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Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 12:33:53 -0500 (EST)
From: Christopher C Chimelis <chris@classnet.med.miami.edu>
To: debian-alpha@lists.debian.org
Subject: PLEASE READ: egcs issues


Ok...

Geez, I have a headache from this, but it's worth it....

Here's what I've gathered from what I understand of what's going on (still
waiting for corrections from other parties involved if I happen to be way
off base here):

Our current version of egcs has a problem with the __register_frame_info
stuff, just like the i386 did.  I've confirmed this for sure and should
stretch back to anything compiled with egcs-1.1.1 (still not sure if
1.0.3a had the problem...can't get the source right now).  In a tiny
nutshell, egcs is inserting certain symbols (in fact a whole table) into
the startup routine of binaries that are not present in glibc's on some
other Alpha installations (namely RedHat), making the binaries unusable on
those systems.  In some cases, it means that if a newer libc6.1 package
isn't installed on a Debian system during an upgrade, any binary package
upgraded before that is probably unusable.

Loic, Matthias, and I are working on a solution that requires us to test
three different scenarios before figuring out which work and which is
best.  I'm kinda gambling on HJL's latest patch (19990115) being
"workable" and ok since the reasoning in the patch seems pretty sound.  I
also don't want to trade off any exception-handling benefits that the
patch provides by just saying "this is bad...take it out".

What does this mean to everyone?

This is hard part...basically, no matter what we come up with, it looks
like we're going to have to recompile alot of packages (anything compiled
since 1.1.1 was uploaded).  BUT, don't start right now.  Until we get some
fixed debs for egcs up to master, any recompilation is moot.  Also, Bart,
Paul, and everyone else uploading Alpha packages: if you can help it,
please hold all uploads until the fixed egcs otherwise you'll end up
recompiling it anyway (most likely).  I still recommend porting and
finding out if things work ok or not (keep making diffs for the BTS if
needed), but wait on the final deb compilation for upload until egcs is
fixed.

I'll be working on this ALOT in the next few days (hope my RL boss doesn't
notice...hehehe), but we WILL resolve it...

Thanks...
C


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