> I honestly don't know how to answer this question.  Bootstrapping is an
> unrelated problem, and the compiler is not a vital runtime component
> of the system, so its dependencies do not need to be exceptionally
> robust in the way that glibc's or even libstdc++'s do.

A compiler is a "second order" thing though: its ill behaviour sends ripples 
through all the stuff it compiles.  Suppose that an MPFR upgrade introduces a 
bug in the library and that the compiler is affected; every single program 
compiled from now on will be potentially affected by the MPFR bug, even if it 
has nothing to do with MPFR.

I think that the compiler, especially the system compiler, should not depend 
on dynamic libraries that are lower than it in the system hierarchy, which 
pretty much leaves only the libc.

-- 
Eric Botcazou

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