Upgrading gcc on FreeBSD 4.11

[RW]

On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 01:29:12 -0600
Shaun <freebsd at shaunc.com> wrote:

> > > Is it safe to install one of the newer gcc ports on FreeBSD 4.11?
> > > I've had this machine for three years; I don't recall ever
> > > upgrading the compiler, although pkg_info seems to think that I
> > > did, or at least attempted to. I'm wondering if there are any
> > > risks involved in going from gcc 2.95 to, say, 3.4.6. Typically
> > > I'm happy to pull the latest stable of just about anything, but
> > > the compiler is a different story.
>...
> FWIW: The reason I was wanting to upgrade gcc was to get the
> /usr/ports/net-mgmt/darkstat package installed. 


For future reference, installing a gcc port doesn't upgrade gcc, it
installs a extra version of the compiler with differently named binaries
e.g. gcc44 instead of gcc. Ports that need specific versions of gcc to
build will acquire a gcc build-dependency if they cannot be built from
the system compiler.  Probably, this didn't work correctly for you since
the port's infrastructure no longer supports 4.x. Although it might
also happen if you have ccache installed, and you put it's symlinks in
your path.


The only correct way to upgrade the system compiler itself is to build a
later version of FreeBSD.