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7-Way Linux Distribution Comparison For Summer 2016

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  • #21
    Does someone have some insight into how GCC upgrades are managed at a distro level? I'd be interested to know a bit more about it.

    My question is not regarding a single compiler upgrade (e.g. GCC 5.x to 6.x), but rather how/when packages are built, once GCC is upgraded.
    For instance, Debian Testing is at 5.3 (I don't take Stable as an example, as it doesn't really change). When maintainers decide to upgrade this package to, say, 6.0, does this mean all packages are automatically re-built against this new version? Or does it happen progressively? Or perhaps it doesn't happen at all, until a new version of each package comes up?

    Perhaps my question makes no sense, but I actually don't know. My guess is this is different for every distro.

    Thanks in advance for any info!

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    • #22
      Originally posted by franglais125 View Post
      Does someone have some insight into how GCC upgrades are managed at a distro level? I'd be interested to know a bit more about it.

      My question is not regarding a single compiler upgrade (e.g. GCC 5.x to 6.x), but rather how/when packages are built, once GCC is upgraded.
      For instance, Debian Testing is at 5.3 (I don't take Stable as an example, as it doesn't really change). When maintainers decide to upgrade this package to, say, 6.0, does this mean all packages are automatically re-built against this new version? Or does it happen progressively? Or perhaps it doesn't happen at all, until a new version of each package comes up?

      Perhaps my question makes no sense, but I actually don't know. My guess is this is different for every distro.

      Thanks in advance for any info!
      you can include / offer new versions of gcc in a distro without rebuilding any package of the distro.
      So this is unrelated.
      But at some point a distro may decide that it also wants to rebuild the whole distro with the new compiler. I think they always rebuild the whole distro, not parts. From my own experience using different compilers for software that needs to interact is problematic.

      And I believe this is the same for every distro.

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      • #23
        Originally posted by franglais125 View Post
        Does someone have some insight into how GCC upgrades are managed at a distro level? I'd be interested to know a bit more about it.

        My question is not regarding a single compiler upgrade (e.g. GCC 5.x to 6.x), but rather how/when packages are built, once GCC is upgraded.
        For instance, Debian Testing is at 5.3 (I don't take Stable as an example, as it doesn't really change). When maintainers decide to upgrade this package to, say, 6.0, does this mean all packages are automatically re-built against this new version? Or does it happen progressively? Or perhaps it doesn't happen at all, until a new version of each package comes up?

        Perhaps my question makes no sense, but I actually don't know. My guess is this is different for every distro.

        Thanks in advance for any info!
        Most distros do this sort of the same, but I can only speak for Clear Linux.
        Updating the compiler is technically separate from rebuilding the whole OS; however as criteria for a (major version) new compiler to go into the OS we do a test build of the OS with the new compiler.
        Then we can land the new compiler into the OS.

        and usually within a few days we then rebuild the whole OS with this new compiler (but no other changes); the reason to get a new compiler in the OS is because it's "better" by some metric (usually better code generation); the only way to actually benefit from that "better" is to build things with the new compiler...

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        • #24
          Originally posted by tomtomme View Post

          [...]
          Originally posted by arjan_intel View Post

          and usually within a few days we then rebuild the whole OS with this new compiler (but no other changes); the reason to get a new compiler in the OS is because it's "better" by some metric (usually better code generation); the only way to actually benefit from that "better" is to build things with the new compiler...
          Thanks for the info!
          Now, once you rebuild the whole OS, a user would need to re-download all packages to be effectively running the new binaries, I guess? I run Debian Testing from time to time, but I don't really pay attention to all details. However, I never noticed a day where *all* packages got updated (or never realized it?). I know my comment is a bit naive, but this doubt is precisely what generated my first question.

          I guess this only happens on rolling distros, when the compiler is updated. For Clear Linux at least, is there a day when a user would get updates for every single package?

          Comment


          • #25
            Originally posted by franglais125 View Post



            Thanks for the info!
            Now, once you rebuild the whole OS, a user would need to re-download all packages to be effectively running the new binaries, I guess? I run Debian Testing from time to time, but I don't really pay attention to all details. However, I never noticed a day where *all* packages got updated (or never realized it?). I know my comment is a bit naive, but this doubt is precisely what generated my first question.

            I guess this only happens on rolling distros, when the compiler is updated. For Clear Linux at least, is there a day when a user would get updates for every single package?
            In Clear Linux the updates aren't on the package level but on the file level (with binary deltas) so if this happens, you'll have a bit bigger update than usual, but it's also not insane big (since only files in /usr/bin and /usr/lib64 normally change, all data files, python files and docs etc etc don't change so aren't part of the update)

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            • #26
              Debian Testing is a work in progress. I would like to see this comparison repeated when Debian "Stretch" is released. Gcc 6.x is scheduled to be the standard compiler at that time. That plus other improvements should alter the stats published here.

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              • #27
                I'm sure this has been asked and answered, by I've never seen it. Why are some distributions missing from a couple of the tests? E.g. Antergos and Solus in the Go benchmarks.

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                • #28
                  Originally posted by GrayShade View Post
                  I'm sure this has been asked and answered, by I've never seen it. Why are some distributions missing from a couple of the tests? E.g. Antergos and Solus in the Go benchmarks.
                  If the distro does not include the golang compiler/toolchain.... then the test won't be able to run and the distro in question will not have a result for this specific test.

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                  • #29
                    Originally posted by arjan_intel View Post

                    If the distro does not include the golang compiler/toolchain.... then the test won't be able to run and the distro in question will not have a result for this specific test.
                    That makes sense, but Arch -- and presumably Antergos -- has the go compiler.

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                    • #30
                      Originally posted by franglais125 View Post



                      Thanks for the info!
                      Now, once you rebuild the whole OS, a user would need to re-download all packages to be effectively running the new binaries, I guess? I run Debian Testing from time to time, but I don't really pay attention to all details. However, I never noticed a day where *all* packages got updated (or never realized it?). I know my comment is a bit naive, but this doubt is precisely what generated my first question.

                      I guess this only happens on rolling distros, when the compiler is updated. For Clear Linux at least, is there a day when a user would get updates for every single package?
                      yep, in tumblewed there is a rebuild of all packages when they switch to a new gccX. I just needed to download 2500 packages...
                      by the way - the thunderbird regression I mentioned was fixed within 24 hours through the update repo

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