source: trunk/third/gcc/gcc.info-11 @ 8834

This is Info file gcc.info, produced by Makeinfo-1.55 from the input
file gcc.texi.

   This file documents the use and the internals of the GNU compiler.

   Published by the Free Software Foundation 59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

   Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Free Software
Foundation, Inc.

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   Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
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File: gcc.info,  Node: Installation Problems,  Next: Cross-Compiler Problems,  Prev: Actual Bugs,  Up: Trouble

Installation Problems
=====================

   This is a list of problems (and some apparent problems which don't
really mean anything is wrong) that show up during installation of GNU
CC.

   * On certain systems, defining certain environment variables such as
     `CC' can interfere with the functioning of `make'.

   * If you encounter seemingly strange errors when trying to build the
     compiler in a directory other than the source directory, it could
     be because you have previously configured the compiler in the
     source directory.  Make sure you have done all the necessary
     preparations.  *Note Other Dir::.

   * If you build GNU CC on a BSD system using a directory stored in a
     System V file system, problems may occur in running `fixincludes'
     if the System V file system doesn't support symbolic links.  These
     problems result in a failure to fix the declaration of `size_t' in
     `sys/types.h'.  If you find that `size_t' is a signed type and
     that type mismatches occur, this could be the cause.

     The solution is not to use such a directory for building GNU CC.

   * In previous versions of GNU CC, the `gcc' driver program looked for
     `as' and `ld' in various places; for example, in files beginning
     with `/usr/local/lib/gcc-'.  GNU CC version 2 looks for them in
     the directory `/usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/TARGET/VERSION'.

     Thus, to use a version of `as' or `ld' that is not the system
     default, for example `gas' or GNU `ld', you must put them in that
     directory (or make links to them from that directory).

   * Some commands executed when making the compiler may fail (return a
     non-zero status) and be ignored by `make'.  These failures, which
     are often due to files that were not found, are expected, and can
     safely be ignored.

   * It is normal to have warnings in compiling certain files about
     unreachable code and about enumeration type clashes.  These files'
     names begin with `insn-'.  Also, `real.c' may get some warnings
     that you can ignore.

   * Sometimes `make' recompiles parts of the compiler when installing
     the compiler.  In one case, this was traced down to a bug in
     `make'.  Either ignore the problem or switch to GNU Make.

   * If you have installed a program known as purify, you may find that
     it causes errors while linking `enquire', which is part of building
     GNU CC.  The fix is to get rid of the file `real-ld' which purify
     installs--so that GNU CC won't try to use it.

   * On SLS 1.01, a Linux-based GNU system, there is a problem with
     `libc.a': it does not contain the obstack functions.  However, GNU
     CC assumes that the obstack functions are in `libc.a' when it is
     the GNU C library.  To work around this problem, change the
     `__GNU_LIBRARY__' conditional around line 31 to `#if 1'.

   * On some 386 systems, building the compiler never finishes because
     `enquire' hangs due to a hardware problem in the motherboard--it
     reports floating point exceptions to the kernel incorrectly.  You
     can install GNU CC except for `float.h' by patching out the
     command to run `enquire'.  You may also be able to fix the problem
     for real by getting a replacement motherboard.  This problem was
     observed in Revision E of the Micronics motherboard, and is fixed
     in Revision F.  It has also been observed in the MYLEX MXA-33
     motherboard.

     If you encounter this problem, you may also want to consider
     removing the FPU from the socket during the compilation.
     Alternatively, if you are running SCO Unix, you can reboot and
     force the FPU to be ignored.  To do this, type `hd(40)unix auto
     ignorefpu'.

   * On some 386 systems, GNU CC crashes trying to compile `enquire.c'.
     This happens on machines that don't have a 387 FPU chip.  On 386
     machines, the system kernel is supposed to emulate the 387 when you
     don't have one.  The crash is due to a bug in the emulator.

     One of these systems is the Unix from Interactive Systems: 386/ix.
     On this system, an alternate emulator is provided, and it does
     work.  To use it, execute this command as super-user:

          ln /etc/emulator.rel1 /etc/emulator

     and then reboot the system.  (The default emulator file remains
     present under the name `emulator.dflt'.)

     Try using `/etc/emulator.att', if you have such a problem on the
     SCO system.

     Another system which has this problem is Esix.  We don't know
     whether it has an alternate emulator that works.

     On NetBSD 0.8, a similar problem manifests itself as these error
     messages:

          enquire.c: In function `fprop':
          enquire.c:2328: floating overflow

   * On SCO systems, when compiling GNU CC with the system's compiler,
     do not use `-O'.  Some versions of the system's compiler miscompile
     GNU CC with `-O'.

   * Sometimes on a Sun 4 you may observe a crash in the program
     `genflags' or `genoutput' while building GNU CC.  This is said to
     be due to a bug in `sh'.  You can probably get around it by running
     `genflags' or `genoutput' manually and then retrying the `make'.

   * On Solaris 2, executables of GNU CC version 2.0.2 are commonly
     available, but they have a bug that shows up when compiling current
     versions of GNU CC: undefined symbol errors occur during assembly
     if you use `-g'.

     The solution is to compile the current version of GNU CC without
     `-g'.  That makes a working compiler which you can use to recompile
     with `-g'.

