, quickly rebuild a
3290 bootstrapped compiler after changing the sources, without having to do a
3294 Rebuilds the most recently built stage. Since each stage requires
3295 special invocation, using this target means you don't have to keep track
3296 of which stage you're on or what invocation that stage needs.
3299 Removed everything (@code{make clean}) and rebuilds (@code{make bootstrap}).
3301 @item stageN (N=1..4)
3302 For each stage, moves the appropriate files to the stageN subdirectory.
3304 @item unstageN (N=1..4)
3305 Undoes the corresponding @code{stageN}.
3307 @item restageN (N=1..4)
3308 Undoes the corresponding @code{stageN} and rebuilds it with the
3312 Compares the results of stages 2 and 3. This ensures that the compiler
3313 is running properly, since it should produce the same object files
3314 regardless of how it itself was compiled.
3322 @chapter GCC and Portability
3324 @cindex GCC and portability
3326 The main goal of GCC was to make a good, fast compiler for machines in
3327 the class that the GNU system aims to run on: 32-bit machines that address
3328 8-bit bytes and have several general registers. Elegance, theoretical
3329 power and simplicity are only secondary.
3331 GCC gets most of the information about the target machine from a machine
3332 description which gives an algebraic formula for each of the machine's
3333 instructions. This is a very clean way to describe the target. But when
3334 the compiler needs information that is difficult to express in this
3335 fashion, I have not hesitated to define an ad-hoc parameter to the machine
3336 description. The purpose of portability is to reduce the total work needed
3337 on the compiler; it was not of interest for its own sake.
3340 @cindex autoincrement addressing, availability
3342 GCC does not contain machine dependent code, but it does contain code
3343 that depends on machine parameters such as endianness (whether the most
3344 significant byte has the highest or lowest address of the bytes in a word)
3345 and the availability of autoincrement addressing. In the RTL-generation
3346 pass, it is often necessary to have multiple strategies for generating code
3347 for a particular kind of syntax tree, strategies that are usable for different
3348 combinations of parameters. Often I have not tried to address all possible
3349 cases, but only the common ones or only the ones that I have encountered.
3350 As a result, a new target may require additional strategies. You will know
3351 if this happens because the compiler will call @code{abort}. Fortunately,
3352 the new strategies can be added in a machine-independent fashion, and will
3353 affect only the target machines that need them.
3358 @chapter Interfacing to GCC Output
3359 @cindex interfacing to GCC output
3360 @cindex run-time conventions
3361 @cindex function call conventions
3362 @cindex conventions, run-time
3364 GCC is normally configured to use the same function calling convention
3365 normally in use on the target system. This is done with the
3366 machine-description macros described (@pxref{Target Macros}).
3368 @cindex unions, returning
3369 @cindex structures, returning
3370 @cindex returning structures and unions
3371 However, returning of structure and union values is done differently on
3372 some target machines. As a result, functions compiled with PCC
3373 returning such types cannot be called from code compiled with GCC,
3374 and vice versa. This does not cause trouble often because few Unix
3375 library routines return structures or unions.
3377 GCC code returns structures and unions that are 1, 2, 4 or 8 bytes
3378 long in the same registers used for @code{int} or @code{double} return
3379 values. (GCC typically allocates variables of such types in
3380 registers also.) Structures and unions of other sizes are returned by
3381 storing them into an address passed by the caller (usually in a
3382 register). The machine-description macros @code{STRUCT_VALUE} and
3383 @code{STRUCT_INCOMING_VALUE} tell GCC where to pass this address.
3385 By contrast, PCC on most target machines returns structures and unions
3386 of any size by copying the data into an area of static storage, and then
3387 returning the address of that storage as if it were a pointer value.
3388 The caller must copy the data from that memory area to the place where
3389 the value is wanted. This is slower than the method used by GCC, and
3390 fails to be reentrant.
3392 On some target machines, such as RISC machines and the 80386, the
3393 standard system convention is to pass to the subroutine the address of
3394 where to return the value. On these machines, GCC has been
3395 configured to be compatible with the standard compiler, when this method
3396 is used. It may not be compatible for structures of 1, 2, 4 or 8 bytes.
3398 @cindex argument passing
3399 @cindex passing arguments
3400 GCC uses the system's standard convention for passing arguments. On
3401 some machines, the first few arguments are passed in registers; in
3402 others, all are passed on the stack. It would be possible to use
3403 registers for argument passing on any machine, and this would probably
3404 result in a significant speedup. But the result would be complete
3405 incompatibility with code that follows the standard convention. So this
3406 change is practical only if you are switching to GCC as the sole C
3407 compiler for the system. We may implement register argument passing on
3408 certain machines once we have a complete GNU system so that we can
3409 compile the libraries with GCC.
3411 On some machines (particularly the Sparc), certain types of arguments
3412 are passed ``by invisible reference''. This means that the value is
3413 stored in memory, and the address of the memory location is passed to
3416 @cindex @code{longjmp} and automatic variables
3417 If you use @code{longjmp}, beware of automatic variables. ISO C says that
3418 automatic variables that are not declared @code{volatile} have undefined
3419 values after a @code{longjmp}. And this is all GCC promises to do,
3420 because it is very difficult to restore register variables correctly, and
3421 one of GCC's features is that it can put variables in registers without
3424 If you want a variable to be unaltered by @code{longjmp}, and you don't
3425 want to write @code{volatile} because old C compilers don't accept it,
3426 just take the address of the variable. If a variable's address is ever
3427 taken, even if just to compute it and ignore it, then the variable cannot
3438 @cindex arithmetic libraries
3439 @cindex math libraries
3440 Code compiled with GCC may call certain library routines. Most of
3441 them handle arithmetic for which there are no instructions. This
3442 includes multiply and divide on some machines, and floating point
3443 operations on any machine for which floating point support is disabled
3444 with @samp{-msoft-float}. Some standard parts of the C library, such as
3445 @code{bcopy} or @code{memcpy}, are also called automatically. The usual
3446 function call interface is used for calling the library routines.
3448 These library routines should be defined in the library @file{libgcc.a},
3449 which GCC automatically searches whenever it links a program. On
3450 machines that have multiply and divide instructions, if hardware
3451 floating point is in use, normally @file{libgcc.a} is not needed, but it
3452 is searched just in case.
