On Tue, 10 Mar 2026, 14:04 Richard Biener via Gcc, <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 10, 2026 at 2:42 PM Julian Waters via Gcc <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > Hi all, > > > > I intend to join the Google Summer of Code programme for 2026 under > > gcc, to work on the compiler. I have previously authored 2 commits to > > the compiler, commit f6c5f83 which introduced a feature test macro for > > the active Windows threading model and a more significant commit with > > the help of many others, commit 0aea633 which implements Windows > > native Thread Local Storage, allowing gcc to bypass emutls for > > Windows. > > > > Historically, gcc does not receive as much attention and maintenance > > for its Windows port as it does for its main platforms, which leads to > > it lagging behind the primary platforms, such as Linux based ones, > > pretty significantly in terms of robustness, resulting in features and > > other areas of the compiler simply being broken and not working > > properly on Windows, as is reported by some users. As a primarily > > Windows user of gcc, I wish to improve at least these pain points with > > using gcc to compile for Windows targets, whether it may be broken or > > missing features, to benefit my own work that uses gcc heavily and > > also others that use the compiler for Windows targets. I will be > > proposing work for such improvement on Windows as my Google Summer of > > Code application. > > > > To do this, I'm collating a list of all the issues and missing > > features for gcc with this target. While I do have a few already > > written down, I'd like to know/hear about as many issues that the > > community may know of with using gcc as a Windows compiler so I can > > add them to my list, so I have a better picture of everything that > > needs to be done to improve gcc for Windows. I initially thought of > > looking at https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/WindowsGCCImprovements but it's > > become clear that the page is, unfortunately, hopelessly outdated > > (Listing Exception Handling as a potential idea when it's already been > > implemented, and even mentioning the GNU Java compiler!). > > I can share my issue with facing *mingw* specific bugreports - I am > developing on Linux and lack a way to setup enough of a system > to assemble and link testcases, for example to debug LTO issues. > > For non-native linux I can use chroots and qemu where I can then > even run executables. > > So any kind of "How to develop GCC _for_ *mingw* on a *-linux host" > starter guide would be great! > > Disclaimer: I never spent much time searching for that, but a few > google/wiki searches never turned up something I considered useful. > I can help with that. I build and test a mingw-w64 cross compiler on fedora Linux.
