Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2023 20:18:55 +0200 From: Robert Clausecker <fuz@fuz.su> To: "'freebsd-arch'" <freebsd-arch@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Future of 32-bit platforms (including i386) Message-ID: <ZEq8jxhNQX7F0TPD@fuz.su> In-Reply-To: <aaa3e005-5f72-f422-56b1-932842379e15@FreeBSD.org> References: <aaa3e005-5f72-f422-56b1-932842379e15@FreeBSD.org>
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I would very much appreciate if lib32 support stays in (or is completed in the case of aarch64). Without it, FreeBSD becomes a lot less useful as a well rounded development system as you can no longer test code for 32 bit platforms. I also have a need for armv7 user space code in particular as I participate in and maintain the FreeBSD port of a Forth system written in armv7 assembly. Being able to run the same code you run on a microcontroller on a hosted platform makes it a lot easier to test and develop. As for running 32 bit kernels, I do not really have an opinion. Yours, Robert Clausecker Am Thu, Apr 27, 2023 at 10:19:59AM -0700 schrieb John Baldwin: > For 13.0, i386 was demoted from Tier 1 to Tier 2. In the announcement > of this for 13.0, the project committed to an update on i386's future > around the time of 14.0. The announcement at the time suggested that > i386 would be supported less in 14.x than in 13.x. > > My proposal is that for 14.x we treat i386 like any other Tier 2 > platform. That is, release images and packages would only be provided > on a best-effort basis, and we would not guarantee providing them. I > think we should also stop shipping binary updates for the base system > (freebsd-update) for 14.x for i386. > > A larger question is what to do about 32-bit platforms moving forward. > My proposal for powerpc, i386, and armv[67] is that we say publicly > that we anticipate not supporting them in 15. That is, that we may > remove them outright from the tree, or we may leave them in the tree, > but we do not plan on building packages or release images. Another > option to consider for 32-bit platforms perhaps in 15 is to remove > kernel support and only retain the ability to build userland. The > goal of saying this now-ish (or about the time 14.0 is going to ship) > would be to give time for users and developers to respond in the > window between 14.0 and 15.0 so we can evaluate those responses as an > input into the final decision for 15. > > -- > John Baldwin > -- () ascii ribbon campaign - for an 8-bit clean world /\ - against html email - against proprietary attachments
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