When compiling the attached testcase, the explicitly instantiated templates do not appear in the compiled object, nor do they appear in the intermediate assembly output. Compiling the same source with g++ 3.4.4, 3.3.4, and 2.95.4 works as expected.
Compile line: g++-4.0 -v -save-temps -c -o b.o b.cc Testcase: # 1 "b.cc" # 1 "<built-in>" # 1 "<command line>" # 1 "b.cc" # 1 "b.hh" 1 template <typename T> class b { public: b(); ~b(); }; template class b<int>; template class b<float>; # 2 "b.cc" 2 template <typename T> b<T>::b() { } template <typename T> b<T>::~b() { } Intermediate assembly: .file "b.cc" .ident "GCC: (GNU) 4.0.0 20050301 (prerelease) (Debian 4.0-0pre6ubuntu7)" .section .note.GNU-stack,"",@progbits GCC (g++4.0 -v) version: Using built-in specs. Target: i486-linux Configured with: ../src/configure -v --enable-languages=c,c++,java,f95,objc,ada --prefix=/usr --libexecdir=/usr/lib --enable-shared --with-system-zlib --enable-nls --enable-threads=posix --without-included-gettext --program-suffix=-4.0 --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-libstdcxx-allocator=mt --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-java-gc=boehm --enable-java-awt=gtk --enable-gtk-cairo --enable-mpfr --enable-checking=release i486-linux Thread model: posix gcc version 4.0.0 20050301 (prerelease) (Debian 4.0-0pre6ubuntu7) Compile (g++-4.0 -v -save-temps) log: g++-4.0 -v -save-temps -c -o b.o b.cc Using built-in specs. Target: i486-linux Configured with: ../src/configure -v --enable-languages=c,c++,java,f95,objc,ada --prefix=/usr --libexecdir=/usr/lib --enable-share d --with-system-zlib --enable-nls --enable-threads=posix --without-included-gettext --program-suffix=-4.0 --enable-__cxa_atexit -- enable-libstdcxx-allocator=mt --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-java-gc=boehm --enable-java-awt=gtk --enable- gtk-cairo --enable-mpfr --enable-checking=release i486-linux Thread model: posix gcc version 4.0.0 20050301 (prerelease) (Debian 4.0-0pre6ubuntu7) /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux/4.0.0/cc1plus -E -quiet -v -D_GNU_SOURCE b.cc -mtune=i486 -fpch-preprocess -o b.ii ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux/4.0.0/../../../../i486-linux/include" #include "..." search starts here: #include <...> search starts here: /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux/4.0.0/../../../../include/c++/4.0.0 /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux/4.0.0/../../../../include/c++/4.0.0/i486-linux /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux/4.0.0/../../../../include/c++/4.0.0/backward /usr/local/include /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux/4.0.0/include /usr/include End of search list. /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux/4.0.0/cc1plus -fpreprocessed b.ii -quiet -dumpbase b.cc -mtune=i486 -auxbase-strip b.o -version -o b.s GNU C++ version 4.0.0 20050301 (prerelease) (Debian 4.0-0pre6ubuntu7) (i486-linux) compiled by GNU C version 4.0.0 20050301 (prerelease) (Debian 4.0-0pre6ubuntu7). GGC heuristics: --param ggc-min-expand=98 --param ggc-min-heapsize=128479 as -V -Qy --32 -o b.o b.s GNU assembler version 2.15 (i386-linux) using BFD version 2.15 -- Summary: Explicitly instantiated templates don't seem to be instantiated Product: gcc Version: 4.0.0 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P2 Component: c++ AssignedTo: unassigned at gcc dot gnu dot org ReportedBy: kinetik at orcon dot net dot nz CC: gcc-bugs at gcc dot gnu dot org GCC build triplet: i386-pc-linux-gnu GCC host triplet: i386-pc-linux-gnu GCC target triplet: i386-pc-linux-gnu http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=21118