   * Solaris 2 comes with a number of optional OS packages.  Some of
     these packages are needed to use GNU CC fully.  If you did not
     install all optional packages when installing Solaris, you will
     need to verify that the packages that GNU CC needs are installed.

     To check whether an optional package is installed, use the
     `pkginfo' command.  To add an optional package, use the `pkgadd'
     command.  For further details, see the Solaris documentation.

     For Solaris 2.0 and 2.1, GNU CC needs six packages: `SUNWarc',
     `SUNWbtool', `SUNWesu', `SUNWhea', `SUNWlibm', and `SUNWtoo'.

     For Solaris 2.2, GNU CC needs an additional seventh package:
     `SUNWsprot'.

   * On Solaris 2, trying to use the linker and other tools in
     `/usr/ucb' to install GNU CC has been observed to cause trouble.
     For example, the linker may hang indefinitely.  The fix is to
     remove `/usr/ucb' from your `PATH'.

   * If you use the 1.31 version of the MIPS assembler (such as was
     shipped with Ultrix 3.1), you will need to use the
     -fno-delayed-branch switch when optimizing floating point code.
     Otherwise, the assembler will complain when the GCC compiler fills
     a branch delay slot with a floating point instruction, such as
     `add.d'.

   * If on a MIPS system you get an error message saying "does not have
     gp sections for all it's [sic] sectons [sic]", don't worry about
     it.  This happens whenever you use GAS with the MIPS linker, but
     there is not really anything wrong, and it is okay to use the
     output file.  You can stop such warnings by installing the GNU
     linker.

     It would be nice to extend GAS to produce the gp tables, but they
     are optional, and there should not be a warning about their
     absence.

   * In Ultrix 4.0 on the MIPS machine, `stdio.h' does not work with GNU
     CC at all unless it has been fixed with `fixincludes'.  This causes
     problems in building GNU CC.  Once GNU CC is installed, the
     problems go away.

     To work around this problem, when making the stage 1 compiler,
     specify this option to Make:

          GCC_FOR_TARGET="./xgcc -B./ -I./include"

     When making stage 2 and stage 3, specify this option:

          CFLAGS="-g -I./include"

   * Users have reported some problems with version 2.0 of the MIPS
     compiler tools that were shipped with Ultrix 4.1.  Version 2.10
     which came with Ultrix 4.2 seems to work fine.

     Users have also reported some problems with version 2.20 of the
     MIPS compiler tools that were shipped with RISC/os 4.x.  The
     earlier version 2.11 seems to work fine.

   * Some versions of the MIPS linker will issue an assertion failure
     when linking code that uses `alloca' against shared libraries on
     RISC-OS 5.0, and DEC's OSF/1 systems.  This is a bug in the
     linker, that is supposed to be fixed in future revisions.  To
     protect against this, GNU CC passes `-non_shared' to the linker
     unless you pass an explicit `-shared' or `-call_shared' switch.

   * On System V release 3, you may get this error message while
     linking:

          ld fatal: failed to write symbol name SOMETHING
           in strings table for file WHATEVER

     This probably indicates that the disk is full or your ULIMIT won't
     allow the file to be as large as it needs to be.

     This problem can also result because the kernel parameter `MAXUMEM'
     is too small.  If so, you must regenerate the kernel and make the
     value much larger.  The default value is reported to be 1024; a
     value of 32768 is said to work.  Smaller values may also work.

   * On System V, if you get an error like this,

          /usr/local/lib/bison.simple: In function `yyparse':
          /usr/local/lib/bison.simple:625: virtual memory exhausted

     that too indicates a problem with disk space, ULIMIT, or `MAXUMEM'.

   * Current GNU CC versions probably do not work on version 2 of the
     NeXT operating system.

   * On NeXTStep 3.0, the Objective C compiler does not work, due,
     apparently, to a kernel bug that it happens to trigger.  This
     problem does not happen on 3.1.

   * On the Tower models 4N0 and 6N0, by default a process is not
     allowed to have more than one megabyte of memory.  GNU CC cannot
     compile itself (or many other programs) with `-O' in that much
     memory.

     To solve this problem, reconfigure the kernel adding the following
     line to the configuration file:

          MAXUMEM = 4096

   * On HP 9000 series 300 or 400 running HP-UX release 8.0, there is a
     bug in the assembler that must be fixed before GNU CC can be
     built.  This bug manifests itself during the first stage of
     compilation, while building `libgcc2.a':

          _floatdisf
          cc1: warning: `-g' option not supported on this version of GCC
          cc1: warning: `-g1' option not supported on this version of GCC
          ./xgcc: Internal compiler error: program as got fatal signal 11

     A patched version of the assembler is available by anonymous ftp
     from `altdorf.ai.mit.edu' as the file
     `archive/cph/hpux-8.0-assembler'.  If you have HP software support,
     the patch can also be obtained directly from HP, as described in
     the following note:

          This is the patched assembler, to patch SR#1653-010439, where
          the assembler aborts on floating point constants.

          The bug is not really in the assembler, but in the shared
          library version of the function "cvtnum(3c)".  The bug on
          "cvtnum(3c)" is SR#4701-078451.  Anyway, the attached
          assembler uses the archive library version of "cvtnum(3c)"
          and thus does not exhibit the bug.

