Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2022 00:12:51 +0200 From: "Bojan Petrovic" <bojan_petrovic@fastmail.fm> To: ports@freebsd.org Cc: fluffy@FreeBSD.org Subject: Please do not deprecate ports-mgmt/synth and lang/gcc6-aux Message-ID: <f5cd8d32-8a5d-4d63-83e0-eefeb1228b7f@www.fastmail.com>
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Hello everyone, Is it possible to revert the decision to deprecate Synth and gcc6-aux ports? As a Synth user, I think it is a very well engineered and useful port management tool, and since it is still actively maintained, I believe that the net loss for Synth users could be greater than what the port maintainers would gain. Synth hasn't been deprecated on it's own merit, but as a collateral damage of the deprecation of gcc6-aux. The reasons for deprecating gcc6-aux mentioned in the commit are that it's a) old and end-of-life, b) broken and c) unmaintained. I wish to believe that none of these was a sufficient reason for deprecation but I understand if someone=20 took these factors together as sufficient for deprecation. a) I believe a lot of other useful software in FreeBSD ports tree is effectively end-of-life, but that software is still present as it provides a lot of value to the users. gcc6-aux is in a very particular position, as it is the only officially supported Ada compiler on FreeBSD. Deprecating gcc6-aux means removing anything Ada related on FreeBSD, and I personally wouldn't like to see that happen. I find Ada and FreeBSD somewhat similar in spirit -- they are both well engineered technologies and they opt for relative stability in face of constant change. If I had more time and resources, I'd be glad to try to port a newer GNAT to FreeBSD, but until that happens or someone else decides to do that, having even an old Ada 2012 compiler is better than having none. b) gcc6-aux has been qualified as broken because of bug 248674[1], but I never had issues building gcc6-aux from the ports tree. I haven't had time to look into 248674 in detail, but if I'm not mistaken, gcc6 wouldn't build if a newer isl library is installed on the system, and the isl is not a build dependency for gcc6. I apologize in advance if I misunderstood the bug report, but I believe this issue could have been handled in a less heavy-handed manner by making isl a conflicting port for gcc6-aux, instead of removing gcc6-aux even for users who do not use isl. c) to this, I can only offer to take maintainership of ports-mgmt/synth and lang/gcc6-aux. I haven't maintained a FreeBSD port before, so I must admit I cannot estimate how much effort it would require on my side. I only have a hunch that these ports will be slow-moving targets, and will not require too much maintenance effort. If anyone reading this is negatively affected by deprecation of Synth and gcc6-aux, I believe Synth can still be used by building it from source using one of ANNEXI-STRAYLINE's GNAT packs[2]. Best regards, Bojan Petrovi=C4=87 [1] https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3D248674 [2] https://github.com/annexi-strayline/gnat-packs
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