Linaro GCC

Linaro GCC is an open source and free software project, a modified version of the FSF (Free Software Foundation) GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) compiler, optimized for performance using new features, patches, etc. It is developed by Linaro and distributed via Launchpad.

Differences between GCC and Linaro GCC

Linaro GCC features parts of the CodeSourcery patchset and it's stabilized for consumption by Linux operating systems. The software includes backports of the bugfixes and improvements that Linaro and other similar companies have done upstream. It is primarily created to improve the usefulness of GCC on ARM.

Releases are made monthly

Linaro is committed to make monthly releases of its GCC branch, which consist of a source archive that must be configured and compiled prior to installation. A PPA repository for the Ubuntu platform has been setup for this project by Linaro.

A drop-in replacement for FSF GCC

Linaro GCC is a drop-in replacement for FSF GCC, which means that, once installed, it will automatically replace any existing GCC installation, becoming the default compiler on the respective distribution of Linux. If you want a cross compiler, install the gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi package.

About GCC

GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) is an open source software project which delivers a powerful compiler that includes front-ends for numerous programming languages, including Objective-C, C++, C, Java, Fortran, Go, and Ada.

With GCC you can configure, compile and install GNU/Linux applications in Linux or BSD operating systems using only the source archive of the respective program. However, users don’t need to interact with the compiler, as this is done automatically by the configure and make scripts.

Additional Linaro projects

In addition to this custom GCC branch, Linaro also develops patched version of the GDB (GNU Project Debugger) software debugger, LLVM (Low Level Virtual Machine) compiler, as well as the QEMU emulator.

What is new in this release:

• Updates to GCC 4.9.2-pre+svn213803
• Backport of [AArch64] Drop ISB after FPCR write.
• Backport of [AArch64] Remove from arm_neon.h functions not in the spec
• Backport of [AArch32] Fix check for __FAST_MATH in arm_neon.h
• Backport of [AArch64] fix and enable non-const shuffle for bigendian using TBL instruction
• Backport of [AArch64] Fix constraint vec_unpack_trunk
• Backport of [AArch32] Cortex-A5 rtx costs table
• Backport of [AArch32] Handle clz, rbit types in arm pipeline descriptions
• Backport of [AArch64] Fix argument types for some high_lane* intrinsics implemented in assembly
• Backport of [AArch64] Handle fcvta[su] and frint in RTX cost function
• Backport of [AArch64] Prologue rewrite + performance.

What is new in version 4.8 2014.04:

• Updates to GCC 4.8.3+svn208968
• Cortex-a53 support
• A fix for LP #1292489: Buggy vectorization of dot products
• A fix for LP #1268893: ICE when building kernel raid6 neon code
• A fix for LP #1273511: ICE APCS Frame & optimize-sibling-calls

What is new in version 4.8 2014.03:

• Updates to GCC 4.8.3+svn208264

What is new in version 4.8 2014.02:

• Updates to GCC 4.8.3+svn207411
• ARM-v8 crypto intrinsics support
• New vectorizer cost model

What is new in version 4.8 2014.01:

• Updates to GCC 4.8.3+svn206350
• Enhanced multilib support

What is new in version 4.8 2013.12:

• Updates to GCC 4.8.3+svn205577
• AArch64: enable build of libjava and libatomic. Change frame growth direction, thus enabling libssp build.

What is new in version 4.8 2013.11:

• Updates to GCC 4.8.2+svn204657
• Fixes for bugs LP #1243656, #1243022
• Backport fix for PR/58423
• AArch64: added support for tiny model GOT access.
• Improved AArch32 A-profile multilibs support (--with-multilib-list option)

What is new in version 4.8 2013.10:

• Updates to GCC 4.8.1+svn203510
• Improved AArch64 support (CRC extension, improved intrinsics, gprof support)
• Improved Aarch32 support (bug fixes, better code generation, improved multilib)
• Backports for bug fixes (PR58578

What is new in version 4.8 2013.08:

• Updates to GCC 4.8.1+svn201477
• Improved shrink-wrapping optimization.
• Improved tail-calls optimization.
• Improved AArch64 support (instructions, intrinsics).
• Improved AArch64 vectorizer cost model.
• Backports for bug fixes.