Testing#
Before you install GCC, we encourage you to run the testsuites and to compare your results with results from a similar configuration that have been submitted to the gcc-testresults mailing list. Some of these archived results are linked from the build status lists at https://gcc.gnu.org/buildstat.html, although not everyone who reports a successful build runs the testsuites and submits the results. This step is optional and may require you to download additional software, but it can give you confidence in your new GCC installation or point out problems before you install and start using your new GCC.
First, you must have downloaded the testsuites. These are part of the full distribution, but if you downloaded the ‘core’ compiler plus any front ends, you must download the testsuites separately.
Second, you must have the testing tools installed. This includes DejaGnu, Tcl, and Expect; the DejaGnu site has links to these. Some optional tests also require Python3 and pytest module.
If the directories where runtest and expect were
installed are not in the PATH, you may need to set the following
environment variables appropriately, as in the following example (which
assumes that DejaGnu has been installed under /usr/local):
TCL_LIBRARY = /usr/local/share/tcl8.0
DEJAGNULIBS = /usr/local/share/dejagnu
(On systems such as Cygwin, these paths are required to be actual paths, not mounts or links; presumably this is due to some lack of portability in the DejaGnu code.)
Finally, you can run the testsuite (which may take a long time):
cd objdir; make -k check
This will test various components of GCC, such as compiler
front ends and runtime libraries. While running the testsuite, DejaGnu
might emit some harmless messages resembling
WARNING: Couldn't find the global config file. or
WARNING: Couldn't find tool init file that can be ignored.
If you are testing a cross-compiler, you may want to run the testsuite on a simulator as described at https://gcc.gnu.org/simtest-howto.html.