     This patch is also known as PHCO_4484.

   * On HP-UX version 8.05, but not on 8.07 or more recent versions,
     the `fixproto' shell script triggers a bug in the system shell.
     If you encounter this problem, upgrade your operating system or
     use BASH (the GNU shell) to run `fixproto'.

   * Some versions of the Pyramid C compiler are reported to be unable
     to compile GNU CC.  You must use an older version of GNU CC for
     bootstrapping.  One indication of this problem is if you get a
     crash when GNU CC compiles the function `muldi3' in file
     `libgcc2.c'.

     You may be able to succeed by getting GNU CC version 1, installing
     it, and using it to compile GNU CC version 2.  The bug in the
     Pyramid C compiler does not seem to affect GNU CC version 1.

   * There may be similar problems on System V Release 3.1 on 386
     systems.

   * On the Intel Paragon (an i860 machine), if you are using operating
     system version 1.0, you will get warnings or errors about
     redefinition of `va_arg' when you build GNU CC.

     If this happens, then you need to link most programs with the
     library `iclib.a'.  You must also modify `stdio.h' as follows:
     before the lines

          #if     defined(__i860__) && !defined(_VA_LIST)
          #include <va_list.h>

     insert the line

          #if __PGC__

     and after the lines

          extern int  vprintf(const char *, va_list );
          extern int  vsprintf(char *, const char *, va_list );
          #endif

     insert the line

          #endif /* __PGC__ */

     These problems don't exist in operating system version 1.1.

   * On the Altos 3068, programs compiled with GNU CC won't work unless
     you fix a kernel bug.  This happens using system versions V.2.2
     1.0gT1 and V.2.2 1.0e and perhaps later versions as well.  See the
     file `README.ALTOS'.

   * You will get several sorts of compilation and linking errors on the
     we32k if you don't follow the special instructions.  *Note
     Configurations::.

   * A bug in the HP-UX 8.05 (and earlier) shell will cause the fixproto
     program to report an error of the form:

          ./fixproto: sh internal 1K buffer overflow

     To fix this, change the first line of the fixproto script to look
     like:

          #!/bin/ksh


File: gcc.info,  Node: Cross-Compiler Problems,  Next: Interoperation,  Prev: Installation Problems,  Up: Trouble

Cross-Compiler Problems
=======================

   You may run into problems with cross compilation on certain machines,
for several reasons.

   * Cross compilation can run into trouble for certain machines because
     some target machines' assemblers require floating point numbers to
     be written as *integer* constants in certain contexts.

     The compiler writes these integer constants by examining the
     floating point value as an integer and printing that integer,
     because this is simple to write and independent of the details of
     the floating point representation.  But this does not work if the
     compiler is running on a different machine with an incompatible
     floating point format, or even a different byte-ordering.

     In addition, correct constant folding of floating point values
     requires representing them in the target machine's format.  (The C
     standard does not quite require this, but in practice it is the
     only way to win.)

     It is now possible to overcome these problems by defining macros
     such as `REAL_VALUE_TYPE'.  But doing so is a substantial amount of
     work for each target machine.  *Note Cross-compilation::.

   * At present, the program `mips-tfile' which adds debug support to
     object files on MIPS systems does not work in a cross compile
     environment.


File: gcc.info,  Node: Interoperation,  Next: External Bugs,  Prev: Cross-Compiler Problems,  Up: Trouble

Interoperation
==============

   This section lists various difficulties encountered in using GNU C or
GNU C++ together with other compilers or with the assemblers, linkers,
libraries and debuggers on certain systems.

   * Objective C does not work on the RS/6000.

   * GNU C++ does not do name mangling in the same way as other C++
     compilers.  This means that object files compiled with one compiler
     cannot be used with another.

     This effect is intentional, to protect you from more subtle
     problems.  Compilers differ as to many internal details of C++
     implementation, including: how class instances are laid out, how
     multiple inheritance is implemented, and how virtual function
     calls are handled.  If the name encoding were made the same, your
     programs would link against libraries provided from other
     compilers--but the programs would then crash when run.
     Incompatible libraries are then detected at link time, rather than
     at run time.

   * Older GDB versions sometimes fail to read the output of GNU CC
     version 2.  If you have trouble, get GDB version 4.4 or later.

   * DBX rejects some files produced by GNU CC, though it accepts
     similar constructs in output from PCC.  Until someone can supply a
     coherent description of what is valid DBX input and what is not,
     there is nothing I can do about these problems.  You are on your
     own.

   * The GNU assembler (GAS) does not support PIC.  To generate PIC
     code, you must use some other assembler, such as `/bin/as'.

   * On some BSD systems, including some versions of Ultrix, use of
     profiling causes static variable destructors (currently used only
     in C++) not to be run.

   * Use of `-I/usr/include' may cause trouble.

     Many systems come with header files that won't work with GNU CC
     unless corrected by `fixincludes'.  The corrected header files go
     in a new directory; GNU CC searches this directory before
     `/usr/include'.  If you use `-I/usr/include', this tells GNU CC to
     search `/usr/include' earlier on, before the corrected headers.
     The result is that you get the uncorrected header files.

     Instead, you should use these options (when compiling C programs):

          -I/usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/TARGET/VERSION/include -I/usr/include

     For C++ programs, GNU CC also uses a special directory that
     defines C++ interfaces to standard C subroutines.  This directory
     is meant to be searched *before* other standard include
     directories, so that it takes precedence.  If you are compiling
     C++ programs and specifying include directories explicitly, use
     this option first, then the two options above:

          -I/usr/local/lib/g++-include

   * On some SGI systems, when you use `-lgl_s' as an option, it gets
     translated magically to `-lgl_s -lX11_s -lc_s'.  Naturally, this
     does not happen when you use GNU CC.  You must specify all three
     options explicitly.

   * On a Sparc, GNU CC aligns all values of type `double' on an 8-byte
     boundary, and it expects every `double' to be so aligned.  The Sun
     compiler usually gives `double' values 8-byte alignment, with one
     exception: function arguments of type `double' may not be aligned.

     As a result, if a function compiled with Sun CC takes the address
     of an argument of type `double' and passes this pointer of type
     `double *' to a function compiled with GNU CC, dereferencing the
     pointer may cause a fatal signal.

     One way to solve this problem is to compile your entire program
     with GNU CC.  Another solution is to modify the function that is
     compiled with Sun CC to copy the argument into a local variable;
     local variables are always properly aligned.  A third solution is
     to modify the function that uses the pointer to dereference it via
     the following function `access_double' instead of directly with
     `*':

          inline double
          access_double (double *unaligned_ptr)
          {
            union d2i { double d; int i[2]; };
          
            union d2i *p = (union d2i *) unaligned_ptr;
            union d2i u;
          
            u.i[0] = p->i[0];
            u.i[1] = p->i[1];
          
            return u.d;
          }

     Storing into the pointer can be done likewise with the same union.

   * On Solaris, the `malloc' function in the `libmalloc.a' library may
     allocate memory that is only 4 byte aligned.  Since GNU CC on the
     Sparc assumes that doubles are 8 byte aligned, this may result in a
     fatal signal if doubles are stored in memory allocated by the
     `libmalloc.a' library.

     The solution is to not use the `libmalloc.a' library.  Use instead
     `malloc' and related functions from `libc.a'; they do not have
     this problem.

   * Sun forgot to include a static version of `libdl.a' with some
     versions of SunOS (mainly 4.1).  This results in undefined symbols
     when linking static binaries (that is, if you use `-static').  If
     you see undefined symbols `_dlclose', `_dlsym' or `_dlopen' when
     linking, compile and link against the file `mit/util/misc/dlsym.c'
     from the MIT version of X windows.

   * The 128-bit long double format that the Sparc port supports
     currently works by using the architecturally defined quad-word
     floating point instructions.  Since there is no hardware that
     supports these instructions they must be emulated by the operating
     system.  Long doubles do not work in Sun OS versions 4.0.3 and
     earlier, because the kernel emulator uses an obsolete and
     incompatible format.  Long doubles do not work in Sun OS version
     4.1.1 due to a problem in a Sun library.  Long doubles do work on
     Sun OS versions 4.1.2 and higher, but GNU CC does not enable them
     by default.  Long doubles appear to work in Sun OS 5.x (Solaris
     2.x).

   * On HP-UX version 9.01 on the HP PA, the HP compiler `cc' does not
     compile GNU CC correctly.  We do not yet know why.  However, GNU CC
     compiled on earlier HP-UX versions works properly on HP-UX 9.01
     and can compile itself properly on 9.01.

   * On the HP PA machine, ADB sometimes fails to work on functions
     compiled with GNU CC.  Specifically, it fails to work on functions
     that use `alloca' or variable-size arrays.  This is because GNU CC
     doesn't generate HP-UX unwind descriptors for such functions.  It
     may even be impossible to generate them.

   * Debugging (`-g') is not supported on the HP PA machine, unless you
     use the preliminary GNU tools (*note Installation::.).

   * Taking the address of a label may generate errors from the HP-UX
     PA assembler.  GAS for the PA does not have this problem.

   * Using floating point parameters for indirect calls to static
     functions will not work when using the HP assembler.  There simply
     is no way for GCC to specify what registers hold arguments for
     static functions when using the HP assembler.  GAS for the PA does
     not have this problem.

   * In extremely rare cases involving some very large functions you may
     receive errors from the HP linker complaining about an out of
     bounds unconditional branch offset.  This used to occur more often
     in previous versions of GNU CC, but is now exceptionally rare.  If
     you should run into it, you can work around by making your
     function smaller.

   * GNU CC compiled code sometimes emits warnings from the HP-UX
     assembler of the form:

          (warning) Use of GR3 when
            frame >= 8192 may cause conflict.

     These warnings are harmless and can be safely ignored.

   * The current version of the assembler (`/bin/as') for the RS/6000
     has certain problems that prevent the `-g' option in GCC from
     working.  Note that `Makefile.in' uses `-g' by default when
     compiling `libgcc2.c'.

     IBM has produced a fixed version of the assembler.  The upgraded
     assembler unfortunately was not included in any of the AIX 3.2
     update PTF releases (3.2.2, 3.2.3, or 3.2.3e).  Users of AIX 3.1
     should request PTF U403044 from IBM and users of AIX 3.2 should
     request PTF U416277.  See the file `README.RS6000' for more
     details on these updates.

