[Toolserver-announce] Changes to software libraries in /opt/ts

[River Tarnell]

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Hi,

During the next maintenance window (Dec 6), we will switch from Sun Studio to 
GCC as the standard C and C++ compiler for ts-specs (/opt/ts).  If you have 
have locally-compiled C or C++ software, you should read the rest of this mail.  
Otherwise, this change does not affect you.

We this change for several reasons:

+ Some open source software (especially C++ software) is only tested on 
  GCC, and doesn't compile with other compilers.  We have to maintain 
  (sometimes extensive) local patch sets to compile this software with Studio.

+ On x86, using GCC doesn't cause a performance penalty, and GCC now supports 
  some features (e.g. OpenMP) which were previously only supported in Studio.

+ Since C++ ABIs are not portable between compilers, we currently need to 
  provide compiled libraries for both compilers.

+ Users often try to link software using the GCC compiler, but with the 
  Studio-compiled libraries.

If you compile C or C++ software, this change will affect you as follows:

+ If you use TS GCC 4.4 (in /opt/ts/gcc/4.4/bin), you do not *have* to make any 
  changes, but we will shortly be installing GCC 4.5 and making /opt/ts/bin/gcc 
  (and g++) symlinks to the latest compiler versions.  So, you may wish to switch 
  to /opt/ts/bin/gcc when this is done rather than using a specific compiler 
  version.

+ If you use Sun GCC 3.4.3 (in /usr/sfw/bin), you should switch to our GCC, because 
  we will remove Sun's GCC during the maintenance window.  (However, we will 
  not remove the runtime libraries, so there is no need to recompile 
  immediately.)

+ If you use Studio (cc and CC), you should switch to GCC (gcc and g++) and 
  recompile.

+ GCC-specific compiled libraries, currently in /opt/ts/<library>/<version>-gcc,
  will stay there for now, in order to avoid breaking existing software.  
  During the following maintenance window (Jan 3), the Studio versions in 
  /opt/ts/<library>/<version> will be replaced with the GCC version, so using 
  the "-gcc" suffix will no longer be necessary.

	- river.
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