Re: Fix gdb 8.1 Solaris/SPARC compilation (PR build/22206)

[Rainer Orth <ro@CeBiTec.Uni-Bielefeld.DE>]

Hi Pedro,

>> this is extremely unfortunate, Oracle adding ADI support for one OS, but
>> not for its own ;-(
>> 
>> However, what's worse is the way in which ADI support was added: when
>> you add code to a file shared between different OSes like
>> sparc64-tdep.c, it's your responsibility to make sure that this code at
>> least doesn't break other SPARC targets.  Given how much of the code
>> there isn't actually shared (and not sharable, it seems), the approach
>> you've take seems wrong to me: it should have been properly factored
>> between shared (sparc64-tdep.c) and os-private
>> (e.g. sparc64-linux-tdep.c) files to avoid such breakage in the first
>> place.
>
> To be fair, that is the sort of issue that should have been pointed out
> in review.  When I pushed for moving the ADI support out of the nat 
> files and into tdep files for cross debugging, I don't think I even
> remembered Solaris was a thing...  Not that I have anything against
> Solaris, to be clear.  It just didn't cross my mind.

understandable: it hasn't been exactly prominent until very recently...

> To me, this indicates a few things:
>
>  - It's great that the Solaris port is again seeing activity, and
>    we should strive to make sure that SPARC changes consider it.
>
>  - But also someone needs to continually keep an eye on Solaris
>    lest it ends up forgotten and broken again.  We need an official
>    Solaris port maintainer.  Any takers?  :-)

TBH, I'm a bit reluctant to take the position.  I've already too much on
my plate and am unsure if I can follow gdb development in any useful
way.  Right now, it's just testing gdb either when releases approach or
when major changes go in.

>  - It'd be desirable to have a SPARC Solaris machine build slave
>    in the GDB buildbot, so that we can offload part of the work to 
>    bots.  I wonder whether Oracle can help with this?  Might be
>    difficult with the whole Solaris situation...

Certainly from Oracle, but fortunately they provided me with a Netra
S7-2 as a long-term loan for my GCC work a few months ago.  I've even
set up a Solaris 11.3 zone to act as a build zone for Go and eventually
other FOSS developers to test on, and am considering to add it to the
GCC build farm if appropriate terms can be worked out.  That zone would
be a natural candidate for a GDB build slave provided that doesn't take
too many ressources.

	Rainer

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Rainer Orth, Center for Biotechnology, Bielefeld University