[U-Boot] [RFC PATCH] ARM: print gcc version

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Alexander Holler,

In message <4D2BB9AC.1040504 at ahsoftware.de> you wrote:
>
> > On the other hand, that would require changes to many files, and the
> > gcc __VERSION__ string is pretty long on some systems, which may cause
> > additional problems.
> 
> Hmm, here it includes only "4.5.2", the plain version and not the vendor 
> version. Therfore I was happy with that, because the vendor version 
> would be too long to display at startup.

Well, what I see is for example "4.5.1 20100924 (Red Hat 4.5.1-4)"
with the native GCC on Fedora 14; some other tool chains provide
similar long results.


> > I also doubt that we need this information with each boot message
> > (where it just slows down booting).
> 
> Hmm, I haven't counted the time needed to display additional 9 
> characters, but displaying the version at startup is handy for "screen 

It's about 1 millisecond at 115 kbps, or 10 milliseconds at 9600 ;-)

> dumps" (e.g. stuff pasted by people with problems).

I think we're already printing way too muc information- and still
people don't include even the most vital information like which
version of U-Boot they are running.

> > Would it not be sufficient to add this to the code of do_version() so
> > we can get this information when we want it, i. e. when running the
> > "version" command?
> 
> I would like that. But as you said, my intention was really only because 
> of the current problems with gcc for arm.

So will you prepare a patch? [TIA!]

> Besides that, I would found it handy to see the used compiler for 
> u-boot's where I don't have the source by hand, e.g. those already found 
> on boards. But that might be because I'm curious by default. ;)

Well, eventually we should print more than __VERSION__, then. Becasue
if you see "4.4.1" - what does it tell you? You don't see that this is
the Sourcery G++ Lite 2010q1-202 version of GCC, or that ""4.5.0
20100729 (prerelease)" is a specific Poky release?

> Anyway, I would found it a nice feature, at startup or when running the 
> version command, but both aren't a must.

I think it would be a really useful extension to the version command.
Looking forwad to seeing your patch.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

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