From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Pjotr Prins Subject: Re: Creating a reliable bootstrap for building from source Date: Sun, 14 May 2017 23:17:57 +0200 Message-ID: <20170514211757.GA31735@thebird.nl> References: <87a86fuscs.fsf@ITSx00.pdp10.guru> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:59138) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dA0uA-0002mr-Pv for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 14 May 2017 17:18:19 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dA0u7-0006QL-LZ for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 14 May 2017 17:18:18 -0400 Received: from mail.thebird.nl ([95.154.246.10]:40295) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dA0u7-0006PI-Ef for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 14 May 2017 17:18:15 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <87a86fuscs.fsf@ITSx00.pdp10.guru> List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: Jeremiah@pdp10.guru Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org On Sun, May 14, 2017 at 03:54:27PM -0400, Jeremiah@pdp10.guru wrote: > > Thinking about it, what I want to achieve is that we can take the > > latest git tree and bootstrap by building guix and packages. This > > should be easy, since I have guix running, but it is not. And the main > > trouble is that the underlying build packages can differ over time. I > > am looking at gcc versions and guile versions. I.e., we are building > > on shifting sands. How unguixy! > > It is worse than that, Janneke and I are still trying to build out a > full source bootstrap. > > Now mind you we have gotten quite a bit down that rabbit hole. > ( I've build from a hex monitor to a Lexically scoped garbage > compacting/collecting lisp and Janneke built his rather impressive MES > which already supports large parts of the C language and enough to > bootstrap some rather important pieces) > > But there still are many gaps left to close (how to bootstrap a 280 byte > hex monitor without a hex monitor or hex assembler, stage0-vm > downstrapping, MES tinycc bootstrapping, MES lisp bootstrapping, etc) > > but ultimately shifting sands are the only grounds we can be certain > will be there. > > So we better get comfortable minimizing our assumptions. What you are trying to do is even more heroic - bootstrapping all of guix :) What I want is achievable, simply have the build system as a tested binary available. A tested builder package that is know to work against the current tree. We pretty much have it, it is only not formalized and tested on the build farm. Pj. --