[bug#47182] [PATCH 00/18] Add support for powerpc64le-linux (wip-ppc64le-for-master)

[Chris Marusich]

Christopher Baines <mail@cbaines.net> writes:

> Chris Marusich <cmmarusich@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Léo Le Bouter <lle-bout@zaclys.net> writes:
>>
>>> As discussed on IRC, it turns out no world rebuild happens:
>>
>> Yes, and Christopher Baines explained that the outputs matter, not the
>> derivations themselves.  The outputs of hello and gcc-toolchain are the
>> same on master as they are on the tip of wip-ppc64le-for-master, so I
>> think I was just confused: we are good to merge to master, after all.
>
> Thanks for sending these patches, that means they've appeared in
> Patchwork [1] and that the Guix Data Service has processed it as a patch
> series [2].
>
> 1: 
> https://patches.guix-patches.cbaines.net/project/guix-patches/list/?series=7335
> 2:
> https://data.guix-patches.cbaines.net/compare?base_commit=341dfe7eda4972af0a027357015ea595314438b0&target_commit=4757434caeac0077f67583701653a7b89a335e61
>
> Looking at that comparison, it seems good to merge! The new
> powerpc64le-linux derivations could be computed, and there's a
> relatively small number of x86_64-linux derivations affected [3], which
> is good, as this can be merged to master then.
>
> 3:
> https://data.guix-patches.cbaines.net/compare/package-derivations?base_commit=341dfe7eda4972af0a027357015ea595314438b0&target_commit=4757434caeac0077f67583701653a7b89a335e61&system=x86_64-linux&target=none&build_change=&after_name=&limit_results=&all_results=on
>
> Chris

Awesome!  Thank you for this additional information.  It's very helpful.

It looks like a few hundred packages, according to that page.  I've
looked at the patches and I'm not sure exactly why they are rebuilt.
One guess is that perhaps changes to build-side code (e.g.,
guix/build/syscalls.scm) are getting included in the output of some
derivations (maybe module-import-compiled derivations?) whose knock-on
effects down the line are not obvious.

In any case, it's "only" a few hundred packages, judging by the page
Chris linked.  I would argue that it is better to merge this for the
release and just rebuild those few hundred packages, rather than to
postpone a change that will make it significantly easier for curious
people to hop in and try out / help out with the powerpc64le-linux port.
I think we've done a pretty good job of limiting the "rebuild" blast
radius, so I think we should go ahead and merge it.

-- 
Chris