[M3devel] new cm3 backend dependencies

[Olaf Wagner]

Quoting Ronny Forberger <ronny.forberger at elegosoft.com>:

> --
> Message from: Olaf Wagner <wagner at elegosoft.com>
> Date: Di 15 Apr 2008 13:05:31 CEST
> Subject: Re: new cm3 backend dependencies
>
>
>> Quoting Ronny Forberger <ronny.forberger at elegosoft.com>:
>>
>>> Hi there,
>>>
>>> on birch.elego.de (LINUXLIBC6) there is GMP 4.2.1 on the package
>>> management system, which I installed.
>>>
>>> Also there is MPFR but only at version <2.3.0, this is why I installed
>>> MPFR 2.3.0 under the prefix /usr/local. I guess cm3 will automatically
>>> find the libs there.
>>>
>>> On new.elego.de (FreeBSD4) there was libgmp-4.2.1_1 already installed
>>> under /usr/local.
>>>
>>> MPFR was too old there too, so I installed 2.3.0 manually to
>>> /usr/contrib. I guess cm3 needs to be told to use libs residing under
>>> /usr/contrib ?
>>
>> Probably. Doesn't the FreeBSD ports system provide an update?
>
> Only with a later release tag (RELASE_6_3_0), you know I won't upgrade
> ports on a productive system apart from upgrading the base system as
> this can cause tremendous problems and might break other things running
> on the machine.

This is OK as a base strategy, but not in the following cases:

  (1) security updates of ports which need to be installed
  (2) development servers which need to provide a more recent
      and active view for the programmer

To (1): Even on stable production systems security fixes should lead
to port upgrades.

To (2): Developers often need the latest version of any software,
so if the standard one provided is too old, a second port hierarchy
needs to be available. Is this the current use of /usr/contrib?

>> If you can build it manually, perhaps it is sufficient to just
>> increase the version numbers in the port and send the patch
>> to a FreeBSD committer / the port maintainer?
>
> It has been built, but the next FreeBSD release and higher cope it
> anyways. I think it's better to some day upgrade new.elego.de to
> FreeBSD 7 in order to have more current package versions.

This is a major upgrade and might have other impacts due to
incompatibilities. I'd be more careful in upgrading the base system
than in upgrading ports.

> But we could probably move the FreeBSD-targeted cm3 regression tests
> from new.elego.de to willow.elego.de, which can be more easily upgraded
> to FreeBSD 7. Stupidly this would cause trouble in the tinderbox view,
> when a new hostname would appear.

This may be a good idea anyway, but we should progress carefully
towards the FreeBSD 7 upgrade.

We should also take this discussion from the m3devel-list ;-)

I'll see if I can provide a fix for gcc to scan /usr/contrib for
dependencies, too. It may take some time.

Olaf
-- 
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