Inquiry on Separating GNAT (Ada) from GCC in FreeBSD Ports and Default Configuration

I'd like to use the latest Ada support on FreeBSD.

When I run pkg search gnat, the latest GNAT version provided by the ports system is gnat13. This is behind the latest available GCC version. I found that GNAT is part of the GCC compiler suite, and I successfully built it by specifying the Ada option when compiling GCC 14.

The method for building GCC 14 with the Ada option on FreeBSD is detailed here:


I see that GNAT is split from GCC and provided as a separate package, which is also the case for Debian Linux:


I am curious about the reasons for this practice, specifically:

  1. Why isn't Ada support enabled by default when compiling GCC?
  2. What is the rationale behind separating GNAT from GCC and providing it as a distinct package/port, given that they originate from the same GCC source code?
 
Back
Top