Hi,
The 3.0.2 release has a serious regression: it does not generate lineinfo, at least on linux i386/x86-64.
See: http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=31629 and this discussion on this ML: http://lists.freepascal.org/pipermail/fpc-devel/2017-April/037695.html
The issue makes the 3.0.2 compiler almost useless for development on the affected platforms.
The issue is fixed by merging r33007, 33008, 33561 and 34384 (unit exeinfo). Probably r35886 should be merged as well.
I would propose to release a 3.0.2a version for the affected platforms which includes the above revisions (and probably nothing else, since AFAIK this is the only major regression).
Personally I have solved it by rebuilding fpc from the 3.0.2 source with exeinfo patched.
Not everybody is able to do so though, nor should we insist that an average user (let alone a novice) does so.
There has been a long time period between the release of 3.0.0 (sep
2015) and 3.0.2 (feb 2017).
A 3.0.4 release does not seem to be scheduled yet.
Further more Lazarus also ships with the 3.0.2 release (since the Lazarus 1.6.4 release).
Not being able to have proper debugging info might reflect poorly on both FreePascal and Lazarus and scare away new users, especially if it would take a long time to release a fix.
The only alternative would be to advise *nix users to use the 3.0.0 release instead.
Bart