Why change default for --hash-style=gnu?

[dweb]

Binary package hint: gcc-4.4

I've been compiling software on Ubuntu 10.04 with gcc-4.4 for a while now and recently upgraded to Ubuntu 10.10, when I discovered that my software compilation fails. It comes down to a change in gcc-4.4 defaults from using ''--hash-style=both" to "--hash-style=gnu" for Ubuntu 10.10.

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/maverick/+source/gcc-4.4/+changelog

It was --hash-style=both in Ubuntu 10.04, I wonder why it was changed? The change-log 'blame' goes to:

-- Matthias Klose <email address hidden> Fri, 14 May 2010 09:24:49 +0200

Thanks,
Darren

[dweb (darrenleeweber)]

My workmate suggested that when a change is made to the --hash-style defaults, the dynamic loader gets a version update.

Is there an easy way to re-configure this default setting on Ubuntu 10.10?

e.g.: http://dhoomketu.net.in/node/34

[dweb (darrenleeweber)]

When I compile the canonical "hello world" program on Ubuntu 10.10 with gcc defaults to --hash-style=gnu and run it on Debian 4 (etch), I get:

    % ./a.out
    Floating point exception

If I then recompile on Ubuntu 10.10, with the -Wl,--hash-style=both option to gcc, and run it on etch, I get:

    % ./a.out
    hello world

"Floating point exception" is not a good error message. If the version number of the runtime loader were changed to match the change in the symbol table format (i.e., /lib/ld-linux.so.3 instead of /lib/ld-linux.so.2), then we get a reasonable error message on older systems.