[Lazarus] Switching Lazarus between fpc 3.2.0 and 3.0.4 - how to?

[Bo Berglund]

On Sun, 21 Jun 2020 09:53:47 +0200 (CEST), Michael Van Canneyt via
lazarus <lazarus at lists.lazarus-ide.org> wrote:

>
>
>On Sun, 21 Jun 2020, Bo Berglund via lazarus wrote:
>
>> Is it possible to switch Lazarus between using fpc 3.0.4 and 3.2.0 so
>> as to compare the two easily?
>
>Yes.
>
>Just install the new FPC alongside the old one.
>
>The simplest is then to copy the lazarus settings directory, 
>and create a shortcut where you start lazarus with --pcp=/path/to/copy
>
>In this, under Tools-Options dialog, page Environment-Files set 
>- the correct compiler binary in 'Compiler Executable',
>- and the correct path to the 3.2.0 sources in 'FPC Source directory'
>
>That's it.
>
>Now you can start 2 instances of lazarus, with a different setting for the
>compiler version.
>
>I have 4 or 5 such versions.

Thanks, that seems simple enough. :)

Just a follow-up:
After downloading the 3.2.0 sources via svn I went into the new 3.2.0
dir and did (I am using an RPi4 computer with 4GB RAM):

$ time make all FPC=/home/pi/bin/ppcarm OPT=-dFPC_ARMHF

So I did not do a "make install"...

I also did:
$ cp .lazarus_2.0.8 ./.lazarus_2.0.8_3.2

Is the above OK for using the compiler as outlined above pointing the
shortcut to to the new dir as you outlined?

Beware though!!!!
-----------------
I have fallen into the trap of copying the pcp dir when installing a
new version of Lazarus before. Then unbeknown to me Lazarua used
installed components where the paths pointed to the *previous*
version.
That resulted in both Lazarus versions sharing the exact same files
including generated binaries....

So I had to scan the files in the pcp dir for the old pcp dir path and
change it to the new path!
It turned out to be a bunch of xml and cfg files, in my case 13 cases:

codetoolsoptions.xml
environmentoptions.xml
includelinks.xml
inputhistory.xml
packagefiles.xml
idemake.cfg


-- 
Bo Berglund
Developer in Sweden