# Versionbump for gcc8



## talsamon (Dec 12, 2018)

Could someone tell me, why the version is bumped in so many ports, cause of change of gcc default version. I don't think is was necessary.


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## SirDice (Dec 12, 2018)

This is usually done to simply ensure dependencies will line up correctly. They may not be strictly necessary in some cases but will ensure the dependencies are still correct after the change. It's typically a case of "better safe than sorry".


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## talsamon (Dec 14, 2018)

Kevin Oberman wrote  it right on pipermail:

```
Why does this matter? They were already working fine with gcc7. Why is it
of any significant benefit to the user to do this massive rebuild? I
installed gcc8, and I assume some of the rebuilds are using it, though

with USES=compiler specifying openmp, nestedfct, c11, c++0x, c++11-lang,
   c++11-lib, c++14-lang, c++17-lang, or gcc-c++11-lib

leaves me mystified as several of those items will not result in the use of
gcc, though there may be some reason I miss. Still, this is the cause of
the bump for many of the ports that are being rebuilt with clang.

But why is this better than just letting gcc8 build port as they otherwise
need updating? Again, this build will typically run for hours on many
systems, using a great deal of power and slowing other uses of the systems,
if they are not dedicated build systems.
```

Before it was another bigger update, and a few days later the shift to perl5.28. The last week I build and build and build, and some ports I have to recompile three times.....sigh!

I think, it would be enough to make a statement in /usr/ports/UPDATING (for gcc8).


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