linux-kernel - RE: gcc 5 & 6 & others already out of date?

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Date:   Thu, 13 Oct 2022 12:22:37 +0000
From:   David Laight <David.Laight@...LAB.COM>
To:     "'Jason A. Donenfeld'" <Jason@...c4.com>,
        "linux-toolchains@...r.kernel.org" <linux-toolchains@...r.kernel.org>,
        "Linux Kbuild mailing list" <linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: RE: gcc 5 & 6 & others already out of date?

From: Jason A. Donenfeld
> Sent: 13 October 2022 02:37
...
> And then there's old trusty gcc. Gcc also improves according to a nice
> cadence, and we know people are using later gccs because nobody is
> catching the build errors from old gccs. So let's stop pretending we
> support old compilers. We clearly don't. Maybe some subset of code
> does, but by and large, I doubt many developers are actually daily
> driving gcc 5.1 and doing allyesconfig builds with it. Yes, many are
> rightfully cautious of gcc 12 and stick with gcc 11 still, and that's
> reasonable, but 11 or even 10 is still way larger than 5.1.
> 
> The truth is, people tend to use more recent toolchains. And if Clang
> hasn't broken the will of the stranglers, then surely Rust will.

Developers might use recent toolchains, but users are much
more likely to use the one in the distribution they have installed.

Working out how to build a kernel is hard enough.
Requiring non-standard versions of gcc is a PITA.
Remember that you can load a current kernel on quite
old userspace.
There can be all sorts of reasons for wanting to keep building
non-kernel 'stuff' with the default toolchain.

Anyone using clang almost certainly has to download a recent
version - but this is not true of gcc.

	David

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