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llvm-defaults package

Why does llvm package not depend on llvm-2.9?

Asked by Andrew Grabko

Why does default llvm package not depend on the latest stable llvm version 2.9? Why is there a different package for every major version of llvm in general?

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Eliah Kagan (degeneracypressure) said : 		#1

Like most compilers, it often makes sense to have more than one version of llvm installed at the same time. Different versions exhibit different behavior and software sometimes needs to be changed so that it compiles on a later version, even if it works on an earlier version. Code compiled with one version will often only be linkable to code compiled with that same version. So more than one version of llvm is separately packaged, in some releases, for the same reason there are so many versions of gcc packaged:

ek@Apok:~$ dpkg -l | grep gcc-
ii gcc-4.5 4.5.3-9ubuntu1 The GNU C compiler
ii gcc-4.5-base 4.5.3-9ubuntu1 The GNU Compiler Collection (base package)
ii gcc-4.6 4.6.1-9ubuntu3 GNU C compiler
ii gcc-4.6-base 4.6.1-9ubuntu3 GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection (base package)
ii gcc-4.6-base:i386 4.6.1-9ubuntu3 GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection (base package)

The latest stable version of LLVM packages for your Ubuntu release is not necessarily the one that is most commonly used or on which most software that needs LLVM depends or is recommended to use.

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