Re: critical problems in 2.3.5 prevent release

[Richard Hirst <rhirst@linuxcare.com>]

On Sun, Jun 10, 2001 at 02:51:41AM -0800, Ethan Benson wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 10, 2001 at 11:14:14AM +0100, Richard Hirst wrote:
> > On Sat, Jun 09, 2001 at 02:53:39PM -0800, Ethan Benson wrote:
> > > On Sat, Jun 09, 2001 at 01:35:16PM -0500, Stephen R Marenka wrote:
> > > > According to Richard Hirst, gcc-3.0 (at least for hppa) also has an
> > > > issue.
> > > 
> > > why is gcc in the base system may i ask?  
> > 
> > The .deb in question is gcc-3.0-base, comes from gcc-3.0 source.  I have
> > included it in debootstrap for hppa because libstdc++3 depends on it.
> > apt depends on libstdc++3, etc.
> 
> why??  i can think of no reason why a library should depend on a compiler.

gcc-3.0-base isn't a compiler. libstdc++3 comes from gcc-3.0 source,
maybe these are docs that are common to gcc source that should be installed
regardless of which .debs from that source are installed.  I'm only
guessing though, I don't know anything of the hows and whys of gcc-3.0
packaging.

> thats not very useful...  why the devil does this package even exist?
> much less do interactive crap in its postinst?  

Basically it wants you to ack that you've noted the following:

  This package is a development snapshot derived from the gcc CVS archive.
  These development snapshots (although tagged as gcc-3_0_pre_2001mmdd) are
  leading towards gcc-3.0, which the gcc developers plan to release in the
  middle of June 2001.
  
  ATTENTION: The ABI changed with gcc-3.0-0.010525 (exception handling).
             Recompile all libraries and apps that have been translated
             by previous gcc-3.0 snapshots.
  
  !!! WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING !!!
  
  Use the packages at you own risk. The Debian gcc maintainers will NOT provide
  any backward compatibility from these snapshots to the final release. Library
  APIs may still change. Applications may need to be recompiled with the final
  gcc-3.0 release.

> sorry but this looks like more symptom treatment and more disease
> ignorage.  

Well, I guess the problem will go away some time soon anyway.  For the
time being I need to install this package as part of an unstable hppa
base install, and dbootstrap/debootstrap didn't cope with the way
it did it's prompting.  I raised the issue and was told I should get
the package fixed.

Richard