LWN.net Logo

Old kernels and new compilers

Old kernels and new compilers

Posted Aug 24, 2006 12:59 UTC (Thu) by ewan (subscriber, #5533)
Parent article: Old kernels and new compilers

No-one's servers run source code - if the ultra-reliability folks are only
going to trust kernels with a good long track record, why would they trust
a shiny new, and rather internally different, GCC to build them correctly?


(Log in to post comments)

Old kernels and new compilers

Posted Aug 25, 2006 6:26 UTC (Fri) by bryanr (guest, #25324) [Link]

gcc has an excellent automated testsuite.

linux does not have an official testsuite, and the existing
test projects are only moderately successful at covering the
set of strange, unexpected, and intentionally malicious
scenarios that may be faced by an OS kernel

Old kernels and new compilers

Posted Sep 2, 2006 22:34 UTC (Sat) by renox (subscriber, #23785) [Link]

> gcc has an excellent automated testsuite.

For regular code, this is probably ok, but for kernel code?

When there is a major revision of gcc, if memory serves, the Linux kernel breaks in various ways..

Copyright © 2013, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds