[Gllug] GnuLess/GnuFree distro/cc/libc ??

[Nix]

On Tue, 7 May 2002, Richard Cohen mused:
> On 7 May 2002, John Hearns wrote:
> 
>> but I have an idle thought - has anyone ever tried to
>> compile a Linux kernel with another compiler?
>> I wonder what the exact reasons are why it would not work?
> 
> There is quite extensive use of non-standard GCC extensions in the kernel
> source code, as I understand it...

More than that. There are implied dependencies, throughout the kernel,
on the way specific versions of GCC are known to optimize it.

For instance, the kernel is dependent upon specific kinds of code motion
not being performed, violates ISO C aliasing rules with gay abandon, and
many other things. Dave Jones could probably give more hints than I: I
only hear the shrieks of pain[1] when GCC optimizations change in such a
way that the kernel breaks. (I like to *think* that such changes are
always optimization *improvements*... ;} )


[1] and flames from this Torvalds character ;}

-- 
`Blueshifters were moving away... Redshifters were moving in...'
      --- Justina Robson, _Mappa Mundi_, with startling new
          evidence for the gib gnab hypothesis

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