1 *** Changes in GCC 3.4:
3 * The C++ parser in G++ has been rewritten from scratch. As a result, G++
4 is considerably more compliant to the C++ standard. As a result, it
5 accepts more valid programs, and rejects more invalid programs.
7 Many of the changes below are a consequence of the new parser.
9 * Friend declarations that refer to template specializations are rejected
10 if the template has not already been declared.
19 is rejected; you must first declare `f' as a template:
24 * You must use "template <>" to introduce template specializations, as
25 required by the standard. For example:
32 is rejected; you must write:
34 template <> struct S<int> {};
36 * You must now use the `typename' and `template' keywords to disambiguate
37 dependent names, as required by the C++ standard.
39 * The "named return value" extension has been removed.
41 * The "implicit typename" extension has been removed.
43 * Default arguments in function types have been deprecated and will be
46 * G++ used to accept code like this:
54 This behavior is not mandated by the standard.
56 Now G++ issues an error about this code. To avoid the error, you must
57 move the declaration of `g' before the declaration of `f'. The
58 default arguments for `g' must be visible at the point where it is
61 * When -pedantic is used, G++ now issues errors about spurious semicolons;
64 namespace N {}; // Invalid semicolon.
65 void f() {}; // Invalid semicolon.
67 * G++ no longer accepts attributes for a declarator after the
68 initializer associated with that declarator. For example:
70 X x(1) __attribute__((...));
72 is no longer accepted. Instead, use:
74 X x __attribute__((...)) (1);
76 * Covariant returns are implemented for all but varadic functions that
77 require an adjustment.
79 *** Changes in GCC 3.3:
81 * The "new X = 3" extension has been removed; you must now use "new X(3)".
83 * G++ no longer allows in-class initializations of static data members
84 that do not have arithmetic or enumeration type. For example:
87 static const char* const p = "abc";
90 is no longer accepted.
92 Use the standards-conformant form:
95 static const char* const p;
98 const char* const S::p = "abc";
102 (ISO C++ is even stricter; it does not allow in-class
103 initializations of floating-point types.)
105 *** Changes in GCC 3.1:
107 * -fhonor-std and -fno-honor-std have been removed. -fno-honor-std was
108 a workaround to allow std compliant code to work with the non-std
109 compliant libstdc++-v2. libstdc++-v3 is std compliant.
111 * The C++ ABI has been fixed so that `void (A::*)() const' is mangled as
112 "M1AKFvvE", rather than "MK1AFvvE" as before. This change only affects
113 pointer to cv-qualified member function types.
115 * The C++ ABI has been changed to correctly handle this code:
118 void operator delete[] (void *, size_t);
121 struct B : public A {
126 The amount of storage allocated for the array will be greater than
127 it was in 3.0, in order to store the number of elements in the
128 array, so that the correct size can be passed to `operator delete[]'
129 when the array is deleted. Previously, the value passed to
130 `operator delete[]' was unpredictable.
132 This change will only affect code that declares a two-argument
133 `operator delete[]' with a second parameter of type `size_t'
134 in a base class, and does not override that definition in a
137 * The C++ ABI has been changed so that:
140 void operator delete[] (void *, size_t);
141 void operator delete[] (void *);
144 does not cause unnecessary storage to be allocated when an array of
145 `A' objects is allocated.
147 This change will only affect code that declares both of these
148 forms of `operator delete[]', and declared the two-argument form
149 before the one-argument form.
151 * The C++ ABI has been changed so that when a parameter is passed by value,
152 any cleanup for that parameter is performed in the caller, as specified
153 by the ia64 C++ ABI, rather than the called function as before. As a
154 result, classes with a non-trivial destructor but a trivial copy
155 constructor will be passed and returned by invisible reference, rather
156 than by bitwise copy as before.
158 * G++ now supports the "named return value optimization": for code like
166 G++ will allocate 'a' in the return value slot, so that the return
167 becomes a no-op. For this to work, all return statements in the function
168 must return the same variable.
170 *** Changes in GCC 3.0:
172 * Support for guiding declarations has been removed.
174 * G++ now supports importing member functions from base classes with a
177 * G++ now enforces access control for nested types.
179 * In some obscure cases, functions with the same type could have the
180 same mangled name. This bug caused compiler crashes, link-time clashes,
181 and debugger crashes. Fixing this bug required breaking ABI
182 compatibility for the functions involved. The functions in questions
183 are those whose types involve non-type template arguments whose
184 mangled representations require more than one digit.
186 * Support for assignment to `this' has been removed. This idiom
187 was used in the very early days of C++, before users were allowed
188 to overload `operator new'; it is no longer allowed by the C++
191 * Support for signatures, a G++ extension, have been removed.
