Bill Northcott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On 21/05/2005, at 4:02 AM, Mike Stump wrote: >>> I have now realised that it is not generated as part of the >>> compiler build process. >> It used to be. >>> Presumably these files serve some purpose. How do they affect the >>> operation of the compiler? >> For the specs file, negatively. For the other, none, as it isn't >> consulted by the compiler. Xcode might use it however. > > So I understand that the specs file was a useless appendage in > compilers with apple-gcc-40xx tags such as the standard Xcode 2.0 > gcc-4.
Yes. Under normal circumstances, the specs file is a verbatim copy of information embedded into the gcc executable, and its existence merely serves to slow down the compiler (by making the driver read it). This has been true since GCC 2.95, and I'm only cutting it off there because I don't remember what came before that clearly enough to say for sure. It is, however, sometimes useful to modify the specs file. For instance, some versions of GCC 2.7 (if I remember correctly) had a bug which could be worked around by editing the specs file after installation. This is still possible, even though GCC's Makefiles no longer create or install the specs file - you get the file by running "gcc -dumpspecs > specs", edit it, and then put it in $prefix/lib/gcc-lib/TARGET/VERSION. This should be documented if it hasn't been already. zw
