gcc 2.9.6 version

[girishb]

Hi

I need gcc 2.9.6 installation version to be installed on Redhat Linux.

Can you point me a location from where I can download the rpms or source files.

Thanks
Girish

[Matti_Kurkela]

The rpms might already be on your RHEL installation discs.

RedHat Enterprise Linux 3 includes GCC 2.96 as an optional package for backwards compatibility. The package name is "compat-gcc-".

Which distribution do you want it for? The old, free, obsolete, out-of-support RedHat Linux, or the newer RedHat Enterprise Linux (which is not free).

If you need it for older RHL distributions, the place to check is RedHat's own archive server:

ftp://archive.download.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/

MK

[girishb]

Hi MK,

Thanks for the response.

I need gcc 2.9.6 for RHEL 4.0. The installation kit contains gcc 3.4.6 which we do not want to run because it does not give the good performance when compared to 2.9.6

If we try to execute some of our users programs using 3.4.6 it takes more than 5 hours to complile where as with 2.9.6 it take less than an hour to compile.

I could not find gcc 2.9.6 rpms yet?

Thanks
GB

[Matti_Kurkela]

Note that there never was a GCC 2.96 release from the GNU GCC Project. RedHat took a pre-release snapshot of gcc 3.0 and included it into RedHat Linux distributions. GCC 2.96 was only ever supported by the distribution builders (mainly RedHat) and this support is nearing its end.

The GCC project was rather unhappy about it:
http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-2.96.html

RedHat's arguments:
https://www.redhat.com/advice/speaks_gcc.html

When RHEL 3 was released, it contained gcc-2.96 as a _backwards compatibility package_: this was a big clue that everyone using RHEL should move away from gcc-2.96 while RHEL 3 is still current.

So, it seems that RedHat is the only one who can provide you with gcc-2.96. As they have not provided (and apparently will not provide) it as a compat-gcc for RHEL 4 or above, you'll have to fetch RedHat's source RPMs intended for RHEL 3 and port it on your own to the current distribution.

MK