According to Spanky major gcc updates don't switch the gcc version automatically, and they also don't run fix_libtool_files.sh automatically. Therefor the upgrade guide should mention running it after switching the gcc version. Jan, can you please take care of it or are you still on low availability?
I just realized this doc moved to /doc/en some time ago and perhaps it's better to assign it to the docs team then. Anyone there who can take a look at it?
After re-emerging libtool, right?
Since this is done during emerge gcc normally for minor revisions i would assume this should come directly after emerge. As far i know the libtool stuff will be no longer necessary for all further updates after 4.1 as it's done differently now, so this should only apply only for the current 3.4->4.1 transition. Cc:ing spanky, please leave a note if this is correct.
the libtool package itself is still "broken", see Bug 88596 future versions you wont have to run fix_libtool_files.sh, but for now upgrading to gcc-4.1 will require users run it themselves
Some other stuff about the upgrade guide - not sure if you docs guys would have wanted another bug report about it, but since it's the same doc and no one responded on irc :-P The part about emerge -e is contradictory: Section 3 "Upgrading from GCC-3.3 to 3.4 or greater" (or greater implies 4.1, doesn't it?) mentions two methods, one of them is doing some revdep-rebuild magic and not emerge -e system/world. Section 2 (which applies here in general) however tells the user to do so: "Now let's rebuild toolchain and then world so we will make use of the new compiler." The doc should make clear if this is something the user must do or just can. Otherwise this conflicts with section 3 which allows the user to upgrade from 3.3 to 4.1 without emerge -e - how is that possible if it's required for 3.4->4.1 ;-) Right now, there's the whole spectrum of opinions from "absolutely necessary" to "complete garbage" out there and we really should get a consistent policy what is necessary and what not before the stuff gets stable. In case we tell users it is necessary, the topic for section 3 should be changed to "Upgrading from GCC-3.3 to 3.4", if not the emerge -e part in section 2 should be changed to optional (but highly recommended) - for both system and world? or just the world part? Btw, i tried upgrading to gcc 4.1 without rebuilding system/world myself, but i'm slightly behind schedule and wasn't able to do it on more than one box yet. Things look good so far, but it's kind of hard to draw conclusions from my box to a whole lot of systems out there.
It's simple, put something like "to be completely safe, it is necessary to" in there. If users want to half-ass it, there's not much we can do about it, but our responsibility is to give the user the best information we can for keeping their systems up and running.
I was under impression that the section 3 really means "Upgrading from GCC-3.3 to 3.4.X". I though it is NOT meant to mean "Upgrading from GCC-3.3 to 3.4 - 4.1 and beyond". Maybe it should be made more clear to prevent any confusions.
I'm so all over this one! Dibs.
Created attachment 95503 [details] Proposed changes
Created attachment 95504 [details, diff] Proposed changes again, this time as diff
Looks good to me. I edited slightly to clarify things and some grammar checking. This went in to CVS; had to get it up quick to back up the new release. If you have any further additions, please reopen or ping me on IRC. Thanks to amne for taking the time to write some good clean xml + patches. :)