3454 Each arithmetic function is defined in @file{libgcc1.c} to use the
3455 corresponding C arithmetic operator. As long as the file is compiled
3456 with another C compiler, which supports all the C arithmetic operators,
3457 this file will work portably. However, @file{libgcc1.c} does not work if
3458 compiled with GCC, because each arithmetic function would compile
3459 into a call to itself!
3464 @chapter Passes and Files of the Compiler
3465 @cindex passes and files of the compiler
3466 @cindex files and passes of the compiler
3467 @cindex compiler passes and files
3469 @cindex top level of compiler
3470 The overall control structure of the compiler is in @file{toplev.c}. This
3471 file is responsible for initialization, decoding arguments, opening and
3472 closing files, and sequencing the passes.
3474 @cindex parsing pass
3475 The parsing pass is invoked only once, to parse the entire input. The RTL
3476 intermediate code for a function is generated as the function is parsed, a
3477 statement at a time. Each statement is read in as a syntax tree and then
3478 converted to RTL; then the storage for the tree for the statement is
3479 reclaimed. Storage for types (and the expressions for their sizes),
3480 declarations, and a representation of the binding contours and how they nest,
3481 remain until the function is finished being compiled; these are all needed
3482 to output the debugging information.
3484 @findex rest_of_compilation
3485 @findex rest_of_decl_compilation
3486 Each time the parsing pass reads a complete function definition or
3487 top-level declaration, it calls either the function
3488 @code{rest_of_compilation}, or the function
3489 @code{rest_of_decl_compilation} in @file{toplev.c}, which are
3490 responsible for all further processing necessary, ending with output of
3491 the assembler language. All other compiler passes run, in sequence,
3492 within @code{rest_of_compilation}. When that function returns from
3493 compiling a function definition, the storage used for that function
3494 definition's compilation is entirely freed, unless it is an inline
3497 (@pxref{Inline,,An Inline Function is As Fast As a Macro}).
3500 (@pxref{Inline,,An Inline Function is As Fast As a Macro,gcc.texi,Using GCC}).
3503 Here is a list of all the passes of the compiler and their source files.
3504 Also included is a description of where debugging dumps can be requested
3505 with @samp{-d} options.
3509 Parsing. This pass reads the entire text of a function definition,
3510 constructing partial syntax trees. This and RTL generation are no longer
3511 truly separate passes (formerly they were), but it is easier to think
3512 of them as separate.
3514 The tree representation does not entirely follow C syntax, because it is
3515 intended to support other languages as well.
3517 Language-specific data type analysis is also done in this pass, and every
3518 tree node that represents an expression has a data type attached.
3519 Variables are represented as declaration nodes.
3521 @cindex constant folding
3522 @cindex arithmetic simplifications
3523 @cindex simplifications, arithmetic
3524 Constant folding and some arithmetic simplifications are also done
3527 The language-independent source files for parsing are
3528 @file{stor-layout.c}, @file{fold-const.c}, and @file{tree.c}.
3529 There are also header files @file{tree.h} and @file{tree.def}
3530 which define the format of the tree representation.@refill
3532 @c Avoiding overfull is tricky here.
3533 The source files to parse C are
3537 @file{c-aux-info.c},
3540 along with header files
3544 The source files for parsing C++ are in @file{cp/}.
3545 They are @file{parse.y},
3547 @file{cvt.c}, @file{decl.c}, @file{decl2.c},
3549 @file{expr.c}, @file{init.c}, @file{lex.c},
3550 @file{method.c}, @file{ptree.c},@*
3551 @file{search.c}, @file{tree.c},
3552 @file{typeck2.c}, and
3553 @file{typeck.c}, along with header files @file{cp-tree.def},
3554 @file{cp-tree.h}, and @file{decl.h}.
3556 The special source files for parsing Objective C are in @file{objc/}.
3557 They are @file{objc-parse.y}, @file{objc-act.c}, @file{objc-tree.def}, and
3558 @file{objc-act.h}. Certain C-specific files are used for this as
3561 The file @file{c-common.c} is also used for all of the above languages.
3563 @cindex RTL generation
3565 RTL generation. This is the conversion of syntax tree into RTL code.
3566 It is actually done statement-by-statement during parsing, but for
3567 most purposes it can be thought of as a separate pass.
3569 @cindex target-parameter-dependent code
3570 This is where the bulk of target-parameter-dependent code is found,
3571 since often it is necessary for strategies to apply only when certain
3572 standard kinds of instructions are available. The purpose of named
3573 instruction patterns is to provide this information to the RTL
3576 @cindex tail recursion optimization
3577 Optimization is done in this pass for @code{if}-conditions that are
3578 comparisons, boolean operations or conditional expressions. Tail
3579 recursion is detected at this time also. Decisions are made about how
3580 best to arrange loops and how to output @code{switch} statements.
3582 @c Avoiding overfull is tricky here.
3583 The source files for RTL generation include
3591 and @file{emit-rtl.c}.
3593 @file{insn-emit.c}, generated from the machine description by the
3594 program @code{genemit}, is used in this pass. The header file
3595 @file{expr.h} is used for communication within this pass.@refill
3599 The header files @file{insn-flags.h} and @file{insn-codes.h},
3600 generated from the machine description by the programs @code{genflags}
3601 and @code{gencodes}, tell this pass which standard names are available
3602 for use and which patterns correspond to them.@refill
3604 Aside from debugging information output, none of the following passes
3605 refers to the tree structure representation of the function (only
3606 part of which is saved).
3608 @cindex inline, automatic
3609 The decision of whether the function can and should be expanded inline
3610 in its subsequent callers is made at the end of rtl generation. The
3611 function must meet certain criteria, currently related to the size of
3612 the function and the types and number of parameters it has. Note that
3613 this function may contain loops, recursive calls to itself
3614 (tail-recursive functions can be inlined!), gotos, in short, all
3615 constructs supported by GCC. The file @file{integrate.c} contains
3616 the code to save a function's rtl for later inlining and to inline that
3617 rtl when the function is called. The header file @file{integrate.h}
3618 is also used for this purpose.
3620 The option @samp{-dr} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3621 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.rtl} to
3622 the input file name.
3624 @cindex jump optimization
3625 @cindex unreachable code
3628 Jump optimization. This pass simplifies jumps to the following
3629 instruction, jumps across jumps, and jumps to jumps. It deletes
3630 unreferenced labels and unreachable code, except that unreachable code
3631 that contains a loop is not recognized as unreachable in this pass.
3632 (Such loops are deleted later in the basic block analysis.) It also
3633 converts some code originally written with jumps into sequences of
3634 instructions that directly set values from the results of comparisons,
3635 if the machine has such instructions.
