gcc version mismatches

[Mike Alexander]

--On November 16, 2011 10:41:15 PM -0600 Ryan Schmidt 
<ryandesign at macports.org> wrote:

> Is it only Apple gcc that's a problem? If so, does that mean the
> problem is already resolved when using Xcode 4 on Lion and Snow
> Leopard, where the default compiler is not gcc, but Apple llvm-gcc or
> Apple clang (depending on Xcode version)?
>
> Is Apple clang vs. plain clang also a problem?
>
> The reason many ports depend on a gcc port is not because they need a
> newer C or C++ compiler, but because they need a Fortran compiler,
> which Apple doesn't provide at all. Many of these ports still happen
> to switch to using the C and C++ compiler corresponding to that
> Fortran compiler they need, because it's easy to do so (a single
> configure.compiler directive to switch the entire compiler
> collection). I don't know if we can mix and match fsf gcc Fortran
> compiler plus system C and C++ compiler; if we can, would that solve
> the problem? Or would code generated with Fortran also be vulnerable?
>

Mixing C++ compilers and hence run time libraries can lead to problems. 
Mixing C compilers is often ok, but C++ is a more complex language and 
different compilers have different ideas about object construction and 
destruction, VTable format, and other things that affect the generated 
code.  In a previous lifetime where I wrote lots of C++ code, I 
sometimes had to worry about problems like this.  You have to be 
careful that objects don't leak out of one library (compiled with 
compiler X) into another library (compiled with compiler Y).  I suspect 
this isn't a problem with most libraries in MacPorts since the APIs 
have been designed to avoid problems like this, but it could happen. 
As long as any object created by a given library is treated as an 
opaque pointer outside that library, you're probably ok.

Mixing compilers inside one port is more likely to cause problems.  I 
think that if a port needs a Fortran compiler it should use the 
corresponding C and C++ compilers.

-- 
Mike Alexander           mta at umich.edu
Ann Arbor, MI            PGP key ID: BEA343A6