On Sunday 05 April 2009 01:31:16 Joseph wrote: > On 04/04/09 23:55, Alan McKinnon wrote: > [snip] > > >> [1] http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gcc-upgrading.xml > > > >This is complete nonsense advice. There is absolutely no need to rebuild > > the entire system every time you upgrade compilers, and whoever told you > > that is flat out wrong. If the gentoo docs told you that, then they are > > wrong, or misplaced, or the person writing them is overcautious to the > > point of being ridiculous. If this advice really was true, then a whole > > lot of stuff would break all over the world: > > [snip] > > So in other words it was not necessary to recompile the entire system in > this case going from gcc: 4.3.2 to 4.2.3 ? > Though, according to Gentoo guide, the second number has changed so this is > a major upgrade. Not to mention it is good to take advantage of "native" > flag.
I mean that you take a step like this when it is required and only when it is required. If the documentation says that for *that* version you should rebuild everything, then do so. But only do it if it is required. As I already said, you only need to do that when new binaries on your system will be incompatible with existing binaries resulting in them not loading and linking properly. This is extremely rare. The "native" flag will make almost no difference to your machine either, it will not turn your Mini into a Ferrari. All it really is, is a simple way to tell your compiler "whatever this cpu is, compile stuff optimized for that processor". Now you don't have to go digging to find out what to set march, mtune, et al to. So it's a user convenience feature more than anything else. Your system will work just fine without rebuilding with "native". The previous binaries worked, they will still work. -- alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com