3637 Jump optimization is performed two or three times. The first time is
3638 immediately following RTL generation. The second time is after CSE,
3639 but only if CSE says repeated jump optimization is needed. The
3640 last time is right before the final pass. That time, cross-jumping
3641 and deletion of no-op move instructions are done together with the
3642 optimizations described above.
3644 The source file of this pass is @file{jump.c}.
3646 The option @samp{-dj} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3647 this pass is run for the first time. This dump file's name is made by
3648 appending @samp{.jump} to the input file name.
3650 @cindex register use analysis
3652 Register scan. This pass finds the first and last use of each
3653 register, as a guide for common subexpression elimination. Its source
3654 is in @file{regclass.c}.
3656 @cindex jump threading
3658 Jump threading. This pass detects a condition jump that branches to an
3659 identical or inverse test. Such jumps can be @samp{threaded} through
3660 the second conditional test. The source code for this pass is in
3661 @file{jump.c}. This optimization is only performed if
3662 @samp{-fthread-jumps} is enabled.
3664 @cindex common subexpression elimination
3665 @cindex constant propagation
3667 Common subexpression elimination. This pass also does constant
3668 propagation. Its source file is @file{cse.c}. If constant
3669 propagation causes conditional jumps to become unconditional or to
3670 become no-ops, jump optimization is run again when CSE is finished.
3672 The option @samp{-ds} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3673 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.cse} to
3674 the input file name.
3676 @cindex global common subexpression elimination
3677 @cindex constant propagation
3678 @cindex copy propagation
3680 Global common subexpression elimination. This pass performs GCSE
3681 using Morel-Renvoise Partial Redundancy Elimination, with the exception
3682 that it does not try to move invariants out of loops - that is left to
3683 the loop optimization pass. This pass also performs global constant
3684 and copy propagation.
3686 The source file for this pass is gcse.c.
3688 The option @samp{-dG} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3689 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.gcse} to
3690 the input file name.
3692 @cindex loop optimization
3694 @cindex strength-reduction
3696 Loop optimization. This pass moves constant expressions out of loops,
3697 and optionally does strength-reduction and loop unrolling as well.
3698 Its source files are @file{loop.c} and @file{unroll.c}, plus the header
3699 @file{loop.h} used for communication between them. Loop unrolling uses
3700 some functions in @file{integrate.c} and the header @file{integrate.h}.
3702 The option @samp{-dL} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3703 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.loop} to
3704 the input file name.
3707 If @samp{-frerun-cse-after-loop} was enabled, a second common
3708 subexpression elimination pass is performed after the loop optimization
3709 pass. Jump threading is also done again at this time if it was specified.
3711 The option @samp{-dt} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3712 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.cse2} to
3713 the input file name.
3715 @cindex data flow analysis
3716 @cindex analysis, data flow
3717 @cindex basic blocks
3719 Data flow analysis (@file{flow.c}). This pass divides the program
3720 into basic blocks (and in the process deletes unreachable loops); then
3721 it computes which pseudo-registers are live at each point in the
3722 program, and makes the first instruction that uses a value point at
3723 the instruction that computed the value.
3725 @cindex autoincrement/decrement analysis
3726 This pass also deletes computations whose results are never used, and
3727 combines memory references with add or subtract instructions to make
3728 autoincrement or autodecrement addressing.
3730 The option @samp{-df} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3731 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.flow} to
3732 the input file name. If stupid register allocation is in use, this
3733 dump file reflects the full results of such allocation.
3735 @cindex instruction combination
3737 Instruction combination (@file{combine.c}). This pass attempts to
3738 combine groups of two or three instructions that are related by data
3739 flow into single instructions. It combines the RTL expressions for
3740 the instructions by substitution, simplifies the result using algebra,
3741 and then attempts to match the result against the machine description.
3743 The option @samp{-dc} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3744 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.combine}
3745 to the input file name.
3747 @cindex register movement
3749 Register movement (@file{regmove.c}). This pass looks for cases where
3750 matching constraints would force an instruction to need a reload, and
3751 this reload would be a register to register move. It then attempts
3752 to change the registers used by the instruction to avoid the move
3755 The option @samp{-dN} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3756 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.regmove}
3757 to the input file name.
3759 @cindex instruction scheduling
3760 @cindex scheduling, instruction
3762 Instruction scheduling (@file{sched.c}). This pass looks for
3763 instructions whose output will not be available by the time that it is
3764 used in subsequent instructions. (Memory loads and floating point
3765 instructions often have this behavior on RISC machines). It re-orders
3766 instructions within a basic block to try to separate the definition and
3767 use of items that otherwise would cause pipeline stalls.
3769 Instruction scheduling is performed twice. The first time is immediately
3770 after instruction combination and the second is immediately after reload.
3772 The option @samp{-dS} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after this
3773 pass is run for the first time. The dump file's name is made by
3774 appending @samp{.sched} to the input file name.
3776 @cindex register class preference pass
3778 Register class preferencing. The RTL code is scanned to find out
3779 which register class is best for each pseudo register. The source
3780 file is @file{regclass.c}.
3782 @cindex register allocation
3783 @cindex local register allocation
3785 Local register allocation (@file{local-alloc.c}). This pass allocates
3786 hard registers to pseudo registers that are used only within one basic
3787 block. Because the basic block is linear, it can use fast and
3788 powerful techniques to do a very good job.
3790 The option @samp{-dl} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3791 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.lreg} to
3792 the input file name.
3794 @cindex global register allocation
3796 Global register allocation (@file{global.c}). This pass
3797 allocates hard registers for the remaining pseudo registers (those
3798 whose life spans are not contained in one basic block).
3802 Reloading. This pass renumbers pseudo registers with the hardware
3803 registers numbers they were allocated. Pseudo registers that did not
3804 get hard registers are replaced with stack slots. Then it finds
3805 instructions that are invalid because a value has failed to end up in
3806 a register, or has ended up in a register of the wrong kind. It fixes
3807 up these instructions by reloading the problematical values
3808 temporarily into registers. Additional instructions are generated to
3811 The reload pass also optionally eliminates the frame pointer and inserts
3812 instructions to save and restore call-clobbered registers around calls.
3814 Source files are @file{reload.c} and @file{reload1.c}, plus the header
3815 @file{reload.h} used for communication between them.
3817 The option @samp{-dg} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3818 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.greg} to
3819 the input file name.
