Re: Release on April 18th?

[zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com>]

Hi Chris,

On Tue, 09 Mar 2021 at 10:17, Chris Marusich <cmmarusich@gmail.com> wrote:
> zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Is it doable to have core-updates merged in the next weeks?  Or not at
>> all.
>
> Do we plan to upgrade GCC?  This is required for the powerpc64le-linux
> port; see below for details.

You mean replace gcc-7 by gcc-8 or greater, right?  It implies a
core-updates merge, right?


> The wip-ppc64le branch, which ports Guix to an architecture that can be
> run on freedom-friendly POWER9 systems like the Talos II and Blackbird
> from Raptor Computing Systems, is "almost" done, and I would really like
> to try to get it into the next release if possible.

Could be cool!

> However, there is still some work to do, and I wouldn't necessarily want
> to block the release just for sake of the powerpc64le-linux port.
>
> In fact, the wip-ppc64le branch was "fully functional" for a little
> while.  By "fully functional," I mean that "make check" succeeded, "make
> guix-binary.powerpc64le-linux.tar.xz" succeeded, the resulting binary
> could be installed on a fresh Debian ppc64le system, the binary could
> successfully build and run GNU Hello, and the binary could successfully
> run "guix pull", and the newly installed "guix pull" could do the same.
>
> However, that was using glibc 2.31.  On core-updates, glibc has been
> updated to 2.32, which unfortunately breaks wip-ppc64le.  To fix it, we
> must upgrade GCC from 7 to 8 (or greater), and that is what we have done
> on the wip-ppc64le branch (upgrade GCC to 8).  Currently, we are working
> through build failures that occurred as a result, but I'm optimistic that
> we can resolve those in the coming weeks.

Thanks for the explanations.


> The real question, I think, is when do we plan to upgrade GCC on
> core-updates?  It's still on GCC 7.5.0.  The powerpc64le-linux port will
> require GCC 8 or greater, since core-updates is now using glibc 2.32.

Does it make sense to merge wip-ppc64le and core-updates?


Cheers,
simon