GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain

Which gcc version should I upgrade.

Asked by ray

We are currently using arm-none-eabi-gcc v4.8.1.
Our customer complained it is too old and push us to upgrade a newer version.
We checked the time line "ttps://launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded/+series"

1. Three are 7.0 series "foccs of development", 9.0 series "active development" and 8.0 "future",
what is the difference between "focus of development", "active development" and "future?

2. Our requirement of the new release is as stable as possible, and the target code performance should keep the same level,
the build time should not increase too much. Which version should I use?

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Leo Havmøller (leh-p) said : 		#1

Use the latest version, which is 9-2019-q4-major: https://developer.arm.com/tools-and-software/open-source-software/developer-tools/gnu-toolchain/gnu-rm/downloads

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ray (raywu8888) said : 		#2

Thanks for your information.
1. May I know what is the definition about "focus of development", "active development" and "future"?
2. The 7 series is at the top of time line graph is mark as "focus of development" looks like more proven and support continuously?
3. We tested the 8 series and found that the compiling time is degrade so much than 4.8.4. We are wondering the 9 series still have the same problem?

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john (jkovach) said : 		#3

I would advise against the latest version. It came out very recently, you should wait and see if there are any new bugs reported.

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john (jkovach) said : 		#4

By the way "too old" doesn't sound like a good reason. What's wrong with 4.8.1? Upgrading just for the sake of upgrading is asking for trouble. Maybe you should try to convince the customer that it's not a very good idea. Google for upgrade horror stories, I'm sure you'll find a few.

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ray (raywu8888) said : 		#5

Actually, 4.8.4 is working fine in our platform. Yes, we tried to convince the customer many times, and warning them this will increase their effort and risk. The major concern of our customer about old toolchain is it may have some known but unfixed security bugs, may bring software have a security risk. Thanks for your information. I think we will discussed with them again.

However, we will provides solution using cm33 next year. It is another reason we need to upgrade the compiler soon or later. We will evaluate the latest version.
Thanks!

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Joey Ye (jinyun-ye) said : 		#6

We always recommend the latest GCC, which is currently GCC9.

BTW the series timeline is not up-to-date on this website, as the main download website has been moved to https://developer.arm.com/tools-and-software/open-source-software/developer-tools/gnu-toolchain/gnu-rm/downloads

Sorry for the confusion.

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ray (raywu8888) said : 		#7

Hi, Joey,
thanks for update.