[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Increasing minimum 'i386' processor



Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org> writes:

> Hi!
>
> On Sat, 2011-11-19 at 22:42:11 +0000, Ben Hutchings wrote:
>> The i386 architecture was the first in Linux and in Debian, but we have
>> long since dropped support for the original i386-compatible processors
>> and now require a minimum of a 486-class processor.
>> 
>> I think it is time to increase the minimum requirement to 586-class, if
>> not for wheezy then immediately after.  (Later it should be increased
>> further, and eventually i386 should be reduced to a partial architecture
>> that may be installed on amd64 systems.)  This would allow the use of
>> optimisations and new instructions throughout userland that improve
>> performance for the vast majority of users.
>
> It seems gcc has been targetting i586 instruction set by default since
> gcc 4.4.0-1~exp1, although the triplet was not changed to match. On the
> discussion regarding multiarch tuples I proposed we should switch the
> triplet back to i386-linux-gnu to avoid this kind of confusion, fix the
> internal inconsistency and the one with other architectures (which do
> not track the base instruction set in the triplet) and so that we can
> use them directly as the multiarch tuples.
>
> For more details please see:
>
>   <http://lists.debian.org/debian-dpkg/2011/02/msg00061.html>
>   <http://lists.debian.org/debian-dpkg/2011/02/msg00039.html>
>
> regards,
> guillem

While I agree that the triplet should be unique for all the reasons
stated in the two mails I have to disagree with your conclusion to
change the gcc triplet to i386-linux-gnu.

A gcc compiling for i486-linux-gnu, i585-linux-gnu or even
i686-linux-gnu is not compiling for the i386-linux-gnu ABI. You would be
making the same mistake that arm does on i*86 too, making the triplet
not unique. You could have a "normal" gcc and a i386-linux-gnu-gcc
on your system.

MfG
        Goswin


Reply to: