news item (was: "Re: 31bit S390 support")

"Andreas K. Huettel" <[email protected]> Fri, 26 Jun 2026 11:43:26 +0900
Newsgroups	gmane.linux.gentoo.devel
Organization	Gentoo Linux
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
Looks like noone is willing to step up, so here is a news item for removal of the
32bit stuff.

=================
Title: Gentoo drops 32bit S390 support
Author: Andreas K. Hüttel <[email protected]>
Posted: 2026-07-03
Revision: 1
News-Item-Format: 2.0
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/s390/23.0
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/s390/23.0/systemd
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/s390/23.0/split-usr
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/s390/23.0/time64
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/s390/23.0/time64/systemd
Display-If-Profile: default/linux/s390/23.0/time64/split-usr

The legacy 32bit ABI support for IBM S390 mainframes is on the way out just
about everywhere:
* Pure 32bit hardware is by now nonexistent (64bit support exists since 2002).
* Full 32bit kernel support is gone since 2014.
* The 32bit ABI userspace emulation layer has been dropped in the kernel since
  version 6.19.
* glibc will drop 32bit ABI support in version 2.44.
As a consequence, Gentoo will also drop support for it, effective immediately.
There will be no stage builds anymore. The 32bit profiles will be marked
deprecated and experimental, not receive any testing anymore, and be removed
in the next profile version. Corresponding bug reports may get ignored or
closed immediately. If you are still using this configuration, we urge you to
find an alternative.

This does *not* affect the 64bit code ("s390x", CHOST=s390x-ibm-linux-gnu)
with its profiles and stages.
=================




Am Donnerstag, 18. Juni 2026, 21:14:29 Japanische Normalzeit schrieb Andreas K. Huettel:
> Hello everyone, 
> 
> the 31bit ABI support for s390 mainframes is on the way out just about everywhere.
> 
> * Pure 31bit hardware is by now nonexistent (64bit support exists since 2002)
> * Full 31bit kernel support is gone since 2014
> * The 31bit ABI userspace emulation layer has been dropped in the kernel recently 
>   (I think in 6.19)
> * glibc will drop 31bit support in 2.44
> 
> So far I tried to keep things running as far as @system and the stage builds
> are concerned, but I have no personal investment in the 31bit s390 support, and
> the effort seems not worthwhile anymore. The S390 project consists currently of
> me (mostly for releng), Sam (mostly for toolchain), and Ago (mostly for...?).
> 
> Unless someone dedicated to s390 and maintaining a legacy userspace steps up, I
> would suggest now really dropping support of that ABI (CHOST=s390-ibm-linux-gnu) 
> for good.
> 
> This does *not* affect the 64bit code (CHOST=s390x-ibm-linux-gnu), profiles, and
> stages.
> 
> Cheers,
> Andreas
> 
> 


-- 
PD Dr. Andreas K. Hüttel
[email protected]
Gentoo Linux developer 
(council, comrel, toolchain, base-system, perl, libreoffice)
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:Dilfridge
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