On Tue, Mar 10, 2026 at 2:42 PM Julian Waters via Gcc <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi all, > > I intend to join the Google Summer of Code programme for 2026 under > gcc, to work on the compiler. I have previously authored 2 commits to > the compiler, commit f6c5f83 which introduced a feature test macro for > the active Windows threading model and a more significant commit with > the help of many others, commit 0aea633 which implements Windows > native Thread Local Storage, allowing gcc to bypass emutls for > Windows. > > Historically, gcc does not receive as much attention and maintenance > for its Windows port as it does for its main platforms, which leads to > it lagging behind the primary platforms, such as Linux based ones, > pretty significantly in terms of robustness, resulting in features and > other areas of the compiler simply being broken and not working > properly on Windows, as is reported by some users. As a primarily > Windows user of gcc, I wish to improve at least these pain points with > using gcc to compile for Windows targets, whether it may be broken or > missing features, to benefit my own work that uses gcc heavily and > also others that use the compiler for Windows targets. I will be > proposing work for such improvement on Windows as my Google Summer of > Code application. > > To do this, I'm collating a list of all the issues and missing > features for gcc with this target. While I do have a few already > written down, I'd like to know/hear about as many issues that the > community may know of with using gcc as a Windows compiler so I can > add them to my list, so I have a better picture of everything that > needs to be done to improve gcc for Windows. I initially thought of > looking at https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/WindowsGCCImprovements but it's > become clear that the page is, unfortunately, hopelessly outdated > (Listing Exception Handling as a potential idea when it's already been > implemented, and even mentioning the GNU Java compiler!).
I can share my issue with facing *mingw* specific bugreports - I am developing on Linux and lack a way to setup enough of a system to assemble and link testcases, for example to debug LTO issues. For non-native linux I can use chroots and qemu where I can then even run executables. So any kind of "How to develop GCC _for_ *mingw* on a *-linux host" starter guide would be great! Disclaimer: I never spent much time searching for that, but a few google/wiki searches never turned up something I considered useful. Thanks, Richard. > Thanks in advance, and have a pleasant rest of the week ahead! > > best regards, > Julian