193 * Certain invalid conversions that were previously accepted will now
194 be rejected. For example, assigning function pointers of one type
195 to function pointers of another type now requires a cast, whereas
196 previously g++ would sometimes accept the code even without the
199 * G++ previously allowed `sizeof (X::Y)' where Y was a non-static
200 member of X, even if the `sizeof' expression occurred outside
201 of a non-static member function of X (or one of its derived classes,
202 or a member-initializer for X or one of its derived classes.) This
203 extension has been removed.
205 * G++ no longer allows you to overload the conditional operator (i.e.,
208 * The "named return value" extension:
210 int f () return r { r = 3; }
212 has been deprecated, and will be removed in a future version of G++.
214 *** Changes in GCC 2.95:
216 * Messages about non-conformant code that we can still handle ("pedwarns")
217 are now errors by default, rather than warnings. This can be reverted
218 with -fpermissive, and is overridden by -pedantic or -pedantic-errors.
220 * String constants are now of type `const char[n]', rather than `char[n]'.
221 This can be reverted with -fno-const-strings.
223 * References to functions are now supported.
225 * Lookup of class members during class definition now works in all cases.
227 * In overload resolution, type conversion operators are now properly
228 treated as always coming from the most derived class.
230 * C9x-style restricted pointers are supported, using the `__restrict'
233 * You can now use -fno-implicit-inline-templates to suppress writing out
234 implicit instantiations of inline templates. Normally we do write them
235 out, even with -fno-implicit-templates, so that optimization doesn't
236 affect which instantiations are needed.
238 * -fstrict-prototype now also suppresses implicit declarations.
240 * Many obsolete options have been removed: -fall-virtual, -fmemoize-lookups,
241 -fsave-memoized, +e?, -fenum-int-equivalence, -fno-nonnull-objects.
243 * Unused virtual functions can be discarded on some targets by specifying
244 -ffunction-sections -fvtable-gc to the compiler and --gc-sections to the
245 linker. Unfortunately, this only works on Linux if you're linking
248 * Lots of bugs stomped.
250 *** Changes in EGCS 1.1:
252 * Namespaces are fully supported. The library has not yet been converted
253 to use namespace std, however, and the old std-faking code is still on by
254 default. To turn it off, you can use -fhonor-std.
256 * Massive template improvements:
257 + member template classes are supported.
258 + template friends are supported.
259 + template template parameters are supported.
260 + local classes in templates are supported.
261 + lots of bugs fixed.
263 * operator new now throws bad_alloc where appropriate.
265 * Exception handling is now thread safe, and supports nested exceptions and
266 placement delete. Exception handling overhead on x86 is much lower with
269 * protected virtual inheritance is now supported.
271 * Loops are optimized better; we now move the test to the end in most
272 cases, like the C frontend does.
274 * For class D derived from B which has a member 'int i', &D::i is now of
275 type 'int B::*' instead of 'int D::*'.
277 * An _experimental_ new ABI for g++ can be turned on with -fnew-abi. The
278 current features of this are more efficient allocation of base classes
279 (including the empty base optimization), and more compact mangling of C++
280 symbol names (which can be turned on separately with -fsquangle). This
281 ABI is subject to change without notice, so don't use it for anything
282 that you don't want to rebuild with every release of the compiler.
284 As with all ABI-changing flags, this flag is for experts only, as all
285 code (including the library code in libgcc and libstdc++) must be
286 compiled with the same ABI.
288 *** Changes in EGCS 1.0:
290 * A public review copy of the December 1996 Draft of the ISO/ANSI C++
291 standard is now available. See
293 http://www.cygnus.com/misc/wp/
295 for more information.
297 * g++ now uses a new implementation of templates. The basic idea is that
298 now templates are minimally parsed when seen and then expanded later.
299 This allows conformant early name binding and instantiation controls,
300 since instantiations no longer have to go through the parser.
304 + Inlining of template functions works without any extra effort or
306 + Instantiations of class templates and methods defined in the class
307 body are deferred until they are actually needed (unless
308 -fexternal-templates is specified).
309 + Nested types in class templates work.
310 + Static data member templates work.
311 + Member function templates are now supported.
312 + Partial specialization of class templates is now supported.
313 + Explicit specification of template parameters to function templates
316 Things you may need to fix in your code:
318 + Syntax errors in templates that are never instantiated will now be
320 + Types and class templates used in templates must be declared
321 first, or the compiler will assume they are not types, and fail.
322 + Similarly, nested types of template type parameters must be tagged
323 with the 'typename' keyword, except in base lists. In many cases,
324 but not all, the compiler will tell you where you need to add
325 'typename'. For more information, see
327 http://www.cygnus.com/misc/wp/dec96pub/template.html#temp.res
329 + Guiding declarations are no longer supported. Function declarations,
330 including friend declarations, do not refer to template instantiations.
331 You can restore the old behavior with -fguiding-decls until you fix
336 + Default function arguments in templates will not be evaluated (or
337 checked for semantic validity) unless they are needed. Default
338 arguments in class bodies will not be parsed until the class
339 definition is complete.
