Re: The SPARC target

[Daniel Jacobowitz <drow@mvista.com>]

On Sun, Aug 17, 2003 at 10:48:47PM +0200, Mark Kettenis wrote:
> Folks,
> 
> The SPARC target has been unmaintained for quite some time now[1]
> (since november 2001) and it shows.  It doesn't compile on FreeBSD,
> and running the testsuite on FreeBSD/sparc64 (after fixing it),
> Solaris 2.8 and NetBSD/sparc results in hundreds of unexpected
> failures with quite a few unresolved testcases.  I think the target is
> bordering on (un)usability.
> 
> It's obvious what's wrong: the code is in a very bad shape.  It's
> deprecation and obsoletion everywhere.  It's gotten to a point where
> *I* can't make any sense out of it anymore.  Instead of fixing the old
> broken code, I started implementing a FreeBSD/sparc64 target from
> scratch.  Even though my work isn't finished yet, it already does a
> better job than the existing SPARC target.  Of course it uses the new
> unwinder framework.  I hope to be able to finish it in the coming
> weeks, and check it in alongide the old code.  The new target is
> 64-bit only (which is fine for FreeBSD/sparc64), but I have
> anticipated on writing the 32-bit bits.  When those are ready I intend
> to convert all "active" SPARC targets to use the new code, replacing
> the old 32-bit code with the new 32-bit code.  Unfortunately, I won't
> be able to test all SPARC targets.  As a result we'll probably end up
> with a number of broken SPARC targets.  Consider this message as a
> HEADS UP.

This is wonderful news.  If you need any testing on sparc-linux please
let me know.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
MontaVista Software                         Debian GNU/Linux Developer