GCC not latest, yet not upgradable

bozox · 11-10-2009, 03:48 PM

Hi all,

I have a Debian box. It has GCC 4.1.1-21 - at least that's what dpkg is telling me. Here,

http://packages.debian.org/stable/devel/gcc-4.1

it says that the latest stable GCC is 4.1.2-25. Yet in the Synaptic Package Manager, GCC is not marked as upgradable.

What's the proper way for me to upgrade, please?

radiodee1 · 11-10-2009, 04:58 PM

maybe post your /etc/apt/sources.list file... do you have all the proper sources enabled?

AlucardZero · 11-10-2009, 05:02 PM

maybe install gcc-4.1 instead of gcc (which is on 4.3)?

bozox · 11-10-2009, 09:16 PM

My sources.list looks like this:

Quote:

#
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 r4a _Etch_ - Official i386 NETINST Binary-1 20080804-15:10]/ etch contrib main

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 r4a _Etch_ - Official i386 NETINST Binary-1 20080804-15:10]/ etch contrib main

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main

deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib
# deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ sarge main
# deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian lenny main

If I enable lenny, Synaptic acts weird. What I see is "0 packages listed, 1153 installed, 151608616 broken" - definitely not a right sight. If I enable sarge, I get a download error.

It's the gcc-4.1 package that has version 4.1.1-21. "gcc" I don't have installed, and Synaptic offers version 4:4.1.1-15 of that.

otoomet · 11-11-2009, 08:47 AM

What do you mean "enable lenny/enable sarge"?

Your system seems to be etch. According to debian.org, the gcc version in etch is 4:4.1.1-15. This is what you get while upgrading.

You may be able to install newer packages from newer distros (e.g. lenny), look for apt-pinning (e.g. http://wiki.debian.org/AptPinning). But it may run into problems. Gcc in lenny is 4.3.2-1.1

Do you have any special reason not to upgrade to lenny (or what I would do) to squeeze? I would perhaps go that way.

bozox · 11-11-2009, 12:09 PM

By "enable" I mean - go to the Reporitories list in Synaptic, place a checkmark next to one.

gcc and gcc-4.1 are two distinct packages. My system came without gcc.

I'll try and upgrade to lenny. Good point.

otoomet · 11-11-2009, 01:14 PM

'gcc' is a sort of virtual package which gives you the default gcc version (4.3 in lenny, afaik). Lenny has packages gcc-3.4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 where the last one is the default. I believe 4.1 is the default for etch.

But yes, unless you have any special reason to have a newer gcc and retain etch, I would upgrade.

Squeeze should become the stable next spring, so if you don't mind little inconveniences every now and then, then I would recommend to go for that.