Re: GNU tools netbsd vs netbsdelf

On Fri, Jun 11, 2021 at 07:46:43PM -0400, John Ericson wrote:
 > > You'll also find that the upstream configs are incomplete/outdated
 > > with respect to the ones in the NetBSD tree (because we tend not to do
 > > a very good job of coordinating with upstream) so I have some doubts
 > > about whether they can in general be expected to work without
 > > editorial intervention.
 > 
 > Good to know. I guess if anything that helps me? An expectation of
 > some downstream divergence means I wouldn't have to

Guess you didn't finish that chunk? :-)

Anyway it's not so much that it's expected (it would be better if it
didn't happen) as that upstreaming adjustments is a pain and tends not
to happen.

 > > Anyway, a much less theoretical problem is: if you are closely enough
 > > tied to the GNU triple system that a minor inconsistency like this
 > > causes trouble, where will you be the next time they decide to change
 > > it around upstream as a political football?
 > 
 > Well remember, per what Alyssa said more clearly than I, that we
 > were never *blocked* by this. Our parser/printer in
 > https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/lib/systems/parse.nix
 > has special cases for this and other things at the moment. I just
 > want to keep that complexity to a minimum.

Fair enough. I was just remembering the "lignux" fiasco...

 > If you are curious, know that this isn't my first rodeo of this
 > sort hah --- I have already rewritten most of GNU's config.sub:
 > https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/config.git/log/?qt=author&q=John+Ericson
 > . It seems these configs aren't organized that much --- these
 > issues arise because no one bothers to systematize them, not
 > because of excessive meddling upstream. The fact that I am
 > proposing a change that could have been made decades ago, as you
 > say, makes me think these inconsistencies pop up quite slowly, so
 > it shouldn't be too hard to keep up.

They aren't organized at all; they're completely ad hoc. Everything
would benefit from systematizing the configury and shoveling out the
mess of arbitrary #defines and #undefs and subtly order-dependent
declarations that get spit out. But that's a huge job and I get the
feeling it would be pushing in the opposite direction from upstream.

-- 
David A. Holland
[email protected]