Problems compiling latest development branch of FPC

[CuriousKit]

Since updating my files from the Subversion repository, I have been unable to properly compile the Free Pascal Compiler.  I'm able to bootstrap the compiler with "make cycle", but when I continue onto "make all", I consistently get the following error:

Makefile:2918: *** The only supported starting compiler version is 3.0.4. You are trying to build with 3.1.1..  Stop.

I've already tried to clean up the compilation and even get a clean copy of the Makefile, but the same error occurs.  I try to keep the compiler self-contained, but here it looks like it now refuses to compile any of the supporting files unless it's using version 3.0.4.  Is there a way around this, or do I have to download version 3.0.4 and get "make all" to use it somehow?

I admit it's telling me the answer straight to my face, but it just seems odd because I was able to bootstrap and compile it without any problems until today's repository update.

[molly]

Seems that you are using the wrong start compiler. What version of FPC is in your path ? because make reports it is 3.1.1 and it should be 3.0.4. You can always attempt to build with an older version of FPC but that is officially not supported.

You can explicitly set the start compiler by using make parameter FPC=Path_to_Start_Compiler\executable. See also build-faq.

[Leledumbo]

Is there a way around this, or do I have to download version 3.0.4 and get "make all" to use it somehow?

Follow what it says. It's actually been quite some time now, since 3.0.0 or something, that building from svn is only guaranteed to work by using latest release version, unless you pass OVERRIDEVERSIONCHECK=1 (or something similar in case I'm wrong) to make.

[molly]

defining OVERRIDEVERSIONCHECK is what i read as well Leledumbo.

fwiw: the change that CuriousKit is experiencing is probably this one.

[Tomas Hajny]

Indeed - note that the support for trunk compilation is officially restricted just to the latest release, but the previous one usually works and helps in the transition.

Obviously, you don't need to use the official installer if you don't want to - checking out the respective release tag from SVN and building it yourself is a valid option.

I'll add the 3.0.4 bootstrap compiler to the FTP server (currently missing there) if noone else does it earlier.

[CuriousKit]

That's weird - I wonder what I did that made it work before! Time to re-check my configuration!

(I did end up using the override option, after studying the Makefile, soon after I opened this topic - it's still compiling...)

[marcov]

I really advise to keep a release compiler around for bootstrapping purposes. 

While 3.0.4 is the formal last compiler, the makefile also allows 3.0.2 

The check is there for good reason, since using 3.1.1 versions will cause trouble long term. A momentary bug or simply a larger rearrangement will suddenly cause it to fail in subtle, hard to diagnose cases, and waste your time, and potentially also forum and maillist people time.

Using OVERRIDEVERSIONCHECK is fragile and should always considered an exception. Never put it permanently in a script.