[RFC] minimum gcc version for kernel: raise to gcc-4.3 or 4.6?

[Maciej W. Rozycki]

On Mon, 24 Apr 2017, Arnd Bergmann wrote:

> > If there's no real good reason (brokenness) to deprecate gcc-4.1, I would not
> > do it.I guess most people using old compilers know what they're doing.
> 
> What I'm trying to find out first is whether "people regularly using 10+
> year old compilers for the latest kernels" is a strict subset of "people in
> Geert's household".

 Well I do not live with Geert TBH.

> Given that none of the three architectures I looked at (arm, mips, x86)
> has successfully built any defconfig for a few years, it's quite possible
> that it's just you ;-) The other architectures that were around 10 years
> ago (so they might have someone who still has old toolchain binaries)
> and that still exist today are alpha, cris, frv, ia64, m32r, parisc, powerpc,
> s390, sh, sparc and xtensa. The first six are similar to m68k in that the
> hardware is mostly obsolete and the ports are kept around to support
> those old systems that might also use ancient toolchains, or new
> toolchains may be unmaintained or buggy, which could be a reason
> to keep 4.1 supported or at least try to find out if 4.1 (or even any other
> version) still works at all.

 Huh?

$ git log -1
commit 5a7ad1146caa895ad718a534399e38bd2ba721b7
Author: Linus Torvalds <torvalds at linux-foundation.org>
Date:   Sun Apr 23 16:53:00 2017 -0700

    Linux 4.11-rc8
$ /usr/bin/time make ARCH=mips CROSS_COMPILE=mipsel-linux- decstation_defconfig vmlinux >/dev/null 2>&1
1014.19user 71.47system 19:33.24elapsed 92%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 
0maxresident)k18764inputs+242504outputs (704major+9549837minor)pagefaults 0swaps
$ mipsel-linux-gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 4.1.2
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
$ 

Methinks it builds just fine.

  Maciej