From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jeremiah@pdp10.guru Subject: RE: Creating a reliable bootstrap for building from source Date: Sun, 14 May 2017 15:54:27 -0400 Message-ID: <87a86fuscs.fsf@ITSx00.pdp10.guru> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:46162) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1d9zbD-0005ZD-DX for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 14 May 2017 15:54:40 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1d9zb9-0001yO-IW for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 14 May 2017 15:54:39 -0400 Received: from itsx00.pdp10.guru ([104.200.30.13]:52240) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1d9zb9-0001rL-F1 for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 14 May 2017 15:54:35 -0400 Received: from nnstep by ITSx00.pdp10.guru with local (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1d9zb1-0003ao-Ck for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 14 May 2017 15:54:27 -0400 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: guix-devel@gnu.org > 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. -Jeremiah