GCC 4.5: Features and Fixes

The GCC build process now uses MPC library, according to the 4.5 release notes. The library has the advantage of evaluating complex arithmetic function calls correctly and independently of the host platform.

As always, GCC developers are busy making the compiler collection contamination-free. Among things made obsolete in version 4.5 are the IRIX releases before 6.5 and Solaris 7, with the 12-month end-of-support countdown starting immediately.

The release also includes some enhancements, such as debugging dumps landing in the same directory as the object directory rather than in the current working directory, which eliminates complications with like-named files when debugging multiple builds in parallel. Debugging the created binaries now requires GDB 7.0, because of the integration with DWARF3 debugging formats. All enhancements and changes are in the release notes. Downloads are available from the GCC mirror sites.