On Tue, Jul 15, 2003 at 08:04:07PM -0700, Aaron Matthew Read wrote: > The smlnj package (the compiler) is implemented in sml and needs a > working implementation to build. Upstream, a set of pre-compiled > binary files (~4 MB each) are supplied for each platform. > > When I initially supplied the smlnj package, I shortsightedly only > included the binary images required to build the i386 and powerpc > platforms, since those were the only platforms for which I had a > working runtime package. > > Since then, I have received a patch to get the runtime working on > hppa, and am now confronted by my lack of forethought. Since the > boot files are binary, I cannot simply patch them on. Since the boot > files upstream only represent a subset of Debian supported > architectures (with the possibility of cross-compiling more in the > future), I cannot provide a definitive set of boot files. > > I think this problem is a manifestation of bad design of this > package. I'm curious if anyone has dealt with similar problems > (platform-specific binaries required to build their package) or has > any ideas about a better design for such problems. > > Here are some of my ideas: > 1. Eliminate the need for the boot images, somehow creating them from > scratch. A working sml implementation is needed since the compiler > is written in sml. I don't see any reasonable way to implement this > solution. > 2. Download the appropriate boot image while building the package. I > doubt this would be in the spirit of Debian Policy, if not a direct > violation. > 3. For each platform, create a source package, for example: smlnj-x86 > which would contain the appropriate boot image. These packages > would provide smlnj as a virtual package. Seems the best solution. > > I am not confident enough with the third idea to begin without seeing > if anyone has any other ideas, or an elaboration on one of mine.
Notice that the ocaml packages also include some initial images, but i believe they are not used really. I just copy them somewhere else and back when cleaning so i don't get problem with the generation of the patch. How it actually works is that a minimal ocaml compiler is generated from C code, and this one is used to bootstrap the initial compiler suite, which is then used to rebuild everything. I believe that maybe smlnj has some similar mechanism, maybe you should ask upstream about this. Friendly, Sven Luther
