[plug] What is proper way to downgrade GCC back to 2.95

[Peter Wright]

On 22/08 08:16:40, Steege, Phil E wrote:
> I have a redhat 7.3 system running gcc 2.96.  I have a few programs
> which will not compile with 2.96 and I want to 'downgrade' to gcc
> 2.95.2

Just out of interest - which programs would these be? Don't feel
obliged to answer if you'd rather not, I'm just curious. The last I
heard about programs that allegedly wouldn't compile under 2.96 (but
would under 2.95) was with the MPlayer fiasco... and as far as I was
aware, the _bug_ in the MPlayer code (which showed up under 2.96 but
not under the also-buggy 2.95) has long since been fixed.

If you've got a C (or C++) program that won't compile under gcc 2.96,
it's not too likely that it will (compile) under 2.95. Do you _know_
for sure that it's supposed to work under 2.95? If not, you could end
up expending a lot of effort for nothing...


Anyway - sorry I can't offer any advice on RPM-based downgrading, but
I _can_ suggest simply building yourself an _alternative_ gcc 2.95.3
(the latest of the 2.95 series) from source and installing it in
/usr/local or /opt or wherever - then you can build your programs with
that.  You may actually find it a simpler and easier option than
replacing your default "system" compiler.

# cd /usr/local/src
# wget ftp://ftp.it.net.au/mirrors/gnu/gcc/gcc-2.95.3.tar.gz

and away you go...

# cd /usr/local/src
# tar xfz gcc-2.95.3.tar.gz
# cd gcc-2.95.3
# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local && make && make install


NB. In case you're not aware, showing a prompt as "# " like so is a
simple convention meaning "do this stuff as root". Although
technically only the "make install" bit should need to be done as root.

Then when building your problem programs, just make sure
/usr/local/bin is in your PATH before /usr/bin, so you'll use
/usr/local/bin/gcc instead of /usr/bin/gcc when you run "gcc".

> Phil

Alternatively, you could try the recently released gcc 3.2 ;-).

Pete.
-- 
http://akira.apana.org.au/~pete/
Real programmers disdain structured programming.  Structured programming is
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