Does it matter that I update the gcc 4.6 to 4.7 or higher in Ubuntu 12.04(LTS)

Question

I found that more and more open source libraries will use C++11 features, and my Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 just has gcc 4.6, I want to use the update-alternatives to change the default gcc version into 4.7 or 4.8. I wonder that, if the libraries in the /usr/local/lib compiled by gcc 4.6 will need to be recompiled by the new gcc 4.7/4.8. In my opinion, if the dependency libraries are still in the system, there is no need to recompile. But, If one dependency library compiled by the new gcc 4.7, is the dependency among libraries still right? Sorry for my poor English. Thanks.

Answer 1

Just update to 13.04 (and soon 13.10). From my 13.04 development box:

edd@max:~$ ls -1 /usr/bin/g*-4.*
/usr/bin/g++-4.4
/usr/bin/g++-4.5
/usr/bin/g++-4.6
/usr/bin/g++-4.7
/usr/bin/gcc-4.4
/usr/bin/gcc-4.5
/usr/bin/gcc-4.6
/usr/bin/gcc-4.7
/usr/bin/gcc-ar-4.7
/usr/bin/gcc-nm-4.7
/usr/bin/gcc-ranlib-4.7
/usr/bin/gcov-4.4
/usr/bin/gcov-4.5
/usr/bin/gcov-4.6
/usr/bin/gcov-4.7
/usr/bin/gfortran-4.4
/usr/bin/gfortran-4.5
/usr/bin/gfortran-4.6
/usr/bin/gfortran-4.7
edd@max:~$ 

Make sure you upgrade one-by-one and not in jumps. It usually a very smooth process.