     You can test for the presense of a fixed assembler by using the
     command

          as -u < /dev/null

     If the command exits normally, the assembler fix already is
     installed.  If the assembler complains that "-u" is an unknown
     flag, you need to order the fix.

   * On the IBM RS/6000, compiling code of the form

          extern int foo;
          
          ... foo ...
          
          static int foo;

     will cause the linker to report an undefined symbol `foo'.
     Although this behavior differs from most other systems, it is not a
     bug because redefining an `extern' variable as `static' is
     undefined in ANSI C.

   * AIX on the RS/6000 provides support (NLS) for environments outside
     of the United States.  Compilers and assemblers use NLS to support
     locale-specific representations of various objects including
     floating-point numbers ("." vs "," for separating decimal
     fractions).  There have been problems reported where the library
     linked with GCC does not produce the same floating-point formats
     that the assembler accepts.  If you have this problem, set the
     LANG environment variable to "C" or "En_US".

   * Even if you specify `-fdollars-in-identifiers', you cannot
     successfully use `$' in identifiers on the RS/6000 due to a
     restriction in the IBM assembler.  GAS supports these identifiers.

   * On the RS/6000, XLC version 1.3.0.0 will miscompile `jump.c'.  XLC
     version 1.3.0.1 or later fixes this problem.  You can obtain
     XLC-1.3.0.2 by requesting PTF 421749 from IBM.

   * There is an assembler bug in versions of DG/UX prior to 5.4.2.01
     that occurs when the `fldcr' instruction is used.  GNU CC uses
     `fldcr' on the 88100 to serialize volatile memory references.  Use
     the option `-mno-serialize-volatile' if your version of the
     assembler has this bug.

   * On VMS, GAS versions 1.38.1 and earlier may cause spurious warning
     messages from the linker.  These warning messages complain of
     mismatched psect attributes.  You can ignore them.  *Note VMS
     Install::.

   * On NewsOS version 3, if you include both of the files `stddef.h'
     and `sys/types.h', you get an error because there are two typedefs
     of `size_t'.  You should change `sys/types.h' by adding these
     lines around the definition of `size_t':

          #ifndef _SIZE_T
          #define _SIZE_T
          ACTUAL TYPEDEF HERE
          #endif

   * On the Alliant, the system's own convention for returning
     structures and unions is unusual, and is not compatible with GNU
     CC no matter what options are used.

   * On the IBM RT PC, the MetaWare HighC compiler (hc) uses a different
     convention for structure and union returning.  Use the option
     `-mhc-struct-return' to tell GNU CC to use a convention compatible
     with it.

   * On Ultrix, the Fortran compiler expects registers 2 through 5 to
     be saved by function calls.  However, the C compiler uses
     conventions compatible with BSD Unix: registers 2 through 5 may be
     clobbered by function calls.

     GNU CC uses the same convention as the Ultrix C compiler.  You can
     use these options to produce code compatible with the Fortran
     compiler:

          -fcall-saved-r2 -fcall-saved-r3 -fcall-saved-r4 -fcall-saved-r5

   * On the WE32k, you may find that programs compiled with GNU CC do
     not work with the standard shared C library.  You may need to link
     with the ordinary C compiler.  If you do so, you must specify the
     following options:

          -L/usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/we32k-att-sysv/2.7.1 -lgcc -lc_s

     The first specifies where to find the library `libgcc.a' specified
     with the `-lgcc' option.

     GNU CC does linking by invoking `ld', just as `cc' does, and there
     is no reason why it *should* matter which compilation program you
     use to invoke `ld'.  If someone tracks this problem down, it can
     probably be fixed easily.

   * On the Alpha, you may get assembler errors about invalid syntax as
     a result of floating point constants.  This is due to a bug in the
     C library functions `ecvt', `fcvt' and `gcvt'.  Given valid
     floating point numbers, they sometimes print `NaN'.

   * On Irix 4.0.5F (and perhaps in some other versions), an assembler
     bug sometimes reorders instructions incorrectly when optimization
     is turned on.  If you think this may be happening to you, try
     using the GNU assembler; GAS version 2.1 supports ECOFF on Irix.

     Or use the `-noasmopt' option when you compile GNU CC with itself,
     and then again when you compile your program.  (This is a temporary
     kludge to turn off assembler optimization on Irix.)  If this
     proves to be what you need, edit the assembler spec in the file
     `specs' so that it unconditionally passes `-O0' to the assembler,
     and never passes `-O2' or `-O3'.


File: gcc.info,  Node: External Bugs,  Next: Incompatibilities,  Prev: Interoperation,  Up: Trouble

Problems Compiling Certain Programs
===================================

   Certain programs have problems compiling.

   * Parse errors may occur compiling X11 on a Decstation running
     Ultrix 4.2 because of problems in DEC's versions of the X11 header
     files `X11/Xlib.h' and `X11/Xutil.h'.  People recommend adding
     `-I/usr/include/mit' to use the MIT versions of the header files,
     using the `-traditional' switch to turn off ANSI C, or fixing the
     header files by adding this:

          #ifdef __STDC__
          #define NeedFunctionPrototypes 0
          #endif

   * If you have trouble compiling Perl on a SunOS 4 system, it may be
     because Perl specifies `-I/usr/ucbinclude'.  This accesses the
     unfixed header files.  Perl specifies the options

          -traditional -Dvolatile=__volatile__
          -I/usr/include/sun -I/usr/ucbinclude
          -fpcc-struct-return

     most of which are unnecessary with GCC 2.4.5 and newer versions.
     You can make a properly working Perl by setting `ccflags' to
     `-fwritable-strings' (implied by the `-traditional' in the
     original options) and `cppflags' to empty in `config.sh', then
     typing `./doSH; make depend; make'.