340 + The -ftemplate-depth-NN flag can be used to increase the maximum
341 recursive template instantiation depth, which defaults to 17. If you
342 need to use this flag, the compiler will tell you.
343 + Explicit instantiation of template constructors and destructors is
344 now supported. For instance:
346 template A<int>::A(const A&);
350 + Member class templates.
353 * Exception handling support has been significantly improved and is on by
354 default. The compiler supports two mechanisms for walking back up the
355 call stack; one relies on static information about how registers are
356 saved, and causes no runtime overhead for code that does not throw
357 exceptions. The other mechanism uses setjmp and longjmp equivalents, and
358 can result in quite a bit of runtime overhead. You can determine which
359 mechanism is the default for your target by compiling a testcase that
360 uses exceptions and doing an 'nm' on the object file; if it uses __throw,
361 it's using the first mechanism. If it uses __sjthrow, it's using the
364 You can turn EH support off with -fno-exceptions.
366 * RTTI support has been rewritten to work properly and is now on by default.
367 This means code that uses virtual functions will have a modest space
368 overhead. You can use the -fno-rtti flag to disable RTTI support.
370 * On ELF systems, duplicate copies of symbols with 'initialized common'
371 linkage (such as template instantiations, vtables, and extern inlines)
372 will now be discarded by the GNU linker, so you don't need to use -frepo.
373 This support requires GNU ld from binutils 2.8 or later.
375 * The overload resolution code has been rewritten to conform to the latest
376 C++ Working Paper. Built-in operators are now considered as candidates
377 in operator overload resolution. Function template overloading chooses
378 the more specialized template, and handles base classes in type deduction
379 and guiding declarations properly. In this release the old code can
380 still be selected with -fno-ansi-overloading, although this is not
381 supported and will be removed in a future release.
383 * Standard usage syntax for the std namespace is supported; std is treated
384 as an alias for global scope. General namespaces are still not supported.
388 + New warning -Wno-pmf-conversion (don't warn about
389 converting from a bound member function pointer to function
392 + A flag -Weffc++ has been added for violations of some of the style
393 guidelines in Scott Meyers' _Effective C++_ books.
395 + -Woverloaded-virtual now warns if a virtual function in a base
396 class is hidden in a derived class, rather than warning about
397 virtual functions being overloaded (even if all of the inherited
398 signatures are overridden) as it did before.
400 + -Wall no longer implies -W. The new warning flag, -Wsign-compare,
401 included in -Wall, warns about dangerous comparisons of signed and
402 unsigned values. Only the flag is new; it was previously part of
405 + The new flag, -fno-weak, disables the use of weak symbols.
407 * Synthesized methods are now emitted in any translation units that need
408 an out-of-line copy. They are no longer affected by #pragma interface
409 or #pragma implementation.
411 * __FUNCTION__ and __PRETTY_FUNCTION__ are now treated as variables by the
412 parser; previously they were treated as string constants. So code like
413 `printf (__FUNCTION__ ": foo")' must be rewritten to
414 `printf ("%s: foo", __FUNCTION__)'. This is necessary for templates.
416 * local static variables in extern inline functions will be shared between
419 * -fvtable-thunks is supported for all targets, and is the default for
420 Linux with glibc 2.x (also called libc 6.x).
422 * bool is now always the same size as another built-in type. Previously,
423 a 64-bit RISC target using a 32-bit ABI would have 32-bit pointers and a
424 64-bit bool. This should only affect Irix 6, which was not supported in
427 * new (nothrow) is now supported.
429 * Synthesized destructors are no longer made virtual just because the class
430 already has virtual functions, only if they override a virtual destructor
431 in a base class. The compiler will warn if this affects your code.
433 * The g++ driver now only links against libstdc++, not libg++; it is
434 functionally identical to the c++ driver.
436 * (void *)0 is no longer considered a null pointer constant; NULL in
437 <stddef.h> is now defined as __null, a magic constant of type (void *)
438 normally, or (size_t) with -ansi.
440 * The name of a class is now implicitly declared in its own scope; A::A
443 * Local classes are now supported.
445 * __attribute__ can now be attached to types as well as declarations.
447 * The compiler no longer emits a warning if an ellipsis is used as a
448 function's argument list.
450 * Definition of nested types outside of their containing class is now
451 supported. For instance:
462 * On the HPPA, some classes that do not define a copy constructor
463 will be passed and returned in memory again so that functions
464 returning those types can be inlined.
466 *** The g++ team thanks everyone that contributed to this release,
469 * Joe Buck <jbuck@synopsys.com>, the maintainer of the g++ FAQ.
470 * Brendan Kehoe <brendan@cygnus.com>, who coordinates testing of g++.
471 * Jason Merrill <jason@cygnus.com>, the g++ maintainer.
472 * Mark Mitchell <mmitchell@usa.net>, who implemented member function
473 templates and explicit qualification of function templates.
474 * Mike Stump <mrs@wrs.com>, the previous g++ maintainer, who did most of
475 the exception handling work.