Fwd: binutils>=2.16 is required to build GCC 4.7.0 for i686-pc-linux-gnu

[Mihai Badea <rumburake@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, I thought I would share this in case anyone else gets this
error trying to compile GCC 4.7.0 on Linux:

On a RedHat 8 system we have installed the distribution defaults:
 - binutils 2.13.90.0.18
 - gcc 3.2

Trying to compile GCC 4.7.0 will eventually result in an error:

genrecog.s: Assembler messages:
genrecog.s:17481: Error: bignum invalid
genrecog.s:17491: Error: bignum invalid
genrecog.s:17497: Error: bignum invalid

Configuration was done with the default target: i686-pc-linux-gnu

The assembler code generated from genrecog.c looks like this:
17481         .sleb128 -9223372036854775808

This is actually a valid big number but there is a bug in the
assembler that produces this error.
I also got the same error trying to compile with GCC-3.4.6

Look at: /usr/bin/as --version
I downloaded and built a more recent version binutils. binutils-2.16.1
is the first version that works. bintutils-2.15 still has the bug.

GNU binutils as prerequisites point to host/target specific. Perhaps
will be useful to mention binutils>=2.16 at:
http://gcc.gnu.org/install/specific.html#x-x-linux-gnu

I couldn't find the specific gas bug but there is this similar issue
here: http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=38896

So the summary is, if you get an error like the above, look at the
version of binutils and if it is < 2.16 try updating it.

Thanks!
Mihai