3821 @cindex instruction scheduling
3822 @cindex scheduling, instruction
3824 Instruction scheduling is repeated here to try to avoid pipeline stalls
3825 due to memory loads generated for spilled pseudo registers.
3827 The option @samp{-dR} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3828 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.sched2}
3829 to the input file name.
3831 @cindex cross-jumping
3832 @cindex no-op move instructions
3834 Jump optimization is repeated, this time including cross-jumping
3835 and deletion of no-op move instructions.
3837 The option @samp{-dJ} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3838 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.jump2}
3839 to the input file name.
3841 @cindex delayed branch scheduling
3842 @cindex scheduling, delayed branch
3844 Delayed branch scheduling. This optional pass attempts to find
3845 instructions that can go into the delay slots of other instructions,
3846 usually jumps and calls. The source file name is @file{reorg.c}.
3848 The option @samp{-dd} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3849 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.dbr}
3850 to the input file name.
3852 @cindex branch shortening
3854 Branch shortening. On many RISC machines, branch instructions have a
3855 limited range. Thus, longer sequences of instructions must be used for
3856 long branches. In this pass, the compiler figures out what how far each
3857 instruction will be from each other instruction, and therefore whether
3858 the usual instructions, or the longer sequences, must be used for each
3861 @cindex register-to-stack conversion
3863 Conversion from usage of some hard registers to usage of a register
3864 stack may be done at this point. Currently, this is supported only
3865 for the floating-point registers of the Intel 80387 coprocessor. The
3866 source file name is @file{reg-stack.c}.
3868 The options @samp{-dk} causes a debugging dump of the RTL code after
3869 this pass. This dump file's name is made by appending @samp{.stack}
3870 to the input file name.
3873 @cindex peephole optimization
3875 Final. This pass outputs the assembler code for the function. It is
3876 also responsible for identifying spurious test and compare
3877 instructions. Machine-specific peephole optimizations are performed
3878 at the same time. The function entry and exit sequences are generated
3879 directly as assembler code in this pass; they never exist as RTL.
3881 The source files are @file{final.c} plus @file{insn-output.c}; the
3882 latter is generated automatically from the machine description by the
3883 tool @file{genoutput}. The header file @file{conditions.h} is used
3884 for communication between these files.
3886 @cindex debugging information generation
3888 Debugging information output. This is run after final because it must
3889 output the stack slot offsets for pseudo registers that did not get
3890 hard registers. Source files are @file{dbxout.c} for DBX symbol table
3891 format, @file{sdbout.c} for SDB symbol table format, and
3892 @file{dwarfout.c} for DWARF symbol table format.
3895 Some additional files are used by all or many passes:
3899 Every pass uses @file{machmode.def} and @file{machmode.h} which define
3903 Several passes use @file{real.h}, which defines the default
3904 representation of floating point constants and how to operate on them.
3907 All the passes that work with RTL use the header files @file{rtl.h}
3908 and @file{rtl.def}, and subroutines in file @file{rtl.c}. The tools
3909 @code{gen*} also use these files to read and work with the machine
3914 Several passes refer to the header file @file{insn-config.h} which
3915 contains a few parameters (C macro definitions) generated
3916 automatically from the machine description RTL by the tool
3919 @cindex instruction recognizer
3921 Several passes use the instruction recognizer, which consists of
3922 @file{recog.c} and @file{recog.h}, plus the files @file{insn-recog.c}
3923 and @file{insn-extract.c} that are generated automatically from the
3924 machine description by the tools @file{genrecog} and
3925 @file{genextract}.@refill
3928 Several passes use the header files @file{regs.h} which defines the
3929 information recorded about pseudo register usage, and @file{basic-block.h}
3930 which defines the information recorded about basic blocks.
3933 @file{hard-reg-set.h} defines the type @code{HARD_REG_SET}, a bit-vector
3934 with a bit for each hard register, and some macros to manipulate it.
3935 This type is just @code{int} if the machine has few enough hard registers;
3936 otherwise it is an array of @code{int} and some of the macros expand
3940 Several passes use instruction attributes. A definition of the
3941 attributes defined for a particular machine is in file
3942 @file{insn-attr.h}, which is generated from the machine description by
3943 the program @file{genattr}. The file @file{insn-attrtab.c} contains
3944 subroutines to obtain the attribute values for insns. It is generated
3945 from the machine description by the program @file{genattrtab}.@refill
3957 @chapter The Configuration File
3958 @cindex configuration file
3959 @cindex @file{xm-@var{machine}.h}
3961 The configuration file @file{xm-@var{machine}.h} contains macro
3962 definitions that describe the machine and system on which the compiler
3963 is running, unlike the definitions in @file{@var{machine}.h}, which
3964 describe the machine for which the compiler is producing output. Most
3965 of the values in @file{xm-@var{machine}.h} are actually the same on all
3966 machines that GCC runs on, so large parts of all configuration files
3967 are identical. But there are some macros that vary:
3972 Define this macro if the host system is System V.
3976 Define this macro if the host system is VMS.
3978 @findex FATAL_EXIT_CODE
3979 @item FATAL_EXIT_CODE
3980 A C expression for the status code to be returned when the compiler
3981 exits after serious errors. The default is the system-provided macro
3982 @samp{EXIT_FAILURE}, or @samp{1} if the system doesn't define that
3983 macro. Define this macro only if these defaults are incorrect.
3985 @findex SUCCESS_EXIT_CODE
3986 @item SUCCESS_EXIT_CODE
3987 A C expression for the status code to be returned when the compiler
3988 exits without serious errors. (Warnings are not serious errors.) The
3989 default is the system-provided macro @samp{EXIT_SUCCESS}, or @samp{0} if
3990 the system doesn't define that macro. Define this macro only if these
3991 defaults are incorrect.
3993 @findex HOST_WORDS_BIG_ENDIAN
3994 @item HOST_WORDS_BIG_ENDIAN
3995 Defined if the host machine stores words of multi-word values in
3996 big-endian order. (GCC does not depend on the host byte ordering
3999 @findex HOST_FLOAT_WORDS_BIG_ENDIAN
4000 @item HOST_FLOAT_WORDS_BIG_ENDIAN
4001 Define this macro to be 1 if the host machine stores @code{DFmode},
4002 @code{XFmode} or @code{TFmode} floating point numbers in memory with the
4003 word containing the sign bit at the lowest address; otherwise, define it
4006 This macro need not be defined if the ordering is the same as for
4007 multi-word integers.
