[tex-live] mips64el-linux: requirements for adding a new architecture to TL

[Mojca Miklavec]

On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 00:53, Karl Berry wrote:
>    (I'm not asking about inclusion on DVD, but about inclusion into SVN
>    repository.)
>
> To date we have never had platforms in svn that do not also end up on
> the DVD.  But there is no particular problem with it, in principle.  I
> assume you don't actually object to inclusion on the DVD, if there ends
> up being space next year.

No, of course I don't object to inclusion on the DVD. I'm just saying
that if there is lack of space (which used to be the case while TL was
still "Live" and uncompressed), you could easily sacrifice this one.

>    I would like to ask what are the requirements to add new
>    architectures to TeX Live's SVN repository.
>
> I don't recall ever adding (or removing) platforms during the year, but
> only making these changes after the freeze.

kfreebsd? (But I'm not sure about its timing. Also, it would be enough
to have those binaries in trunk. I don't need them in 2011 tag.)

> Instead, I link to new
> binary sets from the TL web pages so people on those platforms can get
> them.  But since the point is to have them in the context distribution,
> clearly that won't help.

No, it won't.

Also, even if you link to binaries, this means that one needs to
checkout the SVN tree and add binaries to that tree, so that doesn't
help the users as much as it could. I guess that the whole beauty of
tlmg is lost in such cases?

> Let me ask, can you use tlcontrib for this?  (I have no idea how or if
> that would work out.)  Taco?

I could add them to tlcontrib, but that would only complicate my work
instead of solving anything.

I fetch all the binaries for ConTeXt distribution from TeX Live's SVN
with a single rsync call. If binaries won't become part of TL, I will
store them locally on the server and fetch them from there. That will
be much easier.

If I upload them to TLContrib, I would first need an enormous amount
of time to figure out how to package all of these binaries properly,
and having them there wouldn't help much.


At first it never occurred to me that we would ever need or want to
support additional platforms on top of the already the long list of
platforms in TL (I have never heard of many of them). After all, Hans
was only supporting windows, 32-bit and 64-bit linux and powerpc mac
when I took the distribution over. Now we support 13 out of 20 TL
architectures (and would also support cygwin if we didn't stumble on
problems).

> I am not rejecting the idea of adding a new platform to TL, but I'd
> rather not break that ground if I don't have to.

This is entirely your decision.

I have the binaries built now and I can easily contribute them if
anyone else would find them useful. I would simplify my building
process a bit if they were included in TL, but I don't decide over
what gets included. I just need to know.

It's a real pity that there are no (not even approximate) statistics
of downloads of different platforms.

>    I built the binaries on Debian Squeeze
>
> Please send the output of:
> uname -a

Linux kip-netbook 2.6.38.3-libre-lemote #1 PREEMPT Fri Apr 15 10:33:22
UTC 2011 mips64 GNU/Linux

> gcc -v

Using built-in specs.
Target: mipsel-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Debian
4.4.5-8' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.4/README.Bugs
--enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr
--program-suffix=-4.4 --enable-shared --enable-multiarch
--enable-linker-build-id --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib
--without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix
--with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.4 --libdir=/usr/lib
--enable-nls --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug
--disable-libssp --enable-targets=all --enable-checking=release
--build=mipsel-linux-gnu --host=mipsel-linux-gnu
--target=mipsel-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.4.5 (Debian 4.4.5-8)

> ls -ld /lib/libc*

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1594664 jan 23  2011 /lib/libc-2.11.2.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      14 apr 17 22:08 /lib/libcap.so.2 -> libcap.so.2.19
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   16692 avg 16  2010 /lib/libcap.so.2.19
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  187192 jan 23  2011 /lib/libcidn-2.11.2.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      17 apr 17 19:44 /lib/libcidn.so.1 ->
libcidn-2.11.2.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      17 jun 27 18:33 /lib/libcom_err.so.2 ->
libcom_err.so.2.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   11296 jun 19 22:02 /lib/libcom_err.so.2.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   43800 jan 23  2011 /lib/libcrypt-2.11.2.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      18 apr 17 19:44 /lib/libcrypt.so.1 ->
libcrypt-2.11.2.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      14 apr 17 19:44 /lib/libc.so.6 -> libc-2.11.2.so

Mojca