That would be very helpful for Linux, I'd imagine! Cross compiling can be quite troublesome to deal with, I definitely feel that pain.
One thing I'm uncertain about though, I recall reading in the rules somewhere that working on documentation only is not allowed for Google Summer of Code. This likely falls under that rule. I don't only plan on doing a documentation change and nothing else of course, but I'm not sure if that documentation about gcc for Windows compiled on Linux can go together with unrelated code changes in the actual compiler for the proposal. best regards, Julian On Tue, Mar 10, 2026 at 10:03 PM Richard Biener <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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