4009 @findex HOST_FLOAT_FORMAT
4010 @item HOST_FLOAT_FORMAT
4011 A numeric code distinguishing the floating point format for the host
4012 machine. See @code{TARGET_FLOAT_FORMAT} in @ref{Storage Layout} for the
4013 alternatives and default.
4015 @findex HOST_BITS_PER_CHAR
4016 @item HOST_BITS_PER_CHAR
4017 A C expression for the number of bits in @code{char} on the host
4020 @findex HOST_BITS_PER_SHORT
4021 @item HOST_BITS_PER_SHORT
4022 A C expression for the number of bits in @code{short} on the host
4025 @findex HOST_BITS_PER_INT
4026 @item HOST_BITS_PER_INT
4027 A C expression for the number of bits in @code{int} on the host
4030 @findex HOST_BITS_PER_LONG
4031 @item HOST_BITS_PER_LONG
4032 A C expression for the number of bits in @code{long} on the host
4035 @findex ONLY_INT_FIELDS
4036 @item ONLY_INT_FIELDS
4037 Define this macro to indicate that the host compiler only supports
4038 @code{int} bit fields, rather than other integral types, including
4039 @code{enum}, as do most C compilers.
4041 @findex OBSTACK_CHUNK_SIZE
4042 @item OBSTACK_CHUNK_SIZE
4043 A C expression for the size of ordinary obstack chunks.
4044 If you don't define this, a usually-reasonable default is used.
4046 @findex OBSTACK_CHUNK_ALLOC
4047 @item OBSTACK_CHUNK_ALLOC
4048 The function used to allocate obstack chunks.
4049 If you don't define this, @code{xmalloc} is used.
4051 @findex OBSTACK_CHUNK_FREE
4052 @item OBSTACK_CHUNK_FREE
4053 The function used to free obstack chunks.
4054 If you don't define this, @code{free} is used.
4056 @findex USE_C_ALLOCA
4058 Define this macro to indicate that the compiler is running with the
4059 @code{alloca} implemented in C. This version of @code{alloca} can be
4060 found in the file @file{alloca.c}; to use it, you must also alter the
4061 @file{Makefile} variable @code{ALLOCA}. (This is done automatically
4062 for the systems on which we know it is needed.)
4064 If you do define this macro, you should probably do it as follows:
4068 #define USE_C_ALLOCA
4070 #define alloca __builtin_alloca
4075 so that when the compiler is compiled with GCC it uses the more
4076 efficient built-in @code{alloca} function.
4078 @item FUNCTION_CONVERSION_BUG
4079 @findex FUNCTION_CONVERSION_BUG
4080 Define this macro to indicate that the host compiler does not properly
4081 handle converting a function value to a pointer-to-function when it is
4082 used in an expression.
4084 @findex MULTIBYTE_CHARS
4085 @item MULTIBYTE_CHARS
4086 Define this macro to enable support for multibyte characters in the
4087 input to GCC. This requires that the host system support the ISO C
4088 library functions for converting multibyte characters to wide
4093 Define this if your system is POSIX.1 compliant.
4095 @findex PATH_SEPARATOR
4096 @item PATH_SEPARATOR
4097 Define this macro to be a C character constant representing the
4098 character used to separate components in paths. The default value is
4101 @findex DIR_SEPARATOR
4103 If your system uses some character other than slash to separate
4104 directory names within a file specification, define this macro to be a C
4105 character constant specifying that character. When GCC displays file
4106 names, the character you specify will be used. GCC will test for
4107 both slash and the character you specify when parsing filenames.
4109 @findex TARGET_OBJECT_SUFFIX
4110 @item TARGET_OBJECT_SUFFIX
4111 Define this macro to be a C string representing the suffix for object
4112 files on your target machine. If you do not define this macro, GCC will
4113 use @samp{.o} as the suffix for object files.
4115 @findex TARGET_EXECUTABLE_SUFFIX
4116 @item TARGET_EXECUTABLE_SUFFIX
4117 Define this macro to be a C string representing the suffix to be
4118 automatically added to executable files on your target machine. If you
4119 do not define this macro, GCC will use the null string as the suffix for
4122 @findex HOST_OBJECT_SUFFIX
4123 @item HOST_OBJECT_SUFFIX
4124 Define this macro to be a C string representing the suffix for object
4125 files on your host machine (@samp{xm-*.h}). If you do not define this
4126 macro, GCC will use @samp{.o} as the suffix for object files.
4128 @findex HOST_EXECUTABLE_SUFFIX
4129 @item HOST_EXECUTABLE_SUFFIX
4130 Define this macro to be a C string representing the suffix for
4131 executable files on your host machine (@samp{xm-*.h}). If you do not
4132 define this macro, GCC will use the null string as the suffix for
4135 @findex HOST_BIT_BUCKET
4136 @item HOST_BIT_BUCKET
4137 The name of a file or file-like object on the host system which acts as
4138 a ``bit bucket''. If you do not define this macro, GCC will use
4139 @samp{/dev/null} as the bit bucket. If the target does not support a
4140 bit bucket, this should be defined to the null string, or some other
4141 illegal filename. If the bit bucket is not writable, GCC will use a
4142 temporary file instead.
4144 @findex COLLECT_EXPORT_LIST
4145 @item COLLECT_EXPORT_LIST
4146 If defined, @code{collect2} will scan the individual object files
4147 specified on its command line and create an export list for the linker.
4148 Define this macro for systems like AIX, where the linker discards
4149 object files that are not referenced from @code{main} and uses export
4152 @findex COLLECT2_HOST_INITIALIZATION
4153 @item COLLECT2_HOST_INITIALIZATION
4154 If defined, a C statement (sans semicolon) that performs host-dependent
4155 initialization when @code{collect2} is being initialized.
4157 @findex GCC_DRIVER_HOST_INITIALIZATION
4158 @item GCC_DRIVER_HOST_INITIALIZATION
4159 If defined, a C statement (sans semicolon) that performs host-dependent
4160 initialization when a compilation driver is being initialized.
4162 @findex UPDATE_PATH_HOST_CANONICALIZE
4163 @item UPDATE_PATH_HOST_CANONICALIZE (@var{path}, @var{key})
4164 If defined, a C statement (sans semicolon) that performs host-dependent
4165 canonicalization when a path used in a compilation driver or preprocessor is
4166 canonicalized. @var{path} is the path to be canonicalized, and @var{key} is
4167 a translation prefix when its value isn't @code{NULL}. If the C statement
4168 does canonicalize @var{path}, the new path should be returned.