   * On various 386 Unix systems derived from System V, including SCO,
     ISC, and ESIX, you may get error messages about running out of
     virtual memory while compiling certain programs.

     You can prevent this problem by linking GNU CC with the GNU malloc
     (which thus replaces the malloc that comes with the system).  GNU
     malloc is available as a separate package, and also in the file
     `src/gmalloc.c' in the GNU Emacs 19 distribution.

     If you have installed GNU malloc as a separate library package,
     use this option when you relink GNU CC:

          MALLOC=/usr/local/lib/libgmalloc.a

     Alternatively, if you have compiled `gmalloc.c' from Emacs 19, copy
     the object file to `gmalloc.o' and use this option when you relink
     GNU CC:

          MALLOC=gmalloc.o


File: gcc.info,  Node: Incompatibilities,  Next: Fixed Headers,  Prev: External Bugs,  Up: Trouble

Incompatibilities of GNU CC
===========================

   There are several noteworthy incompatibilities between GNU C and most
existing (non-ANSI) versions of C.  The `-traditional' option
eliminates many of these incompatibilities, *but not all*, by telling
GNU C to behave like the other C compilers.

   * GNU CC normally makes string constants read-only.  If several
     identical-looking string constants are used, GNU CC stores only one
     copy of the string.

     One consequence is that you cannot call `mktemp' with a string
     constant argument.  The function `mktemp' always alters the string
     its argument points to.

     Another consequence is that `sscanf' does not work on some systems
     when passed a string constant as its format control string or
     input.  This is because `sscanf' incorrectly tries to write into
     the string constant.  Likewise `fscanf' and `scanf'.

     The best solution to these problems is to change the program to use
     `char'-array variables with initialization strings for these
     purposes instead of string constants.  But if this is not possible,
     you can use the `-fwritable-strings' flag, which directs GNU CC to
     handle string constants the same way most C compilers do.
     `-traditional' also has this effect, among others.

   * `-2147483648' is positive.

     This is because 2147483648 cannot fit in the type `int', so
     (following the ANSI C rules) its data type is `unsigned long int'.
     Negating this value yields 2147483648 again.

   * GNU CC does not substitute macro arguments when they appear inside
     of string constants.  For example, the following macro in GNU CC

          #define foo(a) "a"

     will produce output `"a"' regardless of what the argument A is.

     The `-traditional' option directs GNU CC to handle such cases
     (among others) in the old-fashioned (non-ANSI) fashion.

   * When you use `setjmp' and `longjmp', the only automatic variables
     guaranteed to remain valid are those declared `volatile'.  This is
     a consequence of automatic register allocation.  Consider this
     function:

          jmp_buf j;
          
          foo ()
          {
            int a, b;
          
            a = fun1 ();
            if (setjmp (j))
              return a;
          
            a = fun2 ();
            /* `longjmp (j)' may occur in `fun3'. */
            return a + fun3 ();
          }

     Here `a' may or may not be restored to its first value when the
     `longjmp' occurs.  If `a' is allocated in a register, then its
     first value is restored; otherwise, it keeps the last value stored
     in it.

     If you use the `-W' option with the `-O' option, you will get a
     warning when GNU CC thinks such a problem might be possible.

     The `-traditional' option directs GNU C to put variables in the
     stack by default, rather than in registers, in functions that call
     `setjmp'.  This results in the behavior found in traditional C
     compilers.

   * Programs that use preprocessing directives in the middle of macro
     arguments do not work with GNU CC.  For example, a program like
     this will not work:

          foobar (
          #define luser
                  hack)

     ANSI C does not permit such a construct.  It would make sense to
     support it when `-traditional' is used, but it is too much work to
     implement.

   * Declarations of external variables and functions within a block
     apply only to the block containing the declaration.  In other
     words, they have the same scope as any other declaration in the
     same place.

     In some other C compilers, a `extern' declaration affects all the
     rest of the file even if it happens within a block.

     The `-traditional' option directs GNU C to treat all `extern'
     declarations as global, like traditional compilers.

   * In traditional C, you can combine `long', etc., with a typedef
     name, as shown here:

          typedef int foo;
          typedef long foo bar;

     In ANSI C, this is not allowed: `long' and other type modifiers
     require an explicit `int'.  Because this criterion is expressed by
     Bison grammar rules rather than C code, the `-traditional' flag
     cannot alter it.

   * PCC allows typedef names to be used as function parameters.  The
     difficulty described immediately above applies here too.

   * PCC allows whitespace in the middle of compound assignment
     operators such as `+='.  GNU CC, following the ANSI standard, does
     not allow this.  The difficulty described immediately above
     applies here too.

