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Date:      Mon, 9 Oct 2017 14:56:52 -0500
From:      Mark Linimon <linimon@lonesome.com>
To:        Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn@freebsd.org>
Cc:        Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>, "freebsd-arch@freebsd.org" <freebsd-arch@freebsd.org>, swills@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   status of powerpc64 (was: Making C++11 a hard requirement for FreeBSD)
Message-ID:  <20171009195652.GA28957@lonesome.com>
In-Reply-To: <ef8f368d-7e21-a5dd-5351-9cb6cc020798@freebsd.org>
References:  <CANCZdfq5=KRp4NYKsc15gyS9C7CxrBFxcKQLPwnb_0oPb15vJw@mail.gmail.com> <2116882.XEKuxOb729@ralph.baldwin.cx> <20171006072010.ygq3k5ygwxykk4nb@ivaldir.net> <e1b1b84a-9f6f-d0d7-7e26-b3ef3cc35698@freebsd.org> <CANCZdfoTJG6=d9xtyiNJ8sTdsnm_SfHaMhPbqgALv75dKgb8Kg@mail.gmail.com> <ef8f368d-7e21-a5dd-5351-9cb6cc020798@freebsd.org>

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On Mon, Oct 09, 2017 at 10:47:13AM -0700, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:
> - There are no binary packages built for PPC64, because of project policy
> preventing the use of native build systems

I don't think this is 100% correct.

Although I am no longer on portmgr and thus don't work on the details,
my understanding is that:

 - "official" FreeBSD packages can only be issued from machines that
   are under the exclusive control of FreeBSD.org
 - the powerpc64 machine that falls under that category is not yet
   reliable enough

The first is a security concern.  The odds of that policy changing are
about the same as Elvis doing another concert.

IIUC the second is because we run package builds under virtualization
on freebsd.org's powerpc64 machine, and hit memory contstraints often
enough to make it "not quite ready for production".  You would have to
ask swills@ whether the latter is still true.

My own powerpc64 builds are constrained for other reasons[*].  When I
get back from my current road trip I am willing to build and make
available a subset of powerpc64 packages on the same basis I currently
do for sparc64, if that will help the situation.

> - You cannot cross-compile packages for PPC64, because of limitations
> in QEMU

s/limitations/a bug/

qemu/powerpc64 simply hangs when you start it up (as does qemu/sparc64).
Otherwise qemu is usable for cross-builds and is, in fact, how armv6,
mips, and mips64 package builds are currently done.

I know less about your other points, but, there needs to be some kind
of script or wrapper around the "do a base cross-build".  I had had one
set up for amd64 to sparc64 as a test but got distracted before I finished.
I recall it being non-trivial.

mcl

[*] a couple of kernel bugs which I think I know how to fix; not being
able to run diskful, and power consumption



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