[llvm-dev] [RFC] Increase minimum supported GCC version for building LLVM to 4.8

[Renato Golin via llvm-dev]

On 13 October 2016 at 10:05, Joerg Sonnenberger via llvm-dev
<llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
> In case it matters, NetBSD 7.0 ships a January 2015 snapshot of GCC,
> between 4.8.4 and 4.8.5.

Ubuntu Trusty ships 4.8.2 and I have a RedHat with 4.8.3.

It shouldn't really matter which dot version, they're mostly bug
fixes, not additional support.

In practice...
 * If LLVM builds with 4.8.0 but not with 4.8.2, it probably means
there's a bug in LLVM that needs fixing.
 * if LLVM builds with 4.8.2 but not with 4.8.0, it probably means
there's a bug in 4.8.0 that was fixed in 4.8.3.

Sometimes, the latter case is also platform specific. We used to have
a long list of those cases pre 4.7, but they seem to have all
disappeared by now.

So, unless we have specific concerns, we should not specify the dot
version, just say "4.8".

cheers,
--renato