Quoth Geoff:
[...]
> I run LFS 3.3, which I installed last year (gcc 2.95.3 / glibc 2.2.5). My
> system is very nicely sorted and up-to-date, except for the fact that gcc
> and glibc have obviously moved on.
Yup.
> Whenever I have looked into this topic in the past I have become lost and
> depressed in a mass of postings in other places warning about binary
> incompatibilities, the need to recompile most or all of my libraries, the
> danger of hosing my system entirely .. etc. In short, and without meaning
> any disrespect - the sxs guidance looks too good to be true. Is it really
> as easy as that? Won't I have to recompile most everything after the
> upgrade? Any other gotchas?
As the Llama wrote, you'd be hard-pressed to toast a running system
just by upgrading GCC - the default installation procedure installs
the new one into /usr/local, which keeps it from becoming the "system"
compiler and keeps the potential for self-inflicted damages to a
minimum. So, yes, installing GCC really is that easy; no, you won't
have to recompile your libraries or applications. This is one area
in which the received or conventional wisdom is incorrect. However,
it wasn't always that way, and it is the memories of The Way It Used
To Be (tm) that formed conventional wisdom.
The risk of hosing yourself by upgrading glibc is real, however. Having
a good backup is important, but you have to have a way to boot your
system if the upgrade goes badly. Again, as the Llama wrote, you can
trash a system with a bad upgrade procedure very easily. Moreover,
backwards compatibility post-upgrade can be a potential issue because
the C library is fundamental system component. Unless you need something
in the newer library that can't be shoehorned into the system without
upgrading the entire library, I don't recommend doing so. An upgrade
of this sort is not for the faint of heart.
> I my system well backed up - so I am not worried about losing it - but I
> don't want to get started only to screw up because the sxs guidance is
> assuming something(s) I don't know.
I might be overly cautious - I've broken systems many times upgrading
the C library - but I would test the upgrade procedure you intend to
use on a system you don't mind rebuilding if it goes badly before
risking a more important box.
Kurt
--
Pecor's Health-Food Principle:
Never eat rutabaga on any day of the week that has a "y" in
it.
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