diff --git a/gcc/cp/ChangeLog b/gcc/cp/ChangeLog
index cd2e9193ef0c71cf2042ff2db1b83abede17d10a..6f2a6abff11616241332879fa856774b4f9c2bd0 100644
--- a/gcc/cp/ChangeLog
+++ b/gcc/cp/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2002-04-06  Jason Merrill  <jason@redhat.com>
+
+	PR c++/6179
+	* method.c (implicitly_declare_fn): Pass unqualified type to 
+	synthesize_exception_spec.
+
 2002-04-04  Neil Booth  <neil@daikokuya.demon.co.uk>
 
 	* cp-lang.c (LANG_HOOKS_TRUTHVALUE_CONVERSION): Redefine.
diff --git a/gcc/cp/method.c b/gcc/cp/method.c
index 35e40ebbac62e2c7819148259961fdcf70d18870..830771e4267eb86a6aa6d791540fc7cd9ee30f17 100644
--- a/gcc/cp/method.c
+++ b/gcc/cp/method.c
@@ -770,8 +770,9 @@ synthesize_method (fndecl)
 
 /* Use EXTRACTOR to locate the relevant function called for each base &
    class field of TYPE. CLIENT allows additional information to be passed
-   to EXTRACTOR.  Generates the union of all exceptions generated by
-   those functions.  */
+   to EXTRACTOR.  Generates the union of all exceptions generated by those
+   functions.  Note that we haven't updated TYPE_FIELDS and such of any
+   variants yet, so we need to look at the main one.  */
 
 static tree
 synthesize_exception_spec (type, extractor, client)
@@ -783,7 +784,7 @@ synthesize_exception_spec (type, extractor, client)
   tree fields = TYPE_FIELDS (type);
   int i, n_bases = CLASSTYPE_N_BASECLASSES (type);
   tree binfos = TYPE_BINFO_BASETYPES (type);
-  
+
   for (i = 0; i != n_bases; i++)
     {
       tree base = BINFO_TYPE (TREE_VEC_ELT (binfos, i));
@@ -962,7 +963,7 @@ implicitly_declare_fn (kind, type, const_p)
     case sfk_assignment_operator:
     {
       struct copy_data data;
-      tree argtype;
+      tree argtype = type;
       
       has_parm = 1;
       data.name = NULL;
@@ -978,10 +979,10 @@ implicitly_declare_fn (kind, type, const_p)
       if (const_p)
         {
           data.quals = TYPE_QUAL_CONST;
-          type = build_qualified_type (type, TYPE_QUAL_CONST);
+          argtype = build_qualified_type (argtype, TYPE_QUAL_CONST);
         }
     
-      argtype = build_reference_type (type);
+      argtype = build_reference_type (argtype);
       args = build_tree_list (hash_tree_chain (argtype, NULL_TREE),
 			      get_identifier ("_ctor_arg"));
       args = tree_cons (NULL_TREE, args, void_list_node);
diff --git a/gcc/testsuite/g++.dg/eh/synth1.C b/gcc/testsuite/g++.dg/eh/synth1.C
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ac3cab8b166f2ce726a542b383ec6df542df0fd2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gcc/testsuite/g++.dg/eh/synth1.C
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+// PR c++/6179
+
+// Bug: we tried to look at the fields of 'const A' to determine the proper
+// exception specification for the synthesized copy constructor, but
+// TYPE_FIELDS hadn't been set yet, so we incorrectly got a throw() spec.
+
+struct B
+{
+  B () {}
+  B (const B&) { throw 1; }
+};
+
+struct A;
+void f (const A &) {}
+struct A
+{
+  B b;
+};
+
+int main ()
+{
+  A a;  
+  try
+    { A a2 (a); }
+  catch (...)
+    { }
+}