Zack's Kernel News
Zack's Kernel News
This month in Kernel News: Dealing with Older GCC Versions; and On-boarding New Kernel Hackers.
Dealing with Older GCC Versions
This past year, Linus Torvalds upped the supported version of GCC to version 4.9 or newer. The idea is that it's good to support older as well as newer versions, because then people running on old systems can still compile the kernel. At the same time, if no one in the world is using a particular older compiler, you might be able to simplify some kernel code by removing support for that compiler. So there's not only an incentive for the kernel developers to support older compilers, there's also an incentive for them to abandon very old compilers when they can safely get away with it.
It's an ever-advancing debate. Recently for example, Thomas Gleixner threw up his hands in disgust at some compiler behavior. Arnd Bergmann had posted some kernel patches to work around some ugly compiler behavior in GCC 4.9 that wasn't necessary in GCC 5 and newer.
Specifically, Arnd's code added some symbol references that were never actually used in the code. The symbols were then also referenced in unused inline functions, so as not to trigger a warning. Then, as Thomas pointed out, the symbols and the inline functions were all optimized out of the final compiled binary.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.
-
So Long, ArcoLinux
The ArcoLinux distribution is the latest Linux distribution to shut down.