Time for some updates

[Jonathan Cox]

Interesting to know what GCC has returned support for SPARC. The LEON series of SPARC processors are still used in embedded systems today, especially for space applications.
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From: users <users-bounces+joncox=alum.mit.edu at lists.opencsw.org> on behalf of Yuri via users <users at lists.opencsw.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 4, 2025 3:26:57 PM
To: users at lists.opencsw.org <users at lists.opencsw.org>
Cc: Yuri <yvoinov at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Time for some updates


I built GCC 6.5 from source on Solaris 10 (latest release update 1/13) just a couple of months ago. It builds without any problems with the latest libraries from OpenCSW and on the first try. Version 6.5 already supports C++17 (partially) with an explicit specification of the standard (-std=c++17). I studied the issue and found out that it is possible to build GCC up to version 9.5 on Solaris 10 and the only reason why I did not do this was compatibility with already built packages on my setups. At the moment, native compatibility with C++14 is enough for me.

Unfortunately, I was unable to compile Perl version 5.40 as easily and effortlessly due to a stupid error with the UTF8 locale. I have not yet found and written a comprehensive guide to this build. Unlike GCC. You could say that this is also a hobby for me (albeit a forced one). True, my hardware is somewhat younger, it is only fourteen years old )

By the way, I haven't looked into the issue in depth, but I heard that GCC has returned support for SPARC processors to compilers of versions later than 9. However, I'm not entirely sure about full compatibility with Solaris 10 libC, as Solaris 10 support was declared to be discontinued _after_ version 9. However, version 9.5 should be supported and I hope, if I have some free time, to run a test build on my build environment - just for show.

AFAIK, GCC 9 is fully compatible with C11/C++17.

04.01.2025 23:29, Jonathan Cox via users пишет:
By the way, I invested quite a bit of time recently building new packages for Solaris 10 SPARC, including Python, SDL, Numpy, Geany and many others. I took detailed notes and had a fair amount of success, although I wasn't able to figure out how to build newer versions of GCC. This became a limiting factor because many open source projects, especially anything GNU, have moved to C++17 and even newer versions (for no apparent reason, as far as I can tell).

I did inquire about releasing my builds in the OpenCSW repository, but I never got a response.

I am interested in how to compile GCC 9 for Solaris 10, as well as generating these updated packages on OpenCSW.

It's really a hobby, I'm not doing this because I'm constrained to 25 year old hardware...
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From: users <users-bounces+joncox=alum.mit.edu at lists.opencsw.org><mailto:users-bounces+joncox=alum.mit.edu at lists.opencsw.org> on behalf of Ben Walton via users <users at lists.opencsw.org><mailto:users at lists.opencsw.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 4, 2025 9:33:43 AM
To: Questions and discussions <users at lists.opencsw.org><mailto:users at lists.opencsw.org>
Cc: Ben Walton <bwalton at opencsw.org><mailto:bwalton at opencsw.org>
Subject: Re: Time for some updates



On Sat 4 Jan 2025, 14:58 Yuri via users, <users at lists.opencsw.org<mailto:users at lists.opencsw.org>> wrote:

Gentlemen, don't you think it's time for some updates?

For example, Perl. It's too old, 14 years is a bit too much to run most of the CPAN modules. Or GCC. I'd like to see at least 6.5 in 2024. Or openvpn. The current version is outdated.

Redis is generally archaic, given that 5.0.14 is built from sources on Solaris 10 without any problems.

I understand that the problem of maintainers has not gone away and in general - if you want something, build it yourself.

But let's at least refresh Perl and GCC a little, okay? They are hopelessly ancient. If I can build a compiler from sources myself, whichever I like, then I couldn't build Perl. Not with any attempt.

I think you already understand the problem here. The people that were investing their time in this aren't doing that much anymore because they've moved on. It's been a long time since I logged into any Solaris machine at this point and it's unlikely I will in the future. If I do, it's very unlikely to be building software on it. I think many other folks are in a similar position because they are scratching different itches in different technical contexts. Not everyone has moved on, but those still here seemingly don't have a need to update these packages.

If you need these, I suggest you roll up your sleeves. Dago can still get you access to the build farm where you'd have a pretty straight forward path to building the updated packages you want.

I know this doesn't actually help you, but at least it confirms your suspicion.

Thanks
-Ben

Maybe there are newer versions posted somewhere and I just don't see them? For example, in unstable or testing?

WBR, Yuri
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