4173 In addition, configuration files for system V define @code{bcopy},
4174 @code{bzero} and @code{bcmp} as aliases. Some files define @code{alloca}
4175 as a macro when compiled with GCC, in order to take advantage of the
4176 benefit of GCC's built-in @code{alloca}.
4179 @chapter Makefile Fragments
4180 @cindex makefile fragment
4182 When you configure GCC using the @file{configure} script
4183 (@pxref{Installation}), it will construct the file @file{Makefile} from
4184 the template file @file{Makefile.in}. When it does this, it will
4185 incorporate makefile fragment files from the @file{config} directory,
4186 named @file{t-@var{target}} and @file{x-@var{host}}. If these files do
4187 not exist, it means nothing needs to be added for a given target or
4191 * Target Fragment:: Writing the @file{t-@var{target}} file.
4192 * Host Fragment:: Writing the @file{x-@var{host}} file.
4195 @node Target Fragment
4196 @section The Target Makefile Fragment
4197 @cindex target makefile fragment
4198 @cindex @file{t-@var{target}}
4200 The target makefile fragment, @file{t-@var{target}}, defines special
4201 target dependent variables and targets used in the @file{Makefile}:
4206 The rule to use to build @file{libgcc1.a}.
4207 If your target does not need to use the functions in @file{libgcc1.a},
4211 @findex CROSS_LIBGCC1
4213 The rule to use to build @file{libgcc1.a} when building a cross
4214 compiler. If your target does not need to use the functions in
4215 @file{libgcc1.a}, set this to empty. @xref{Cross Runtime}.
4217 @findex LIBGCC2_CFLAGS
4218 @item LIBGCC2_CFLAGS
4219 Compiler flags to use when compiling @file{libgcc2.c}.
4221 @findex LIB2FUNCS_EXTRA
4222 @item LIB2FUNCS_EXTRA
4223 A list of source file names to be compiled or assembled and inserted
4224 into @file{libgcc.a}.
4226 @findex Floating Point Emulation
4227 @item Floating Point Emulation
4228 To have GCC include software floating point libraries in @file{libgcc.a}
4229 define @code{FPBIT} and @code{DPBIT} along with a few rules as follows:
4231 # We want fine grained libraries, so use the new code to build the
4232 # floating point emulation libraries.
4237 fp-bit.c: $(srcdir)/config/fp-bit.c
4238 echo '#define FLOAT' > fp-bit.c
4239 cat $(srcdir)/config/fp-bit.c >> fp-bit.c
4241 dp-bit.c: $(srcdir)/config/fp-bit.c
4242 cat $(srcdir)/config/fp-bit.c > dp-bit.c
4245 You may need to provide additional #defines at the beginning of @file{fp-bit.c}
4246 and @file{dp-bit.c} to control target endianness and other options.
4249 @findex CRTSTUFF_T_CFLAGS
4250 @item CRTSTUFF_T_CFLAGS
4251 Special flags used when compiling @file{crtstuff.c}.
4252 @xref{Initialization}.
4254 @findex CRTSTUFF_T_CFLAGS_S
4255 @item CRTSTUFF_T_CFLAGS_S
4256 Special flags used when compiling @file{crtstuff.c} for shared
4257 linking. Used if you use @file{crtbeginS.o} and @file{crtendS.o}
4258 in @code{EXTRA-PARTS}.
4259 @xref{Initialization}.
4261 @findex MULTILIB_OPTIONS
4262 @item MULTILIB_OPTIONS
4263 For some targets, invoking GCC in different ways produces objects
4264 that can not be linked together. For example, for some targets GCC
4265 produces both big and little endian code. For these targets, you must
4266 arrange for multiple versions of @file{libgcc.a} to be compiled, one for
4267 each set of incompatible options. When GCC invokes the linker, it
4268 arranges to link in the right version of @file{libgcc.a}, based on
4269 the command line options used.
4271 The @code{MULTILIB_OPTIONS} macro lists the set of options for which
4272 special versions of @file{libgcc.a} must be built. Write options that
4273 are mutually incompatible side by side, separated by a slash. Write
4274 options that may be used together separated by a space. The build
4275 procedure will build all combinations of compatible options.
4277 For example, if you set @code{MULTILIB_OPTIONS} to @samp{m68000/m68020
4278 msoft-float}, @file{Makefile} will build special versions of
4279 @file{libgcc.a} using the following sets of options: @samp{-m68000},
4280 @samp{-m68020}, @samp{-msoft-float}, @samp{-m68000 -msoft-float}, and
4281 @samp{-m68020 -msoft-float}.
4283 @findex MULTILIB_DIRNAMES
4284 @item MULTILIB_DIRNAMES
4285 If @code{MULTILIB_OPTIONS} is used, this variable specifies the
4286 directory names that should be used to hold the various libraries.
4287 Write one element in @code{MULTILIB_DIRNAMES} for each element in
4288 @code{MULTILIB_OPTIONS}. If @code{MULTILIB_DIRNAMES} is not used, the
4289 default value will be @code{MULTILIB_OPTIONS}, with all slashes treated
4292 For example, if @code{MULTILIB_OPTIONS} is set to @samp{m68000/m68020
4293 msoft-float}, then the default value of @code{MULTILIB_DIRNAMES} is
4294 @samp{m68000 m68020 msoft-float}. You may specify a different value if
4295 you desire a different set of directory names.
4297 @findex MULTILIB_MATCHES
4298 @item MULTILIB_MATCHES
4299 Sometimes the same option may be written in two different ways. If an
4300 option is listed in @code{MULTILIB_OPTIONS}, GCC needs to know about
4301 any synonyms. In that case, set @code{MULTILIB_MATCHES} to a list of
4302 items of the form @samp{option=option} to describe all relevant
4303 synonyms. For example, @samp{m68000=mc68000 m68020=mc68020}.
4305 @findex MULTILIB_EXCEPTIONS
4306 @item MULTILIB_EXCEPTIONS
4307 Sometimes when there are multiple sets of @code{MULTILIB_OPTIONS} being
4308 specified, there are combinations that should not be built. In that
4309 case, set @code{MULTILIB_EXCEPTIONS} to be all of the switch exceptions
4310 in shell case syntax that should not be built.
4312 For example, in the PowerPC embedded ABI support, it is not desirable
4313 to build libraries compiled with the @samp{-mcall-aix} option
4314 and either of the @samp{-fleading-underscore} or @samp{-mlittle} options
4315 at the same time. Therefore @code{MULTILIB_EXCEPTIONS} is set to
4316 @code{*mcall-aix/*fleading-underscore* *mlittle/*mcall-aix*}.
