On Thu 14 Mar, Jamey Hicks wrote:
> David McNab wrote:
> I added autobuild@handhelds.org because that was a list we started just
> for discussing this topic.
> http://www.handhelds.org/mailman/listinfo/autobuild
OK. Looks like I should join another list (help I'm sinking in email!)
> I propose we aim for gcc 3.x, for suitably stable value of x.
I leave this for phil to pronounce upon - is gcc 3 ready for the big time for
arm cross-compiling? If it is then I agree, otherwise 2.95 needs to be used a
bit longer - and there may be good reasons for having both around for a
bit...
> >2. Standard tree
> >
> > All source packages to be rooted in /usr/src/familiar, so that if one source
> > package refers to another one (eg uses its headers, or even runs
> > one of its scripts), then it'll find what it needs
> >
> I am very unhappy with build systems that hardware absolute paths.
> Using a standard environment variable that points to the top of the
> build tree would be much better. Or using relative pathnames, although
> that is quite fragile. What is used for Debian and RPM builds?
Debian is all built natively so 'gcc' is the answer. This makes sense because
some things are very hard to cross-build, and lots of things don't have
properly set up configs for cross-cuilding, but it is true that nearly
everything can be cross-built with a bit of config-fettling. If you have
autobuilders churning away 24hrs then it doesn't matter too much that your
build machines are slow c.f. the latest and greatest.
Are we sure we want to cross-build everything in the autobuild system? If not
then we can probably use Debian's system approximately as-is (somehwat
simplified). Phil understands it better than I, but I'm sure this is quite
do-able.
> I want to remind everyone that a handhelds.org build system will not
> just happen, we need the involvement of the community to shape the
> design of the system and to help implement that system. It might be
> nice if we can agree to clone or copy and edit the system used by
> debian, emdebian, red hat, etc., but I do not feel that it is a
> requirement if it does not fit out needs.
Emdebian doesn't have a build-system in the sense we are talking about here.
It has a config system (which does some building - e.g. of the kernel), and
it has a set of cross-compile tools (currently only built for x86->arm and
powerpc->arm (canadian cross)). What I want to do is put these tools into
standard Debian to make them widely accessible. This hasn't been happening
very fast for some time - any help welcome.
I am quite sure the Debian set-up is sufficient for handhelds.org - indeed it
is probably excessive in some areas, but it is certainly available for use
and I'd like to see something set up for building packages for both psilinux
and familiar (probably identical packages in many cases). The main problem
with it is that much of it isn't yet packaged or well-documented, so it
requires some investment in time to work out how things fit together enough
to be able to work out how to adjust things for this purpose. Things like the
simplified dependency system of familair wrt debian and possibly wanting to
cross-compile would no doubt mean some changes.
Wookey
-- Aleph One Ltd, Bottisham, CAMBRIDGE, CB5 9BA, UK Tel +44 (0) 1223 811679 work: http://www.aleph1.co.uk/ play: http://www.chaos.org.uk/~wookey/Received on Thu Mar 14 14:52:55 2002
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