On 02/07/2014 01:35 AM, Brian Anderson wrote:
Since we're already able to create highly-compatible snapshot compilers, it should be relatively easy to extend our snapshot procedure to produce complete binaries, installable via a cross-platform shell script. This would require the least amount of effort and maintenance because we don't need to use any specific package managers or add new bots, and a single installer can work on all Linuxes.
That way lies madness. We won't get "standard" distros with it, as they'll want to package their own anyway (Arch already has 0.9 for example), and we won't get niche distros either because the number of variables we'd have to account for is pretty much infinite. Niche distros don't even agree on what libc[0] to use, and it only gets worse from there. Linux is simply not friendly towards binaries.
IMHO the only correct option for Linux is to provide a) a fully static bootstrap binary (#10807), b) a build system that observes all the standard conventions for building from source (prefix, toolchain, don't download stuff, etc.) and c) true cross-compiling. Then sit back and let people distribute binaries however they want. (I know this is mostly a pipe dream, but you specifically asked for *all* Linuxes :)
[0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilblue_Linux
We can also attempt to package Rust with various of the most common package managers: homebrew, macports, dpkg, rpm. There community-maintained packages for some of these already, so we don't necessarily need to redevelop from scratch if we just want to adopt one or all of them as official packages. We could also create a GUI installer for OS X, but I'm not sure how important that is.
Again, people will be happy to solve this for us if we make it easy enough for them. Just maintain the install instructions and relevant links on the site, not the binaries themselves.
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