4318 @findex MULTILIB_EXTRA_OPTS
4319 @item MULTILIB_EXTRA_OPTS
4320 Sometimes it is desirable that when building multiple versions of
4321 @file{libgcc.a} certain options should always be passed on to the
4322 compiler. In that case, set @code{MULTILIB_EXTRA_OPTS} to be the list
4323 of options to be used for all builds.
4327 @section The Host Makefile Fragment
4328 @cindex host makefile fragment
4329 @cindex @file{x-@var{host}}
4331 The host makefile fragment, @file{x-@var{host}}, defines special host
4332 dependent variables and targets used in the @file{Makefile}:
4337 The compiler to use when building the first stage.
4341 Additional host libraries to link with.
4345 The compiler to use when building @file{libgcc1.a} for a native
4350 The version of @code{ar} to use when building @file{libgcc1.a} for a native
4355 The install program to use.
4360 @unnumbered Funding Free Software
4362 If you want to have more free software a few years from now, it makes
4363 sense for you to help encourage people to contribute funds for its
4364 development. The most effective approach known is to encourage
4365 commercial redistributors to donate.
4367 Users of free software systems can boost the pace of development by
4368 encouraging for-a-fee distributors to donate part of their selling price
4369 to free software developers---the Free Software Foundation, and others.
4371 The way to convince distributors to do this is to demand it and expect
4372 it from them. So when you compare distributors, judge them partly by
4373 how much they give to free software development. Show distributors
4374 they must compete to be the one who gives the most.
4376 To make this approach work, you must insist on numbers that you can
4377 compare, such as, ``We will donate ten dollars to the Frobnitz project
4378 for each disk sold.'' Don't be satisfied with a vague promise, such as
4379 ``A portion of the profits are donated,'' since it doesn't give a basis
4382 Even a precise fraction ``of the profits from this disk'' is not very
4383 meaningful, since creative accounting and unrelated business decisions
4384 can greatly alter what fraction of the sales price counts as profit.
4385 If the price you pay is $50, ten percent of the profit is probably
4386 less than a dollar; it might be a few cents, or nothing at all.
4388 Some redistributors do development work themselves. This is useful too;
4389 but to keep everyone honest, you need to inquire how much they do, and
4390 what kind. Some kinds of development make much more long-term
4391 difference than others. For example, maintaining a separate version of
4392 a program contributes very little; maintaining the standard version of a
4393 program for the whole community contributes much. Easy new ports
4394 contribute little, since someone else would surely do them; difficult
4395 ports such as adding a new CPU to the GNU Compiler Collection contribute more;
4396 major new features or packages contribute the most.
4398 By establishing the idea that supporting further development is ``the
4399 proper thing to do'' when distributing free software for a fee, we can
4400 assure a steady flow of resources into making more free software.
4403 Copyright (C) 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4404 Verbatim copying and redistribution of this section is permitted
4405 without royalty; alteration is not permitted.
4409 @unnumbered Linux and the GNU Project
4411 Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every
4412 day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the
4413 version of GNU which is widely used today is more often known as
4414 ``Linux'', and many users are not aware of the extent of its
4415 connection with the GNU Project.
4417 There really is a Linux; it is a kernel, and these people are using
4418 it. But you can't use a kernel by itself; a kernel is useful only as
4419 part of a whole system. The system in which Linux is typically used
4420 is a modified variant of the GNU system---in other words, a Linux-based
4423 Many users are not fully aware of the distinction between the kernel,
4424 which is Linux, and the whole system, which they also call ``Linux''.
4425 The ambiguous use of the name doesn't promote understanding.
4427 Programmers generally know that Linux is a kernel. But since they
4428 have generally heard the whole system called ``Linux'' as well, they
4429 often envisage a history which fits that name. For example, many
4430 believe that once Linus Torvalds finished writing the kernel, his
4431 friends looked around for other free software, and for no particular
4432 reason most everything necessary to make a Unix-like system was
4435 What they found was no accident---it was the GNU system. The available
4436 free software added up to a complete system because the GNU Project
4437 had been working since 1984 to make one. The GNU Manifesto
4438 had set forth the goal of developing a free Unix-like system, called
4439 GNU. By the time Linux was written, the system was almost finished.
4441 Most free software projects have the goal of developing a particular
4442 program for a particular job. For example, Linus Torvalds set out to
4443 write a Unix-like kernel (Linux); Donald Knuth set out to write a text
4444 formatter (TeX); Bob Scheifler set out to develop a window system (X
4445 Windows). It's natural to measure the contribution of this kind of
4446 project by specific programs that came from the project.
4448 If we tried to measure the GNU Project's contribution in this way,
4449 what would we conclude? One CD-ROM vendor found that in their ``Linux
4450 distribution'', GNU software was the largest single contingent, around
4451 28% of the total source code, and this included some of the essential
4452 major components without which there could be no system. Linux itself
4453 was about 3%. So if you were going to pick a name for the system
4454 based on who wrote the programs in the system, the most appropriate
4455 single choice would be ``GNU''.
4457 But we don't think that is the right way to consider the question.
4458 The GNU Project was not, is not, a project to develop specific
4459 software packages. It was not a project to develop a C compiler,
4460 although we did. It was not a project to develop a text editor,
4461 although we developed one. The GNU Project's aim was to develop
4462 @emph{a complete free Unix-like system}.
4464 Many people have made major contributions to the free software in the
4465 system, and they all deserve credit. But the reason it is @emph{a
4466 system}---and not just a collection of useful programs---is because the
4467 GNU Project set out to make it one. We wrote the programs that were
4468 needed to make a @emph{complete} free system. We wrote essential but
4469 unexciting major components, such as the assembler and linker, because
4470 you can't have a system without them. A complete system needs more
4471 than just programming tools, so we wrote other components as well,
4472 such as the Bourne Again SHell, the PostScript interpreter
4473 Ghostscript, and the GNU C library.
4475 By the early 90s we had put together the whole system aside from the
4476 kernel (and we were also working on a kernel, the GNU Hurd, which runs
4477 on top of Mach). Developing this kernel has been a lot harder than we
4478 expected, and we are still working on finishing it.
4480 Fortunately, you don't have to wait for it, because Linux is working
4481 now. When Linus Torvalds wrote Linux, he filled the last major gap.
