How can I update gcc to the latest version in Ubuntu 10.04?

Question

I have Ubuntu 10.04 32-bit with gcc 4.4.3 currently installed on it. I want to upgrade it to gcc 4.6.1.

1. How to update using Ubuntu Package Manager:

   apt-get upgrade/install
   

2. As a second option I downloaded the latest gcc snapshot file from:

   http://gcc.cybermirror.org/snapshots/LATEST-4.7/gcc-4.7-20110709.tar.bz2

How do I configure, compile, and install it?

Answer 1

I think you can get it by adding this PPA to your repositories:

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-toolchain-r/+archive/test

You can add the PPA by running

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test

After it's in the repositories (and after running apt-get update) you should be able to either 1) update to the latest version using apt-get upgrade, or possibly 2) you'll have it available as a separate package you need to you'll need to apt-get install. I'm not sure which is the case with this package.

Further information: Guide on how to add a PPA to your repositories.

Answer 2

Add https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-toolchain-r/+archive/test to your repositories by running:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test

Then follow the steps in http://askubuntu.com/a/26518/23678 to map gcc to the version you just installed.

In our case, you want to run:

sudo apt-get install gcc-4.6
sudo apt-get install g++-4.6
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.6 20
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.6 20
sudo update-alternatives --config gcc
sudo update-alternatives --config g++

Answer 3

You don't get latest anything on LTS with the package manager. It's supposed to be stable with backported security updates. I'm not a fan of updating distros, I just reinstall and copy ~/

  
./configure
make
make install  

is the general procedure. Read the options in the configure script...you have to have a version installed to compile a new one. make install will probably mangle your current install.

suggestion: if you want "newest" then use "newest" - that's 11.10 at this point I think.