* Peter Stuge peter@stuge.se [071203 18:08]:
On Mon, Dec 03, 2007 at 08:34:00AM -0800, Steve Isaacs wrote:
I believe that like it or not if you want LinuxBIOS to be widely accepted it must be able to demonstrate repeatability.
Excellent point! I agree with you completely.
We should definately look at automating the build process and even build environment, because it is a sensitive component in the build process, and we should make LB smart enough to build with a build environment other than the one that starts with /usr/bin/gcc.
We already have all this: That's why I developed the LinuxBIOS test system that started producing binary images at a central point:
http://qa.linuxbios.org/log_test.php?timestamp=20061109-173426&device=ep...
Of course everyone is free to use the same tool chain for all their builds. But for sure, the result can not be good if we try to build every software development and testing process out there into linuxbios. At some point there will always be a special restriction that a commercial vendor will have to make. Like running on certain svn revisions, basically forking, rather than staying on HEAD all the time.
However - I want it to remain optional rather than a requirement, so that the entry level stays as low as possible for as many as possible.
If someone feels the need for a cross development environment -- there's crosstool. You can easily build RPMs for all kinds of cross compiler versions for all kinds of platforms.
It is an interesting project, and we recommend everyone using LinuxBIOS in a commercial environment to use it. But that belongs into the corporate software development process, and not into linuxbios.
Just change your target config.lb to your known good tool chain and you're fine.
In addition, as a side note: I have not seen any miscompilations with any toolchain of (Open)SUSE Linux since 2003 whereas Redhat/Fedora was troublesome with every second toolchain release. It seems RH/F is quite a bit more "progressive" when it comes down to toolchains. So if you want a stable system, you should also take into consideration that choosing a distribution as experimental as FC8, you will run into such problems.
Stefan