>Number:         15864
>Category:       port-alpha
>Synopsis:       egcs 1.1.2 optimizer broken by perl 5.7.3 on Alpha
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    port-alpha-maintainer
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Sun Mar 10 21:47:00 PST 2002
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Michael G Schwern
>Release:        1.5.2
>Organization:
Perl 5 Porters
>Environment:
NetBSD spe159 1.5.2 NetBSD 1.5.2 (GENERIC) #37: Sat Aug 18 10:02:07 MEST 2001     he@albatross.urc.uninett.no:/usr/src/sys/arch/alpha/compile/GENERIC alpha
>Description:
Perl 5.7.3 appears to tickle an egcs optimizer bug.  When compiled with -O perl fails several tests.  With -O0 or -g everything passes.

Its not yet known if this is a problem on x86.  We're checking now.

The full discussion of the problem can be found in this thread:
http://archive.develooper.com/daily-build-reports@perl.org/msg00436.html
>How-To-Repeat:
Download ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/snap/perl@15109.tgz

Configure, make and make test normally with the -O optimization flag (the default).  pack.t and several regex tests should fail.  If you instead use -g or -O0 for your optimization flag the tests should all pass.

>Fix:
Its not known how to fix the problem.  I'm working through to find at least the specific C file which tickles the bug.  Tuits are low.

If the problem isn't solved before release, perl 5.8 will default to  using -O0 for egcs on NetBSD/Alpha.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: