6 ms·

Maybe this compiler could help with bootstrapping the official rust compiler. At the moment, it seems to be quite a mess for packagers. Rust is written in Rust,

by raimue 9y ago

Maybe this compiler could help with bootstrapping the official rust compiler. At the moment, it seems to be quite a mess for packagers. Rust is written in Rust, but also needs cargo to build, which is also written in Rust. To break this circular dependency chain, you need to have pre-compiled binaries first in order to bootstrap the build process.

steveklabnik 9y ago
That's one of the goals, yeah. The author is working on Cargo now.
mitchty 9y ago
This is true of a lot of languages, go, haskell (even more once shake becomes the build system for it) etc... It makes porting things... interesting.
- steveklabnik 9y ago
  Usually you port by cross compiling an initial compiler, and bootstrapping from there.
  - binarycrusader 9y ago
    Speaking from personal experience, that can be quite painful. Being able to build rust and cargo, even if only for bootstrapping when porting, would truly be a wondrous thing.
    - fmap 9y ago
      Why, we could always use emscripten to compile rustc to JavaScript and use that for bootstrapping! On a more serious note, ghc at least solved this problem by allowing you to compile Haskell to C (-fvia-C). Writing a naive C code generator from whatever your backend is using is probably not that hard.
      - mitchty 9y ago
        I actually did steveklabnik said porting ghc to alpine linux. Lets just say, ghc's cross compilation can be frustrating.
        mitchty 9y ago
        Forgot a what in there, just woke up me can not english.
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    Or by making use of an interpreter as first stage.
- Kubuxu 9y ago
  Go bootstrap uses Go1.4 which compiler is written in C. So: compile Go1.4 and use that to compile the Go 1.X compiler (I don't know but multiple steps might be necessary).
__david__ 9y ago
I don’t see why that’s an issue. Can you name a C compiler that distros use that isn’t written in C?
- steveklabnik 9y ago
  gcc and clang are both C++ in my understanding. Regardless, those compilers are usually grandfathered in; distro policies are different for other languages. It just depends.
  - kazinator 9y ago
    Even the C++ front end in GCC is written in C. https://gcc.gnu.org/git/?p=gcc.git;a=tree;f=gcc/cp https://gcc.gnu.org/git/?p=gcc.git;a=tree;f=gcc/cp
    - microcolonel 9y ago
      Technically not only C anymore, not sure about the C++ frontend specifically, but there is C++ in GCC since... 5? 4?
    - xioxox 9y ago
      Some of those files are C++!
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
    - pjmlp 9y ago
      It looks like C, but actually it is common subset from C++. GCC has migrated to C++ in 2008. https://lwn.net/Articles/542457/ https://lwn.net/Articles/542457/
      - kazinator 9y ago
        Any carefully written C program that doesn't use certain C99 an C11 things can be said to be C++. My language implementation compiles as C and C++. Every so often I build it as C++ (like before releases) to check for regressions and flush out any issues caught by the C++ compiler. I don't think of it as "written in C++", though it is not technically a false statement. All Scheme programs are really written in Common Lisp; they just need a suitable library of macros and functions ...
hsivonen 9y ago
Of the distros, Fedora has the strictest compiler bootstrapping policy, and Fedora seems to be doing great with Rust packaging (for a number of CPU architectures).
jokr004 9y ago
I've been beating my head against the wall for weeks trying to compile rustc/cargo on Openindiana. I want it so that I can compile a recent version firefox and/or thunderbird for Openindiana, both of which require rustc and cargo.
- dbaupp 9y ago
  The typical route is to cross compile a compiler and cargo on another platform and then run the resulting binary. Is that approach infeasible for Openindiana?

by raimue 9y ago

steveklabnik 9y ago

That's one of the goals, yeah. The author is working on Cargo now.

mitchty 9y ago

This is true of a lot of languages, go, haskell (even more once shake becomes the build system for it) etc... It makes porting things... interesting.

steveklabnik 9y ago
Usually you port by cross compiling an initial compiler, and bootstrapping from there.
- binarycrusader 9y ago
  Speaking from personal experience, that can be quite painful. Being able to build rust and cargo, even if only for bootstrapping when porting, would truly be a wondrous thing.
  - fmap 9y ago
    Why, we could always use emscripten to compile rustc to JavaScript and use that for bootstrapping! On a more serious note, ghc at least solved this problem by allowing you to compile Haskell to C (-fvia-C). Writing a naive C code generator from whatever your backend is using is probably not that hard.
    - mitchty 9y ago
      I actually did steveklabnik said porting ghc to alpine linux. Lets just say, ghc's cross compilation can be frustrating.
      - mitchty 9y ago
        Forgot a what in there, just woke up me can not english.
- pjmlp 9y ago
  Or by making use of an interpreter as first stage.
Kubuxu 9y ago
Go bootstrap uses Go1.4 which compiler is written in C. So: compile Go1.4 and use that to compile the Go 1.X compiler (I don't know but multiple steps might be necessary).

__david__ 9y ago

I don’t see why that’s an issue. Can you name a C compiler that distros use that isn’t written in C?

steveklabnik 9y ago
gcc and clang are both C++ in my understanding. Regardless, those compilers are usually grandfathered in; distro policies are different for other languages. It just depends.
- kazinator 9y ago
  Even the C++ front end in GCC is written in C. https://gcc.gnu.org/git/?p=gcc.git;a=tree;f=gcc/cp https://gcc.gnu.org/git/?p=gcc.git;a=tree;f=gcc/cp
  - microcolonel 9y ago
    Technically not only C anymore, not sure about the C++ frontend specifically, but there is C++ in GCC since... 5? 4?
  - xioxox 9y ago
    Some of those files are C++!
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    It looks like C, but actually it is common subset from C++. GCC has migrated to C++ in 2008. https://lwn.net/Articles/542457/ https://lwn.net/Articles/542457/
    - kazinator 9y ago
      Any carefully written C program that doesn't use certain C99 an C11 things can be said to be C++. My language implementation compiles as C and C++. Every so often I build it as C++ (like before releases) to check for regressions and flush out any issues caught by the C++ compiler. I don't think of it as "written in C++", though it is not technically a false statement. All Scheme programs are really written in Common Lisp; they just need a suitable library of macros and functions ...

hsivonen 9y ago

Of the distros, Fedora has the strictest compiler bootstrapping policy, and Fedora seems to be doing great with Rust packaging (for a number of CPU architectures).

jokr004 9y ago

I've been beating my head against the wall for weeks trying to compile rustc/cargo on Openindiana. I want it so that I can compile a recent version firefox and/or thunderbird for Openindiana, both of which require rustc and cargo.

dbaupp 9y ago
The typical route is to cross compile a compiler and cargo on another platform and then run the resulting binary. Is that approach infeasible for Openindiana?