Re: [gentoo-hardened] gcc-4.3.4 stabilized for a hardened profile?

[Grant <emailgrant@gmail.com>]

>> I've been stuck on gcc-3.4.6 on my hardened profile system (currently:
>> hardened/linux/amd64/10.0) for a very long time.  Now it looks like
>> gcc-4.3.4 has been stabilized for hardened profiles.  Has anyone
>> tested it?  This system is critical for me, so I've got to be careful.
>>
>> - Grant
>>
>
> A lot of us have been testing the new GCC for a while now using the
> hardened-development overlay. It's as stable as 3.4.x was in my experience.
>
> About a year and a half ago, I reformatted a laptop and started from scratch
> using gcc-4.x from the overlay, because what the hell. Many issues from the
> gcc-3.x era actually cleared up with the new toolchain. Once I convinced
> myself that things were working correctly, I began to migrate "real" systems
> to the development GCC one at a time.
>
> All of my personal machines are using gcc-4.x, and things work much better
> on the desktop than they did with gcc-3.x. Many of our servers have also
> been migrated: web, database, dns, mail, monitoring, firewall, etc. all work
> fine. I have noticed absolutely no difference (either positive or negative)
> on those machines.
>
> In short, switching your default compiler with gcc-config isn't going to
> change anything. Test any new packages/upgrades just as you would have with
> gcc-3.x.

That's great.  I'm up against a mysql upgrade that doesn't want to go
through without the new gcc, so I'm going for it now.

I have 4 desktops on a non-hardened profile and 1 server on a hardened
profile.  I'd love to put the desktops on a hardened profile with this
new gcc.  Can I switch from non-hardened to hardened?

- Grant