Compiling gcc 4.8.5 - linux

Question

Im trying to compile gcc 4.8.5 under Red Hat 6. This is my procedure:
tar -xvzf archive.tar.gz
cd gcc-4.8.5
./configure --enable-bootstrap --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --enable-checking=release \
--with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --disable-libunwind-exceptions --enable-gnu-unique-object \
--enable-languages=fortran,c --prefix=/opt/gcc4.8.5
make
Then I get the following error:
make all-am
make[4]: Entering directory `/app/gfortran_build/gcc-4.8.5/host-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lto-plugin'
/bin/sh ./libtool --tag=CC --tag=disable-static --mode=link gcc -Wall -g -module -bindir /opt/gcc4.8.5/libexec/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.8.5 -o
liblto_plugin.la -rpath /opt/gcc4.8.5/libexec/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.8.5 lto-plugin.lo -Wc,../libiberty/pic/libiberty.a
libtool: link: gcc -shared .libs/lto-plugin.o ../libiberty/pic/libiberty.a -Wl,-soname -Wl,liblto_plugin.so.0 -o .libs/liblto_plugin.so.0.0.0
/usr/bin/ld: ../libiberty/pic/libiberty.a(simple-object-coff.o): relocation R_X86_64_PC32 against undefined symbol `simple_object_set_big_16' can not be used when making a shared object; recompile with -fPIC
/usr/bin/ld: final link failed: Bad value
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
I already read about CFLAGS, but I wont get it to work.
kind regards

Answer 1

GCC is documented to need to be built outside of its source tree; see the configuring chapter of its installation documentation:
First, we highly recommend that GCC be built into a separate directory from the sources which does not reside within the source tree. This is how we generally build GCC; building where srcdir == objdir should still work, but doesn’t get extensive testing; building where objdir is a subdirectory of srcdir is unsupported.
So you need to build it according to that rule. Hence your GCC build:
cd gcc-4.8.5
#wrong code from the original question! Don't use that
./configure --enable-bootstrap --enable-shared \
--enable-threads=posix --enable-checking=release \
--with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit \
--disable-libunwind-exceptions --enable-gnu-unique-object \
--enable-languages=fortran,c --prefix=/opt/gcc4.8.5
is wrong; I would recommend at least:
cd gcc-4.8.5
mkdir ../_BuildGCC
cd ../_BuildGCC
../gcc-4.8.5/configure --enable-bootstrap --enable-shared \
--enable-threads=posix --enable-checking=release \
--with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit \
--disable-libunwind-exceptions --enable-gnu-unique-object \
--enable-languages=fortran,c --prefix=/opt/gnu \
--program-suffix=-mine
then, after the entire build, probably with
make -j4
followed by some mkdir /opt/gnu with appropriate user and permission, then (in the same _BuildGCC)
make install DESTDIR=/tmp/gccinst
and finally cp -vr /tmp/gccinst/opt/gnu /opt/gnu to be run appropriately (perhaps as root...., and perhaps cp -va)
Then you would add /opt/gnu/bin/ to your PATH variable, and you would use gcc-mine to compile your code.
BTW, GCC is compatible for C programs since the ABI don't change. And GCC 4.8 is obsolete and unsupported. You'll better compile from source the supported versions (listed on gcc.gnu.org; in January 2018, GCC 7.2 & GCC 6.4)
Perhaps your particular Redhat system requires additional/specific CFLAGS to be appended into your configure command. You could ask your Redhat support, or try to append CFLAGS=-fPIE or CFLAGS=-fPIC at the end of your ../gcc-4.8.5/configure command.
At last, you might perhaps get such help on gcc-help#gcc.gnu.org, but you'll better try with a recent GCC. Few GCC folks remember 4.8 ....
If you really need precisely GCC 4.8 (but I doubt that), you could buy costly support (e.g. from RedHat or AdaCore folks) if needed.
With Google I found Installing gcc 4.8 and Linuxbrew on CentOS 6

Answer 2

it worked with the following:
../gcc-4.8.5/configure CC="/opt/gcc4.5/bin/gcc" --prefix=/opt/gcc4.8.5 --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran --enable-bootstrap --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --enable-checking=release --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --disable-libunwind-exceptions --enable-gnu-unique-object
The interesting part is CC=...
The installed gcc-version is 4.4. With this version, the compiling fails.
kind regards