[kde-solaris] [kde-discuss] Gentle Question

[Mats Rojestal]

Hi Kunal,

I Agree, that building KDE with gcc instead of is quite simple insted
of using Sun compilers. I built the whole kde 3.5.9 release also with 
gcc-4.3.0:
Using built-in specs.
Target: i386-pc-solaris2.10
Configured with: ../configure --prefix=/usr/gnu 
--with-as=/usr/sfw/bin/gas --with-gnu-as --with-ld=/usr/local/bin/gld 
--enable-shared --with-gnu-ld --enable-languages=c,c++ --disable-nls
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.3.0 (GCC)

I use gnu linker because of  a bug in /usr/ccs/bin/ld, however it works
nicely.
I can't figure out what the advantage of using sun compilers is,
maybe a death wish. My simple observations from gcc 4.x.x performance is 
that it's not inferior to other compilers.
Solaris is not a major player in the OS market and making it harder to 
port software to Solaris isn't really a good idea.

Regards Mats Röjestål


Kunal Deo skrev:
> Hi Michael
> Thanks for the suggestion, I'll do that.
> 
> My reason for choosing GCC over Sun Studio:
> 1. I am coming from Linux background and feel more comfortable when 
> using gcc.  However, I'm still linking to Sun ld (to maintain 
> compatibility with existing Solaris binary)
> 
> Using built-in specs.
> Target: sparc-sun-solaris2.10
> Configured with: ./configure --with-gmp=//source/kde4/ 
> --prefix=/source/kde4/ --with-ld=/usr/ccs/bin/ld --enable-languages=c,c++
> Thread model: posix
> gcc version 4.3.0 (GCC)
> 
> 2. I feel like cmake works as a charm when used with gcc. Than any other 
> compiler.
> 
> 3. If I ran into problems. I can always search on gcc mailing list which 
> covers virtually everything and also other projects  using gcc like 
> mysql and so on. (There are many)
> 
> 4. I prefer Kdevelop as my IDE and it is easy to generate KDevelop 
> project files when using cmake.
> 
> 5. gmake can run parallel compilation, upto 16 on multi-core processor. 
> Mine is 16x2 cores. So it is fast with gamke -jx option. where x is the 
> number of cores.
> 
> 6. Fancy stuffs (i like it) like color gcc output are plus.
> 
> Sometime in future  I planning to come up with performance metrics for 
> KDE4 with gcc.
> 
> Michael Schuster wrote:
>> Kunal Deo wrote:
>>   
>>> Hi Stefan
>>>
>>> Thanks for your quick response. I understand the reason to support  Sun 
>>> Studio.  But KDE offcially supports GCC 4.x series. Thats why I've 
>>> decided to use gcc. Moreover toolchain has been ported as well. I've 
>>> ported almost everything and its running fine. KDE4 is in progress.
>>>
>>> I did run into few problems but I've fixed that (including compilation 
>>> of strigi)
>>>
>>> 1. GCC 4.3 error where it doesnt compile functions like strcpy() 
>>> memset(), but works when you add "include <cstring>"
>>> 2. Linking problems when you use POSIX calls which are not system calls 
>>> in solaris but are general library, classic example is
>>>
>>>   sched_setscheduler() which can be fixed by using -lrt and so on.
>>>
>>> So far the performance has been very good. And runs quite comfortability.
>>>
>>> Let me know your thoughts.
>>>     
>> good to know it worked. It might be interesting for others if you could 
>> publish in detail (maybe on a blog ... ) what you had to do to get this 
>> going.
>>
>> If your whole intention in this project was to get KDE4 running on 
>> Solaris, congratulations.
>>
>> I do wonder though what you're trying to achieve in the long run (if you 
>> do at all) ... or are you satisfied with a one-off success?
>> - Will you (or a team following your lead) be prepared to maintain 
>> whatever set of tools/sources/receipes is necessary so you can keep up 
>> with KDE4 on Solaris changes with gcc?
>> - Will you go to the (probably not insignificant) effort to modify the 
>> build infrastructure to build with both Sun Studio and gcc?
>> - Might it not be more worthwhile in the long run to invest your time 
>> and apparent skill into helping out with the ongoing effort of building 
>> KDE4 on Solaris with Sun Studio?
>>
>> regards
>> Michael
>>
>>   
>>> Stefan Teleman wrote:
>>>     
>>>> On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 1:55 AM, Kunal Deo <Kunal.Deo at sun.com> wrote:
>>>>   
>>>>       
>>>>>  Hi Stefan
>>>>>
>>>>>  Thanks for the reply. I wanted to know why GCC is not supported for KDE4.
>>>>> So far I have compiled everything except strigi and hope I will do that
>>>>> also.
>>>>>     
>>>>>         
>>>> There are several reasons:
>>>>
>>>> 1. For KDE4 on Linux (and even for KDE3), there are restrictions as to
>>>> which versions of GCC are supported -- some versions of GCC are known
>>>> to miscompile KDE.
>>>>
>>>> If we start introducing additional complexities with supporting GCC on
>>>> Solaris, then we have to reconcile the GCC version restrictions on
>>>> Linux and FreeBSD with the GCC version restrictions on Solaris. Noone
>>>> has the time to determine which versions of GCC are OK across all 3
>>>> platforms.
>>>>
>>>> 2. GCC does not have a stable C++ ABI. GCC's C++ ABI has changed
>>>> several times between GCC releases, and simply stating "GCC is
>>>> supported" is misleading: only C++ ABI compatible versions of GCC
>>>> would be supported.
>>>>
>>>> 3. Sun PSARC rules require that any C++ software available in
>>>> Solaris/OpenSolaris, which exposes public API's, must be built with
>>>> Sun Studio, and with the Sun C++ ABI Version 5. PSARC/2002/348 (ICU)
>>>> is publicly available at opensolaris.org (the PSARC case which
>>>> enforces this requirement).
>>>>
>>>> [1] and [2] simply introduce too much complexity. [3] is a hard
>>>> requirement: we must support Sun Studio.
>>>>
>>>> You can still try to build KDE4 with GCC. However, you will run into
>>>> problems. There will be "unsupported GCC Version" problems, and there
>>>> is already C++ software in Solaris/OpenSolaris which has been built
>>>> with Sun Studio, and which is used by KDE4 (examples: PCRE, OpenEXR,
>>>> and more). Sun Studio C++ ABI and GCC C++ ABI are not compatible with
>>>> each other. You will not be able to link the already present C++
>>>> Solaris software with GCC.
>>>>       
>>   
> 
>