Which gcc is best?

In article
,
flarosa wrote:

> I'm new to Mac, but have some experience using gcc with Linux and
> Windows.
>
> Which version of gcc is best to use on a Mac if my goal is to compile
> open-source, nonvisual apps which are not Mac specific? I've installed
> the one that comes with Xcode, but want to make sure it's the
> appropriate choice before going forward.
>
> I'm running the Leopard version of OSX on Intel hardware.

The Developer Tools installation already installs multiple versions of
gcc. You can choose which is the default one using:

/usr/sbin/gcc_select

execute:

man gcc_select

for more information.
 >> Stay informed about: Which gcc is best? 

There is no such tool gcc_select on my system.

On Feb 9, 4:35 pm, David Phillip Oster wrote:
> In article
> ,
>
>  flarosa wrote:
> > I'm new to Mac, but have some experience using gcc with Linux and
> > Windows.
>
> > Which version of gcc is best to use on a Mac if my goal is to compile
> > open-source, nonvisual apps which are not Mac specific? I've installed
> > the one that comes with Xcode, but want to make sure it's the
> > appropriate choice before going forward.
>
> > I'm running the Leopard version of OSX on Intel hardware.
>
> The Developer Tools installation already installs multiple versions of
> gcc. You can choose which is the default one using:
>
> /usr/sbin/gcc_select
>
> execute:
>
> man gcc_select
>
> for more information.
 >> Stay informed about: Which gcc is best? 

I'm having a lot of trouble trying to build an open source package
called libcfg.

Their web site noted that the makefile they supply won't work on OSX
for a couple of reasons, one being that OSX uses .dylib instead of .so
as the extension, the other being that the ld command in OSX doesn't
recognize the option -shared.

They gave workarounds, but the workarounds didn't fix all the problems
for me. My build attempts end with a bunch of undefined symbol errors.

Rather than try to debug their software - is there some way I can
install a plain gcc system on my Mac that works the same way as any
standard gcc on Linux?

Frank

On Feb 9, 2:01 am, Sean McBride wrote:
> In article
> ,
>
>  flarosa wrote:
> > Hi,
>
> > I'm new to Mac, but have some experience using gcc with Linux and
> > Windows.
>
> > Which version of gcc is best to use on a Mac if my goal is to compile
> > open-source, nonvisual apps which are not Mac specific? I've installed
> > the one that comes with Xcode, but want to make sure it's the
> > appropriate choice before going forward.
>
> That's probably the best choice.
 >> Stay informed about: Which gcc is best? 

> On Feb 9, 4:35 pm, David Phillip Oster wrote:
> > In article
> > ,
> >
> >  flarosa wrote:
> > > I'm new to Mac, but have some experience using gcc with Linux and
> > > Windows.
> >
> > > Which version of gcc is best to use on a Mac if my goal is to compile
> > > open-source, nonvisual apps which are not Mac specific? I've installed
> > > the one that comes with Xcode, but want to make sure it's the
> > > appropriate choice before going forward.
> >
> > > I'm running the Leopard version of OSX on Intel hardware.
> >
> > The Developer Tools installation already installs multiple versions of
> > gcc. You can choose which is the default one using:
> >
> > /usr/sbin/gcc select
> >
> > execute:
> >
> > man gcc select
> >
> > for more information.

In article
,
flarosa wrote:

> There is no such tool gcc select on my system.
>

Odd, that isn't what I wrote. I wrote: gcc_select , with an underscore.
Your quotation of my words omitted the underscore.
 >> Stay informed about: Which gcc is best? 

David Phillip Oster wrote:

> > I'm running the Leopard version of OSX on Intel hardware.
>
> The Developer Tools installation already installs multiple versions of
> gcc. You can choose which is the default one using:
>
> /usr/sbin/gcc_select

gcc_select doesn't exist anymore on Leopard.

patrick
 >> Stay informed about: Which gcc is best? 

On Sat, 9 Feb 2008 20:38:37 -0800 (PST), flarosa wrote:

> Rather than try to debug their software - is there some way I can
> install a plain gcc system on my Mac that works the same way as any
> standard gcc on Linux?

Now there are three words that I rarely see together, "standard, GCC and
Linux".

I don't think you'll ever get a Mac OS X GCC that behaves like Linux
GCC. Mac OS X's not Linux, and there will always be quite significant
differences (mainly due to the different oject file formats and linking
methods).

A bientot
Paul
--
Paul Floyd http://paulf.free.fr
 >> Stay informed about: Which gcc is best? 

On 2008-02-08 15:40:17 -0800, flarosa said:

> Which version of gcc is best to use on a Mac if my goal is to compile
> open-source, nonvisual apps which are not Mac specific? I've installed
> the one that comes with Xcode, but want to make sure it's the
> appropriate choice before going forward.

You want the GCC that's installed with Xcode.

Also, remember that it is *absolutely critical* when requesting help on
mailing lists and newsgroups to mention several pieces of information:

(1) The version of Mac OS X you're running.
(2) The CPU architecture you're on or building for (Intel or PowerPC,
32-bit or 64-bit).
(3) The version of Xcode you're using.
(4) The version of GCC you're using.
(5) Which SDK you're specifying (either via an Xcode build setting or
via -isysroot).
(6) Which Mac OS X version you're targeting (via an Xcode build setting
or via a compiler flag such as -mmacosx-min-version=10.4).

A particular version of Xcode may come with multiple versions of GCC.
Behavior of frameworks may differ based on the combination of SDK,
currently-running OS, and OS being targeted. And so on.

-- Chris
 >> Stay informed about: Which gcc is best? 

On 2008-02-09 20:38:37 -0800, flarosa said:

> Their web site noted that the makefile they supply won't work on OSX
> for a couple of reasons, one being that OSX uses .dylib instead of .so
> as the extension, the other being that the ld command in OSX doesn't
> recognize the option -shared.
>
> They gave workarounds, but the workarounds didn't fix all the problems
> for me. My build attempts end with a bunch of undefined symbol errors.
>
> Rather than try to debug their software - is there some way I can
> install a plain gcc system on my Mac that works the same way as any
> standard gcc on Linux?

Not really -- Mac OS X binaries should be linked with the Mac OS X
linker, this really isn't something you should change. And the
compilers shipped with Xcode have been extensively tested to build a
wide variety of software at all levels of the system software stack.

There's a conceptual guide that you'll probably want to read at the
Apple Developer Connection:

Porting UNIX/Linux Applications to Mac OS X
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Porting/Conceptual/PortingUnix/

Among other things, this has pointers to other documents which may help
you address your specific issues with the libcfg makefile, and it also
has information about how Mac OS X differs from, say, Linux in
important ways and how to accomodate those differences.

-- Chris
 >> Stay informed about: Which gcc is best? 

On 2008-02-09 20:35:01 -0800, flarosa said:

> There is no such tool gcc_select on my system.

gcc_select is no longer present in Xcode 3.0. Instead, for most
Makefile uses, you should be able to pass the path to the specific GCC
version you wish to use via the "CC" environment variable, e.g.

env CC=/Xcode3.0/usr/bin/gcc-4.0 make

This will use the gcc-4.0 that's installed as part of Xcode 3.0 (which
I've put in the custom directory Xcode3.0) in my Makefile. GCC will
locate everything that's part of itself relative to wherever it's
located, eliminating the need to have the compiler installed at a fixed
location or limiting the system to only having a certain subset of
compilers installed.

-- Chris
 >> Stay informed about: Which gcc is best?