4482 People could then put Linux together with the GNU system to make a
4483 complete free system: a Linux-based GNU system (or GNU/Linux system,
4486 Putting them together sounds simple, but it was not a trivial job.
4487 The GNU C library (called glibc for short) needed substantial changes.
4488 Integrating a complete system as a distribution that would work ``out
4489 of the box'' was a big job, too. It required addressing the issue of
4490 how to install and boot the system---a problem we had not tackled,
4491 because we hadn't yet reached that point. The people who developed
4492 the various system distributions made a substantial contribution.
4494 The GNU Project supports GNU/Linux systems as well as @emph{the}
4495 GNU system---even with funds. We funded the rewriting of the
4496 Linux-related extensions to the GNU C library, so that now they are
4497 well integrated, and the newest GNU/Linux systems use the current
4498 library release with no changes. We also funded an early stage of the
4499 development of Debian GNU/Linux.
4501 We use Linux-based GNU systems today for most of our work, and we hope
4502 you use them too. But please don't confuse the public by using the
4503 name ``Linux'' ambiguously. Linux is the kernel, one of the essential
4504 major components of the system. The system as a whole is more or less
4508 @unnumbered GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
4509 @center Version 2, June 1991
4512 Copyright @copyright{} 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4513 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA
4515 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
4516 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
4519 @unnumberedsec Preamble
4521 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
4522 freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
4523 License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
4524 software---to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
4525 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
4526 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
4527 using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
4528 the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
4531 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
4532 price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
4533 have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
4534 this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
4535 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
4536 in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
4538 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
4539 anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
4540 These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
4541 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
4543 For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
4544 gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
4545 you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
4546 source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
4549 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
4550 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
4551 distribute and/or modify the software.
4553 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
4554 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
4555 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
4556 want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
4557 that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
4558 authors' reputations.
4560 Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
4561 patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
4562 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
4563 program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
4564 patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
4566 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
4567 modification follow.
4570 @unnumberedsec TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
4573 @center TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
4578 This License applies to any program or other work which contains
4579 a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
4580 under the terms of this General Public License. The ``Program'', below,
4581 refers to any such program or work, and a ``work based on the Program''
4582 means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
4583 that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
4584 either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
4585 language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
4586 the term ``modification''.) Each licensee is addressed as ``you''.
4588 Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
4589 covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
4590 running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
4591 is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
4592 Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
4593 Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
4596 You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
4597 source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
4598 conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
4599 copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
4600 notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
4601 and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
4602 along with the Program.
4604 You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
4605 you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
4608 You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
4609 of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
4610 distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
4611 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
4615 You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
4616 stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
4619 You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
4620 whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
4621 part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
4622 parties under the terms of this License.
4625 If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
4626 when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
4627 interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
4628 announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
4629 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
4630 a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
4631 these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
4632 License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
4633 does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
4634 the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
4637 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
4638 identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
4639 and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
4640 themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
4641 sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
4642 distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
4643 on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
4644 this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
4645 entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
4647 Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
4648 your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
4649 exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
4650 collective works based on the Program.
4652 In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
4653 with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
4654 a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
4655 the scope of this License.
4658 You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
4659 under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
4660 Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
4664 Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
4665 source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
4666 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
4669 Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
4670 years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
4671 cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
4672 machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
4673 distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
4674 customarily used for software interchange; or,
4677 Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
4678 to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
4679 allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
4680 received the program in object code or executable form with such
4681 an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
4684 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
4685 making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
4686 code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
4687 associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
4688 control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
4689 special exception, the source code distributed need not include
4690 anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
4691 form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
4692 operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
4693 itself accompanies the executable.
4695 If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
4696 access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
4697 access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
4698 distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
4699 compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
4702 You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
4703 except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
4704 otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
4705 void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
4706 However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
4707 this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
4708 parties remain in full compliance.
4711 You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
4712 signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
4713 distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
4714 prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
4715 modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
4716 Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
4717 all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
4718 the Program or works based on it.
4721 Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
4722 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
4723 original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
4724 these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
4725 restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
4726 You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
4730 If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
4731 infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
4732 conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
4733 otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
4734 excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
4735 distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
4736 License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
4737 may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
4738 license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
4739 all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
4740 the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
4741 refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
4743 If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
4744 any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
4745 apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
4748 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
4749 patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
4750 such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
4751 integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
4752 implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
4753 generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
4754 through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
4755 system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
4756 to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
4759 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
4760 be a consequence of the rest of this License.
4763 If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
4764 certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
4765 original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
4766 may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
4767 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
4768 countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
4769 the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
4772 The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
4773 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
4774 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
4775 address new problems or concerns.
4777 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
4778 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and ``any
4779 later version'', you have the option of following the terms and conditions
4780 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
4781 Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
4782 this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
4786 If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
4787 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
4788 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
4789 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
4790 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
4791 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
4792 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
4795 @heading NO WARRANTY
4802 BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
4803 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
4804 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
4805 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ``AS IS'' WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
4806 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
4807 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
4808 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
4809 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
4810 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
4813 IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
4814 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
4815 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
4816 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
4817 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
4818 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
4819 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
4820 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
4821 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
4825 @heading END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
4828 @center END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
4832 @unnumberedsec How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
4834 If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
4835 possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
4836 free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
4838 To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
4839 to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
4840 convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
4841 the ``copyright'' line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
4844 @var{one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.}
4845 Copyright (C) @var{yyyy} @var{name of author}
4847 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
4848 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
4849 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
4850 (at your option) any later version.
4852 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
4853 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
4854 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
4855 GNU General Public License for more details.
4857 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
4858 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
4859 Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
4862 Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
4864 If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
4865 when it starts in an interactive mode:
4868 Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) @var{yyyy} @var{name of author}
4869 Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details
4871 This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
4872 under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
4875 The hypothetical commands @samp{show w} and @samp{show c} should show
4876 the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the
4877 commands you use may be called something other than @samp{show w} and
4878 @samp{show c}; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items---whatever
4881 You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
4882 school, if any, to sign a ``copyright disclaimer'' for the program, if
4883 necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
4886 Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
4887 `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
4889 @var{signature of Ty Coon}, 1 April 1989
4890 Ty Coon, President of Vice
4893 This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
4894 proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
4895 consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
4896 library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
4897 Public License instead of this License.
4902 @unnumbered Contributors to GCC
4903 @cindex contributors
4904 @include contrib.texi