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 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-alpha-request@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org