gcc compilers to be supported by Macports, especially on older MacOS systems

[Chris Jones]

On 21/11/2024 3:02 pm, Ken Cunningham wrote:
> 
> On 2024-11-21, at 6:56 AM, Chris Jones wrote:
> 
>>
>>
>> On 21/11/2024 2:49 pm, Ken Cunningham wrote:
>>>> On Nov 21, 2024, at 6:44 AM, Chris Jones <jonesc at hep.phy.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 21/11/2024 2:44 pm, Ken Cunningham wrote:
>>>>>> On Nov 21, 2024, at 1:29 AM, Chris Jones via macports-dev <macports-dev at lists.macports.org> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> OOTH: If gcc10 is available and installed, why would you want to call in a full build of gcc13 unnecessarily to build the port?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If you are suggesting the builds should check to see what the user has installed and pick a compiler based on that, then no, absolutely not.
>>>>> Nobody ever suggested that.
>>>>
>>>> Then what precisely are you posing to do ?
>>>>
>>> Exactly what was stated before:
>>> current status then is we have a proposal to restrict available compilers on systems < 10.6 to
>>> gcc48, gcc5, gcc6, gcc7, gcc10, and gcc14
>>
>> OK, The proposals where hard to follow as you keep switching between making changes for all OSes and only for  < 10.6..
>>
>> It also does not explain how you would achieve your statement
>>
>> "OOTH: If gcc10 is available and installed, why would you want to call in a full build of gcc13 unnecessarily to build the port?"
>>
>> If you allow me to now rewrite this as
>>
>> "OOTH: If gcc10 is available and installed, why would you want to call in a full build of gcc14 unnecessarily to build the port?"
>>
>> then explain how you propose the compiler selection would work ? If a user has gcc10 installed, but does not have gcc14, then if the gcc selection remains as it is (use most recent available) a port build will still pick gcc14 and install that before using it ? I cannot see how you achieve the above without having the port first peak to see what the user has installed and base its decisions on that.
> 
> exactly the same as compiler selection works now.
> 
> gcc48, gcc5, gcc6, gcc7, gcc10, and gcc14 will be available.
> 
> compiler selection will go from gcc14 to gcc10 if gcc14 is blacklisted, avoiding potentially unnecessary installs of gcc13, 12, and 11 for no reason presuming gcc10 can build what gcc14 does not.
> 
> If someday there is a reason why uniquely and without fix only a gcc11,12, or 13 would do -- we will cross that bridge. That is very unlikely.

Where is the current list of gcc compilers considered as viable on <10.6 
defined ?

If I look at

https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/blob/master/_resources/port1.0/compilers/gcc_compilers.tcl

the list crated there for <10.6 is very short... If I am manually 
reading it right its just

macports-gcc-7 macports-gcc-6 macports-gcc-5