   * GNU CC complains about unterminated character constants inside of
     preprocessing conditionals that fail.  Some programs have English
     comments enclosed in conditionals that are guaranteed to fail; if
     these comments contain apostrophes, GNU CC will probably report an
     error.  For example, this code would produce an error:

          #if 0
          You can't expect this to work.
          #endif

     The best solution to such a problem is to put the text into an
     actual C comment delimited by `/*...*/'.  However, `-traditional'
     suppresses these error messages.

   * Many user programs contain the declaration `long time ();'.  In the
     past, the system header files on many systems did not actually
     declare `time', so it did not matter what type your program
     declared it to return.  But in systems with ANSI C headers, `time'
     is declared to return `time_t', and if that is not the same as
     `long', then `long time ();' is erroneous.

     The solution is to change your program to use `time_t' as the
     return type of `time'.

   * When compiling functions that return `float', PCC converts it to a
     double.  GNU CC actually returns a `float'.  If you are concerned
     with PCC compatibility, you should declare your functions to return
     `double'; you might as well say what you mean.

   * When compiling functions that return structures or unions, GNU CC
     output code normally uses a method different from that used on most
     versions of Unix.  As a result, code compiled with GNU CC cannot
     call a structure-returning function compiled with PCC, and vice
     versa.

     The method used by GNU CC is as follows: a structure or union
     which is 1, 2, 4 or 8 bytes long is returned like a scalar.  A
     structure or union with any other size is stored into an address
     supplied by the caller (usually in a special, fixed register, but
     on some machines it is passed on the stack).  The
     machine-description macros `STRUCT_VALUE' and
     `STRUCT_INCOMING_VALUE' tell GNU CC where to pass this address.

     By contrast, PCC on most target machines returns structures and
     unions of any size by copying the data into an area of static
     storage, and then returning the address of that storage as if it
     were a pointer value.  The caller must copy the data from that
     memory area to the place where the value is wanted.  GNU CC does
     not use this method because it is slower and nonreentrant.

     On some newer machines, PCC uses a reentrant convention for all
     structure and union returning.  GNU CC on most of these machines
     uses a compatible convention when returning structures and unions
     in memory, but still returns small structures and unions in
     registers.

     You can tell GNU CC to use a compatible convention for all
     structure and union returning with the option
     `-fpcc-struct-return'.

   * GNU C complains about program fragments such as `0x74ae-0x4000'
     which appear to be two hexadecimal constants separated by the minus
     operator.  Actually, this string is a single "preprocessing token".
     Each such token must correspond to one token in C.  Since this
     does not, GNU C prints an error message.  Although it may appear
     obvious that what is meant is an operator and two values, the ANSI
     C standard specifically requires that this be treated as erroneous.

     A "preprocessing token" is a "preprocessing number" if it begins
     with a digit and is followed by letters, underscores, digits,
     periods and `e+', `e-', `E+', or `E-' character sequences.

     To make the above program fragment valid, place whitespace in
     front of the minus sign.  This whitespace will end the
     preprocessing number.


File: gcc.info,  Node: Fixed Headers,  Next: Standard Libraries,  Prev: Incompatibilities,  Up: Trouble

Fixed Header Files
==================

   GNU CC needs to install corrected versions of some system header
files.  This is because most target systems have some header files that
won't work with GNU CC unless they are changed.  Some have bugs, some
are incompatible with ANSI C, and some depend on special features of
other compilers.

   Installing GNU CC automatically creates and installs the fixed header
files, by running a program called `fixincludes' (or for certain
targets an alternative such as `fixinc.svr4').  Normally, you don't
need to pay attention to this.  But there are cases where it doesn't do
the right thing automatically.

   * If you update the system's header files, such as by installing a
     new system version, the fixed header files of GNU CC are not
     automatically updated.  The easiest way to update them is to
     reinstall GNU CC.  (If you want to be clever, look in the makefile
     and you can find a shortcut.)

   * On some systems, in particular SunOS 4, header file directories
     contain machine-specific symbolic links in certain places.  This
     makes it possible to share most of the header files among hosts
     running the same version of SunOS 4 on different machine models.

     The programs that fix the header files do not understand this
     special way of using symbolic links; therefore, the directory of
     fixed header files is good only for the machine model used to
     build it.

     In SunOS 4, only programs that look inside the kernel will notice
     the difference between machine models.  Therefore, for most
     purposes, you need not be concerned about this.

     It is possible to make separate sets of fixed header files for the
     different machine models, and arrange a structure of symbolic
     links so as to use the proper set, but you'll have to do this by
     hand.

   * On Lynxos, GNU CC by default does not fix the header files.  This
     is because bugs in the shell cause the `fixincludes' script to
     fail.

     This means you will encounter problems due to bugs in the system
     header files.  It may be no comfort that they aren't GNU CC's
     fault, but it does mean that there's nothing for us to do about
     them.


File: gcc.info,  Node: Standard Libraries,  Next: Disappointments,  Prev: Fixed Headers,  Up: Trouble

Standard Libraries
==================

   GNU CC by itself attempts to be what the ISO/ANSI C standard calls a
"conforming freestanding implementation".  This means all ANSI C
language features are available, as well as the contents of `float.h',
`limits.h', `stdarg.h', and `stddef.h'.  The rest of the C library is
supplied by the vendor of the operating system.  If that C library
doesn't conform to the C standards, then your programs might get
warnings (especially when using `-Wall') that you don't expect.

