Re: [PATCH 1/4] Document new hard requirement on GNU make

Simon Marchi
2016-11-17T13:39:00Z

On 2016-11-17 07:39, Pedro Alves wrote:
> Actually, I take that back. I was just using "makes it easier
> to have a single top level check", but that's not really a good
> rationale. I wouldn't want to be stuck if gcc decides to
> move at a glacial pace.
>
> Probably a policy similar to the C++NN one makes more sense.
>
> I see now that 3.81 was released in 2006, so should not be
> a problem to require it.
>
> OOC, I wrote a quick&dirty script (attached) to check for GNU Make
> availability in the GCC compile farm. It tries all gcc*.fsffrance.org
> from 1 to 250. I don't have access to all machines setup, as some are
> multiplexed on a single IP with different ports, requiring tweaking
> the local ssh config. However, what I found was already interesting,
> I believe. Here's the result:
>
> Number of accessible hostnames: 66
> Number of inaccessible hostnames: 184
> Hostnames with GNU Make: 66
> Hostnames without GNU Make: 0
> Distribution:
> 56 GNU Make 3.81
> 2 GNU Make 3.82
> 7 GNU Make 4.0
> 1 GNU Make 4.1
> Unique hosts with GNU Make: 20
> Unique hosts without GNU Make: 0
> Distribution:
> 10 GNU Make 3.81
> 2 GNU Make 3.82
> 7 GNU Make 4.0
> 1 GNU Make 4.1
>
> I.e., I didn't find a single machine still stuck with GNU Make 3.80.
>
> Thanks,
> Pedro Alves

Thanks for doing this! That, gives us some data on which to base
ourselves to require make 3.81.

Eli, I would update the NEWS entry to:

* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.

It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
implementation of the make program or en earlier GNU make version.

Does it look good to you?

Where else should that dependency be documented?