Sourceware synchronisation.

Sourceware synchronisation.

[Brendan Simon]

Now that the sourceware CD is available quarterly, I was wondering what
the chances are of synchronising new releases of sourceware projects
(binutils, gcc, newlib & gdb are the ones that mainly interest me.  I'm
not sure what else is on the sourceware CD as I do not have one yet).

I would be nice to have the latest sourceware which have been
synchronised with other sourceware releases.  The definitions of
"synchronise" is pretty open but I would like it to mean "tested and
recommended".  eg.  The latest release of binutils, gcc, newlib and gdb
that are recommended to work with each other with the least amount of
building problems.

I know this is a big ask and it is nearlyy impossible, but I think it
might be worth some effort.  Can various sourceware projects work
together in some way.  I'm sure there is some informal collaberation
between projects but it is just a guess.  Obviously this would only
apply to projects that have some dependencies on other projects.

Any thoughts,
Brendan Simon.

Re: Sourceware synchronisation.

[Jason Molenda]

EGCS (nee gcc), binutils, and GDB are all large projects and making
a release involves a lot of work.  I doubt any of us want to do it
quarterly, and synchronizing our releases so they all happen at the same
time is even more unlikely.

The quarterly Sourceware CDs are not a compelling reason to release a
new version of any of these programs.

Just MHO, but "Not likely" is my first reaction to any proposal to try
to attempt something like this.

Development snapshots, on the other hand, should generally be pretty
similar to each other (it may take a month or two for a change made
to binutils to get merged over into the GDB repository, for instance)
if you want to develop multiple things in an integrated setup.

-------

As to the general topic of synchronizing shared files among these
packages, changes are all propagated through Cygnus' internal CVS
repository.  e.g.  someone makes a change to EGCS's libiberty; within
a month or so, that change gets merged in to Cygnus' internal CVS
repository, and then a month or so after that binutils has a merge with
the Cygnus internal CVS repository and they pick up the change.  If
it's a critical change, it can be merged by hand by someone.

GDB and newlib do not have external read/write repositories now, so they
pick up the merged change right away and it should be reflected in their
next snapshot.


Jason
Free the Software!

Re: Sourceware synchronisation.

[Joe Buck]

Brendan Simon writes:

> Now that the sourceware CD is available quarterly, I was wondering what
> the chances are of synchronising new releases of sourceware projects
> (binutils, gcc, newlib & gdb are the ones that mainly interest me.  I'm
> not sure what else is on the sourceware CD as I do not have one yet).

While more cooperation is certainly possible on the common components
(e.g. libiberty, configure-related stuff), the chances of synchronizing
the schedules for the convenience of the quarterly Cygnus sourceware CDs
is zero.  GCC is not a "sourceware project" (that is, it is not controlled
by Cygnus -- "sourceware" is a Cygnus term), and the steering committee
has pledged to avoid conflicts of interest, e.g. scheduling releases for
the convenience of one company.  (I'm a member of the committee).

We are grateful for all of Cygnus's contributions of resources, but we are
already having problems with GCC/EGCS being perceived as a
Cygnus-controlled project.  It is not.  It is a net-wide project.

Of course, Cygnus is free to create internal releases that are more
synchronized, or that provide features to paying customers before
the general public gets them, this is fine.  And Cygnus folks are free
to help us keep things like libiberty in sync for easier integration
down the road.  But the official GCC has to remain neutral.

Sorry.