>When I upgrade my system to v1.2 is it necessary to recompile all programs
>or is it enough to relink them only.
>(This would save much time !)

Ok, unless you have been having problems with a binary there may be no real
need
to compile or relink it.

Programs that need recompiling - The only real compiler change for 1.2 is
that GCC 2.7.2.1 can be used instead of 2.7.2. The only time if may be worth
recompiling is if you had problems compiling the code before (due to the
compiler crashing out). Most of those problems could be fixed by lowering the
optimiation level. You may find that you can compile with higher optimisation
without a problem now. If the code compiled out of the box under 1.1 then I
don't see a real need to recompile.

Programs that need relinking - You may find that this is more necessary due to
changes in the message catalogue system etc. Also there have been one or
two bug fixes. Any code that uses the ptrace() syscall need relinking (probably
only effects gdb). Any code that uses lseek() should be relinked (there is a
bug that can cause seek errors to be missed)

If you want to avoid recompilation/linking I would say install 1.2 and only
worry about recompiling/relinking things if you have problems. For instance
you will see error messages about a corrupt message catalogue if the binary
needs relinking with libc for the new message catalogue stuff.

In conclusion ;-) recompiling is probably unnecessary as there have been no
significant compiler change (you can wait for GCC 2.8.0 before thinking about
that). Relinking is perhaps more desirable as it could fix a number of bugs
lurking binaries but 1.1 binaries should in practice run just as well under 1.2
as they did under 1.1

Cheers,
				Mark

-- 
Mark Brinicombe				amb@physig.ph.kcl.ac.uk
Research Associate			http://www.ph.kcl.ac.uk/~amb/
Department of Physics			tel: 0171 873 2894
King's College London			fax: 0171 873 2716