Path: utzoo!telly!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!toad.com!gnu
From: gnu@toad.com
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc.bug
Subject: Re: GCC version number in .o files -- bad idea
Message-ID: <8903142014.AA27229@hop.toad.com>
Date: 14 Mar 89 20:14:46 GMT
References: <8903101710.AA09972@prep.ai.mit.edu>
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GCC should not put extraneous differences into files that would otherwise
be identical.  If you upgrade from gcc-1.xx to gcc-1.yy and run a regression
test, only the files whose assembler code actually changes should show
up as different.  This is a major botch in "coff", where they put
a timestamp in the object files, and you have to take special precautions
to try to compare two versions of object code, e.g. to see if a compiler
fix has changed anything.

	John Gilmore