Re: GCC with ada support

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

Patrick wrote on comp.lang.ada:
> I am trying to compile the latest gcc so that I can get -fdump-ada-
> spec.  I know I could get this from the gnat-gpl version but I was
> thinking that it might be wiser to get it from gcc so that there would
> not be version issues with multi-language development(which I have
> never done).
>
> Anyhow, the gcc version in my Trisquel repository(based on ubuntu)does
> not have proper ada support even though gnat is installed through the
> package manager as well.

What do you mean by "does not have proper ada support"?

Anyway, to answer your question about -fdump-ada-spec, this option was
added in April 2010 to the main line of development of GCC[1]. The
first
official release of GCC that contains this feature is GCC 4.6[2] and
it is also present in GNAT 2011 GPL Edition.

[1] http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2010-04/msg01592.html
[2] http://gcc.gnu.org/develop.html#timeline

The best solution to your problem at this point in time is to use
Debian unstable, possibly in a chroot[3], and say:

aptitude install gnat-4.6

[3] http://lists.debian.org/debian-ada/2010/02/msg00003.html

> It looks like this might be a bug according to some web posts.

Which web posts?

> I am trying to install gtkAda from source and having some trouble with
> version skewing.

In that case: aptitude install libgtkada2.24.1-dev

will avoid the need to recompile GtkAda from sources and will take
care
of version skewing for you.

I don't know how far the various Debian derivatives lag behind Debian
proper. It is possible that your distribution already contains
gnat-4.6
and libgtkada2.24.1-dev.

If you need -fdump-ada-spec only so you can compile GtkAda, then
Debian
removes that need completely by providing GtkAda precompiled.  In this
case you can use any version of Debian or a derivative; look for the
package libgtkada2.*-dev in the package manager.

> now I am thinking it is better to use code from the ada core website
> and not from my Linux repository.

From your post it seems this is not your best option.  You best option
is to use precompiled binary packages and not bother rebuilding
everything yourself.

HTH

--
Ludovic Brenta, maintainer of GNAT and GtkAda in Debian.