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Date:      Mon, 23 Jun 2014 19:42:27 -0600
From:      Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>
To:        Glen Barber <gjb@FreeBSD.org>
Cc:        Craig Rodrigues <rodrigc@FreeBSD.org>, Brooks Davis <brooks@freebsd.org>, Dimitry Andric <dim@freebsd.org>, "Simon J. Gerraty" <sjg@juniper.net>, freebsd-current Current <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>, Marcel Moolenaar <marcel@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Problems building FreeBSD 9.2 on FreeBSD 10
Message-ID:  <60320DD3-56C4-4922-A537-FF94C392A45A@bsdimp.com>
In-Reply-To: <20140624011251.GN1218@hub.FreeBSD.org>
References:  <CAG=rPVd4evnkJoz1rVeMjP7YNKOW0BWF0MvSrFQ3u2xCiVEtmw@mail.gmail.com> <690CE378-D7D9-49A6-BC20-13FD540E63A2@FreeBSD.org> <CAG=rPVfanU=FVWPd768_G5NjXRHnUH5o05%2BKwFeLaTQqU3Ux8w@mail.gmail.com> <FC1B2983-4B49-4480-855E-6BD09B148F31@bsdimp.com> <CAG=rPVd5XGz8hfuBtcOuuZp8ND1ssWoTkVNn0Hg6Li_2-NrgcA@mail.gmail.com> <1ED3AC7E-0F74-46A7-BAAA-E30600DC23BB@bsdimp.com> <CAG=rPVeP32=y3VZgn0MXFPrr8tevL=jOsCow=rvpxRevmvoLqA@mail.gmail.com> <8CD24B0A-DF45-4437-BEBE-8C67B241DE93@bsdimp.com> <CAG=rPVcrJpP_1VcKZnsxAugBywJBXg63p2piX7nPndTunPEWDQ@mail.gmail.com> <2063888D-CCAE-431B-A409-F17AA4422006@bsdimp.com> <20140624011251.GN1218@hub.FreeBSD.org>

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On Jun 23, 2014, at 7:12 PM, Glen Barber <gjb@FreeBSD.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 06:57:15PM -0600, Warner Losh wrote:
>> On Jun 23, 2014, at 6:15 PM, Craig Rodrigues <rodrigc@FreeBSD.org> =
wrote:
>>> So, I guess that stable/9 can build properly on a stable/10 box.
>>> For FreeBSD 9.2, there is no easy way out.
>>=20
>> You=92ll have to back port the patch then. We don=92t guarantee =
forward
>> compatibility like this since 9.2 is frozen in time now.
>>=20
>=20
> I'd really like to discuss rethinking our forward-compatibility
> policies, since we have (now) 3 active stable/ branches, plus head/.=20=


Generally, in the past, the rule has been =93head will build from the =
last stable branch tip.=94 This was extended, for a while, to =93last =
stable branch point=94 when Ruslan made sure that worked. While -stable =
has generally built on -head, this was never part of the contract. It =
usually did, but is very very hard to guarantee given the nature of =
head=92s tools changing in ways that are allowed for head, but that =
break prior branches.

> What I would like to see, with my RE hat on, is a "best effort"
> backwards compatibility to being able to build the lowest-numbered
> supported stable/ branch on head/.

I think, that as in the past, this will generally work. However, it =
won=92t always work. Things break in this area a lot. More than you =
might think, especially with the huge amount of churn we=92ve had wrt =
compilers, make, etc. I suspect that new imports of clang will break =
this every time, since every import of clang has required changes to the =
tree to either disable warnings, or to fix newly flagged things. I =
suspect there will be a lot of churn here, and releases will go stale =
the fastest=85 With -current starting to support building multiple =
versions of clang (and gcc), there=92s hope for the future, but =
back-porting this code is beyond what I have the time to do. That=92s =
going to make things increasingly difficult as we march forward.

This isn=92t even getting into cross build scenarios=85.

Or building releases, which is a whole different set of lightly tested =
code that is mostly host independent, but sometimes isn=92t as much as =
you=92d had hoped...

> Sure, this won't always work, but "best effort" is better than "no
> effort", which the latter is why we do not have stable/8 snapshot
> builds, to be honest.  I won't spend the time on the stable/8/release/
> code nor the snapshot build scripts to waste the time.  Building
> stable/9 on head/ is annoying alone.

stable/9 builds on head. If there=92s a race, that needs to be fixed in =
stable/9. That=92s quasi supported because people do it. The =93best =
effort=94 involves people that are interested in the bugs being fixed =
fixing them, or convincing others to fix them. For me, this scenario is =
outside the area I care about, have the ability to test, or have time =
for.

So =93best effort=94 involves more than me making an effort. I may or I =
may not. It all depends on my time and inclination. If it is going to =
work, bugs need to be fixed in stable/9 that prevents it from building =
on head, while not breaking the ability to build on 9. So there=92s a =
lot of heavy lifting that will be needed in short order to keep this =
working once the clang folks can figure out how to get past the angst of =
the upgrade path and push forward to 3.5. Some architectures will break =
when that happens, no doubt.

But 9.2 will never build on head because it is broken with bmake, which =
is now standard for head. Since 9.2 cannot be changed, and since we=92ve =
removed (or nearly) fmake in current, chances are quite good it will =
never build on head again without some special handling.

In summary, good luck! there=92s a lot of use cases here, and it will =
take time and effort of multiple people over the long haul to keep it =
working. Best effort may be larger than you estimate=85 I won=92t stand =
in your way, but I=92m afraid my time available to help is limited.

Warner

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