emacs-next native compilation failures

emacs-next native compilation failures

[Max Brieiev]

Hi,

Recently, Guix started building Emacs with native compilation.

I did 'guix pull' few days ago (I hadn't done it for a few months), and
it broke my Emacs.

The 'guix package -u emacs-next' finished building Emacs successfully.

However, when I start Emacs, the native compiler starts doing it's job
and I see tons of compilation errors like this:

    Deleting /tmp/comp-lambda-RCGJQI.eln
    comp--native-compile: Native compiler error: (lambda (&rest arg1) (let ((f #'make-process)) (apply f arg1))), "Compiling /tmp/comp-lambda-RCGJQI.eln...
    x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-gcc-10.3.0: fatal error: cannot execute ‘as’: execvp: No such file or directory
    compilation terminated.

This seems to be something wrong with libgccjit dependency.

If I understand correctly, it did its job successfully during build time
(since Emacs compiled successfully), but it fails now to compile
packages during runtime. Is it correct?

How do I fix this?

Note, I don't use Guix to install Emacs packages, for now I use built-in
package.el to install packages from Elpa/Melpa.

Re: emacs-next native compilation failures

[Thompson, David]

Hi Max,

On Wed, Oct 12, 2022 at 4:24 AM Max Brieiev <max.brieiev@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Recently, Guix started building Emacs with native compilation.
>
> I did 'guix pull' few days ago (I hadn't done it for a few months), and
> it broke my Emacs.
>
> The 'guix package -u emacs-next' finished building Emacs successfully.
>
> However, when I start Emacs, the native compiler starts doing it's job
> and I see tons of compilation errors like this:
>
>     Deleting /tmp/comp-lambda-RCGJQI.eln
>     comp--native-compile: Native compiler error: (lambda (&rest arg1) (let ((f #'make-process)) (apply f arg1))), "Compiling /tmp/comp-lambda-RCGJQI.eln...
>     x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-gcc-10.3.0: fatal error: cannot execute ‘as’: execvp: No such file or directory
>     compilation terminated.
>
> This seems to be something wrong with libgccjit dependency.
>
> If I understand correctly, it did its job successfully during build time
> (since Emacs compiled successfully), but it fails now to compile
> packages during runtime. Is it correct?
>
> How do I fix this?

I don't know of a fix, but Guix is tracking this issue here:
https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/57878

I have been unable to upgrade Guix due to this issue.  In my case it
locks down my whole system with endless compilation processes.  I
wouldn't mind seeing native compilation disabled until upstream
improves the experience, but it's been decided that native compilation
is staying on. So, we're stuck on an old Guix until there's a
solution.

- Dave

Re: emacs-next native compilation failures

[Max Brieiev]

"Thompson, David" <dthompson2@worcester.edu> writes:

> Hi Max,
> I don't know of a fix, but Guix is tracking this issue here:
> https://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/57878

I think the issue is related, but different. In the original issue, the
problem is the avalance of the compilation processes (AFAIU).

My problem is that I do actually want to run the deferred compilation,
but native compiler fails to do so at all, with a weird error of not
being able to locate 'as' program. As a dirty hack, I tried to manually
install binutils package, which includes 'as' program, but then Emacs
fails with even more weird error. So I am not able to compile even a
single file.

> I have been unable to upgrade Guix due to this issue.  In my case it
> locks down my whole system with endless compilation processes.

If you have a recent Emacs checkout, you can try to disable JIT native
compiler by setting EMACS_INHIBIT_AUTOMATIC_NATIVE_COMPILATION
environment variable.

Check this issue: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=58429

> I wouldn't mind seeing native compilation disabled until upstream
> improves the experience, but it's been decided that native compilation
> is staying on. So, we're stuck on an old Guix until there's a
> solution.

By upstream do you mean Emacs?

On Arch linux I'd been using nativecomp Emacs like for about two years
and never had an issue related to native compilaton.

After switching to Guix, I've been using what is provided by default by
emacs-next, which had '--with-native-compilation' disabled until
recently.

So to me, a more likely problem is in Guix packaging than in upstream
Emacs.

Re: emacs-next native compilation failures

[zimoun]

Hi,

On mer., 12 oct. 2022 at 14:44, Max Brieiev <max.brieiev@gmail.com> wrote:
> "Thompson, David" <dthompson2@worcester.edu> writes:

>> I wouldn't mind seeing native compilation disabled until upstream
>> improves the experience, but it's been decided that native compilation
>> is staying on. So, we're stuck on an old Guix until there's a
>> solution.
>
> By upstream do you mean Emacs?

[...]

> So to me, a more likely problem is in Guix packaging than in upstream
> Emacs.

Seeing this lengthy thread [1] on emacs-devel, hum it is not clear what
upstream will do. :-)

1: <https://yhetil.org/emacs-devel/87bkqxf1ij.fsf@tethera.net/#r>

Cheers,
simon