Re: [Gimp-developer] gcc-7 vs gcc-6

[Carol Spears <carol spears gmail com>]

On Sat, Nov 11, 2017 at 12:10 AM, Ken Moffat <zarniwhoop ntlworld com>
wrote:

> On Fri, Nov 10, 2017 at 09:41:41PM -0500, Carol Spears wrote:
> > I don't think I am the only person who has more than one version of gcc.
>
>
> Certainly not, my point was that building a current package with two
> different versions of the compiler is unusual : most people install
> applications into /usr, a few prefer BSD-style /usr/local.  But to
> have both versions available you need to go out of your way to
> ensure that the first install is not overwritten by the second.
>
> According to the gcc releases list, the most recent release is gcc-5.
 https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/releases.html

I think that the confusing thing is "gcc".  While "gcc" is what configure
looks for and uses, it does not actually exist.  It is a symbolic link to
one of the versioned binaries like gcc-4, gcc-5, etc. which easily can
and do fit into the same directory.  The symbolic link just points to the
version that gets used.

I think if you "ls -l /usr/bin/gcc" you will see the symbolic link.  Many of
the terminal emulators will highlight symbolic links in a different color
which
is nice for finding them without the additional ls option.

Symbolic links are so easy to make that the maintenance problem is on
the other side where it needs to be remembered.

I am deleting the g++ symbolic link all the time, for mostly political and
nefarious reasons.  It is easy enough to put it back when required and
I start to know the offensive and questionable software that uses it.

This is not the first compiler bug that shows itself on gimp, but it has
been a long while.

carol