Compatibility of recent GCC/Python versions

[Robert Kern]

David Abrahams wrote:
> Recently people testing Boost.Python with GCC on Linux have reported
> that the extensions being tested have to be compiled with exactly the
> same version of GCC as the Python they're being loaded into, or they
> get mysterious crashes.
> 
> That doesn't correspond to my past experience; it has always been true
> that, as long as the compiler used to build Python and the one used to
> build the extension have compatible 'C' ABIs, we've been okay.  Yes,
> if you were going to pass types like FILE* across the Python/C API,
> then you additionally need to be sure that the two compilers are using
> the same 'C' library.  That said, none of the Boost.Python tests do
> that.
> 
> I'm wondering if there has been a well-known recent change either in Python
> or GCC that would account for these new reports.  Any relevant
> information would be appreciated.

I've had intermittent problems on OS X and gcc-4.0 with, well, 
everything, Python-related or otherwise. So I ignore it and use gcc-3.3 
and g77-3.4 and live happily ever after.

-- 
Robert Kern
rkern at ucsd.edu

"In the fields of hell where the grass grows high
  Are the graves of dreams allowed to die."
   -- Richard Harter