GCC44, GCC45, GCC46 - Whats the point?

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jun 15, 2010, at 14:41, Jeff Singleton wrote:

> Seriously...what is the point of even having gcc44, gcc45, gcc46 in Macports, if we can't even use the newest compilers inside of Macports?

There are several points.

One is that some software requires a GCC newer than that provided with Xcode. These ports can be told to use the specific newer gcc port they require.

More often, software might require a fortran compiler. gfortran is part of the GNU compiler collection and thus of the gcc ports, but Apple does not provide it or any other fortran compiler in Xcode, so any port that needs gfortran must use a gcc port.


> I mean, I spend the hours building it, because there are features and enhancements in gcc 4.4 that I would like to use in other apps. But, after waiting all this time for gcc44 to build, then searching for some way to force Macports to use the newly built compiler...I end up with the dreaded: "configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables" error.

There are a variety of reasons why that might be the case. The config.log should tell you more specifically what's wrong.


> ryandesign says forcing Macports to use a non-Xcode compiler is unsupported.

That's correct. We already don't do a very good job of testing our ports with the existing user-configurable options; adding more options to the mix (letting the user select a compiler) would decrease our effectiveness even further.


> I don't expect this thread to go far, if at all.  But I just wanted to state that it is useless, mind-numbing, and tediously unnecessary to make us believe we can build gcc44+ to use as the default compiler under Macports, when it just isn't possible to begin with.

I don't think anybody here made you believe you could build MacPorts ports with any compiler you wanted; if you had asked here we would have told you the opposite is true.