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> Is Rust (llvm?) supported on all platforms Linux targets? AFAIK, no. Linux chooses to support platforms from which we haven't seen new releases in decades,

> Is Rust (llvm?) supported on all platforms Linux targets? AFAIK, no. Linux chooses to support platforms from which we haven't seen new releases in decades, like DEC Alpha. Although in recent years, Linux has dumped support for many older platforms including IA-64. But my guess is GNU coreutils also doesn't support all Linux targets. I mean this in two ways -- 1) AFAIK coreutils does not expressly support each and every Linux platform, and 2) whether something builds is not the measure of whether there is platform support. That is -- Linux may support some weirdo MIPs variant and 68K (which has Tier 3 Rust support), but what's your guess that your GNU coreutils support, even busybox support, for these platforms is top tier? You may be guaranteed that your weirdo arch has a C compiler, but what's the likelihood all the GNU tests passed on this arch? That each and every utility even runs on this arch?

estebank 2y ago
I recall packages on Debian considered available for some obscure platforms that would segfault immediately when executed. Platform support goes beyond "does a compiler happen to produce a binary".
yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
I can't find an official list of supported targets, but https://github.com/coreutils/coreutils/blob/master/README-install https://github.com/coreutils/coreutils/blob/master/README-in... contains notes on compiling for IRIX, HPUX, AIX, and OSF/1. So no, I would bet that it very much does run anywhere Linux runs, and a lot of places it doesn't.
- mustache_kimono 2y ago
  > contains notes on compiling for IRIX, HPUX, AIX, and OSF/1. Again, how well tested do you imagine the OSF/1 target is? Do you imagine each merge pops off a CI test for that platform? My guess is -- it's been a long time since anyone connected with the GNU coreutils project built for that platform. See the reply from estebank to me, below: > Platform support goes beyond "does a compiler happen to produce a binary".
  - yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
    Fair. I suppose it comes down to what "supported" means. AFAICT there's no official CI testing for any platform; the closest thing seems to be a mailing list where people will sometimes test new releases. It would be interesting to see what would happen if someone found and reported a bug for something obscure.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
    Okay, so I was curious enough to check... I can install NetBSD on an emulated VAX (opensimh), run pkgin install coreutils and those binaries do in fact work. I can't seem to find documentation of whether they run tests on every build, but I'm going to tentatively take that as a strong signal that GNU coreutils is still portable across more machines than even Linux can run on.
    - mustache_kimono 2y ago
      > I'm going to tentatively take that as a strong signal that GNU coreutils is still portable across more machines than even Linux can run on And I'm saying -- yes, if "Does it compile?" portability is a value that you care about, the GNU version is probably your version. But what if the Q is (as it was): "Is Rust (llvm?) supported on all platforms Linux targets?" Then -- I think you need to dig more carefully into what you mean by "support" of non-standard platforms, and why it might be important to you. Would say -- we can move our entire stack to an emulated PDP-11 because Linux and GNU coreutils seem to compile? My guess is no. For lots of reasons, but one reason is "It compiles"/"Seems to work" is not a good measure of support.

estebank 2y ago

I recall packages on Debian considered available for some obscure platforms that would segfault immediately when executed. Platform support goes beyond "does a compiler happen to produce a binary".

yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago

I can't find an official list of supported targets, but https://github.com/coreutils/coreutils/blob/master/README-install https://github.com/coreutils/coreutils/blob/master/README-in... contains notes on compiling for IRIX, HPUX, AIX, and OSF/1. So no, I would bet that it very much does run anywhere Linux runs, and a lot of places it doesn't.

mustache_kimono 2y ago
> contains notes on compiling for IRIX, HPUX, AIX, and OSF/1. Again, how well tested do you imagine the OSF/1 target is? Do you imagine each merge pops off a CI test for that platform? My guess is -- it's been a long time since anyone connected with the GNU coreutils project built for that platform. See the reply from estebank to me, below: > Platform support goes beyond "does a compiler happen to produce a binary".
- yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
  Fair. I suppose it comes down to what "supported" means. AFAICT there's no official CI testing for any platform; the closest thing seems to be a mailing list where people will sometimes test new releases. It would be interesting to see what would happen if someone found and reported a bug for something obscure.
- yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
  Okay, so I was curious enough to check... I can install NetBSD on an emulated VAX (opensimh), run pkgin install coreutils and those binaries do in fact work. I can't seem to find documentation of whether they run tests on every build, but I'm going to tentatively take that as a strong signal that GNU coreutils is still portable across more machines than even Linux can run on.
  - mustache_kimono 2y ago
    > I'm going to tentatively take that as a strong signal that GNU coreutils is still portable across more machines than even Linux can run on And I'm saying -- yes, if "Does it compile?" portability is a value that you care about, the GNU version is probably your version. But what if the Q is (as it was): "Is Rust (llvm?) supported on all platforms Linux targets?" Then -- I think you need to dig more carefully into what you mean by "support" of non-standard platforms, and why it might be important to you. Would say -- we can move our entire stack to an emulated PDP-11 because Linux and GNU coreutils seem to compile? My guess is no. For lots of reasons, but one reason is "It compiles"/"Seems to work" is not a good measure of support.