   For example, the `sprintf' function on SunOS 4.1.3 returns `char *'
while the C standard says that `sprintf' returns an `int'.  The
`fixincludes' program could make the prototype for this function match
the Standard, but that would be wrong, since the function will still
return `char *'.

   If you need a Standard compliant library, then you need to find one,
as GNU CC does not provide one.  The GNU C library (called `glibc') has
been ported to a number of operating systems, and provides ANSI/ISO,
POSIX, BSD and SystemV compatibility.  You could also ask your operating
system vendor if newer libraries are available.


File: gcc.info,  Node: Disappointments,  Next: C++ Misunderstandings,  Prev: Standard Libraries,  Up: Trouble

Disappointments and Misunderstandings
=====================================

   These problems are perhaps regrettable, but we don't know any
practical way around them.

   * Certain local variables aren't recognized by debuggers when you
     compile with optimization.

     This occurs because sometimes GNU CC optimizes the variable out of
     existence.  There is no way to tell the debugger how to compute the
     value such a variable "would have had", and it is not clear that
     would be desirable anyway.  So GNU CC simply does not mention the
     eliminated variable when it writes debugging information.

     You have to expect a certain amount of disagreement between the
     executable and your source code, when you use optimization.

   * Users often think it is a bug when GNU CC reports an error for code
     like this:

          int foo (struct mumble *);
          
          struct mumble { ... };
          
          int foo (struct mumble *x)
          { ... }

     This code really is erroneous, because the scope of `struct
     mumble' in the prototype is limited to the argument list
     containing it.  It does not refer to the `struct mumble' defined
     with file scope immediately below--they are two unrelated types
     with similar names in different scopes.

     But in the definition of `foo', the file-scope type is used
     because that is available to be inherited.  Thus, the definition
     and the prototype do not match, and you get an error.

     This behavior may seem silly, but it's what the ANSI standard
     specifies.  It is easy enough for you to make your code work by
     moving the definition of `struct mumble' above the prototype.
     It's not worth being incompatible with ANSI C just to avoid an
     error for the example shown above.

   * Accesses to bitfields even in volatile objects works by accessing
     larger objects, such as a byte or a word.  You cannot rely on what
     size of object is accessed in order to read or write the bitfield;
     it may even vary for a given bitfield according to the precise
     usage.

     If you care about controlling the amount of memory that is
     accessed, use volatile but do not use bitfields.

   * GNU CC comes with shell scripts to fix certain known problems in
     system header files.  They install corrected copies of various
     header files in a special directory where only GNU CC will
     normally look for them.  The scripts adapt to various systems by
     searching all the system header files for the problem cases that
     we know about.

     If new system header files are installed, nothing automatically
     arranges to update the corrected header files.  You will have to
     reinstall GNU CC to fix the new header files.  More specifically,
     go to the build directory and delete the files `stmp-fixinc' and
     `stmp-headers', and the subdirectory `include'; then do `make
     install' again.

   * On 68000 systems, you can get paradoxical results if you test the
     precise values of floating point numbers.  For example, you can
     find that a floating point value which is not a NaN is not equal
     to itself.  This results from the fact that the the floating point
     registers hold a few more bits of precision than fit in a `double'
     in memory.  Compiled code moves values between memory and floating
     point registers at its convenience, and moving them into memory
     truncates them.

     You can partially avoid this problem by using the `-ffloat-store'
     option (*note Optimize Options::.).

   * On the MIPS, variable argument functions using `varargs.h' cannot
     have a floating point value for the first argument.  The reason
     for this is that in the absence of a prototype in scope, if the
     first argument is a floating point, it is passed in a floating
     point register, rather than an integer register.

     If the code is rewritten to use the ANSI standard `stdarg.h'
     method of variable arguments, and the prototype is in scope at the
     time of the call, everything will work fine.


File: gcc.info,  Node: C++ Misunderstandings,  Next: Protoize Caveats,  Prev: Disappointments,  Up: Trouble

Common Misunderstandings with GNU C++
=====================================

   C++ is a complex language and an evolving one, and its standard
definition (the ANSI C++ draft standard) is also evolving.  As a result,
your C++ compiler may occasionally surprise you, even when its behavior
is correct.  This section discusses some areas that frequently give
rise to questions of this sort.

* Menu:

* Static Definitions::  Static member declarations are not definitions
* Temporaries::         Temporaries may vanish before you expect


File: gcc.info,  Node: Static Definitions,  Next: Temporaries,  Up: C++ Misunderstandings

Declare *and* Define Static Members
-----------------------------------

   When a class has static data members, it is not enough to *declare*
the static member; you must also *define* it.  For example:

     class Foo
     {
       ...
       void method();
       static int bar;
     };

   This declaration only establishes that the class `Foo' has an `int'
named `Foo::bar', and a member function named `Foo::method'.  But you
still need to define *both* `method' and `bar' elsewhere.  According to
the draft ANSI standard, you must supply an initializer in one (and
only one) source file, such as:

     int Foo::bar = 0;

   Other C++ compilers may not correctly implement the standard
behavior.  As a result, when you switch to `g++' from one of these
compilers, you may discover that a program that appeared to work
correctly in fact does not conform to the standard: `g++' reports as
undefined symbols any static data members that lack definitions.