Re: [Chicken-hackers] bootstrap

[Elf]

On Thu, 6 Mar 2008, felix winkelmann wrote:

> Elf wrote this on "chicken-janitors":
>
>
> > idea/suggestion regarding bootstrapping and bootstrap.tar.gz :
> >
> >
> > 1) get rid of bootstrap.tar.gz .  make a directory, bootstrap, with the c
> >   files in it, that doesnt get used by default.  also makes object separation
> >   easier.
> >
> >
> > 2) add a post-commit hook for changes to the bootstrap trunk files that
> >   automatically regenerate the corresponding c files.  this ensures that
> >   the bootstrap files stay up to date with a minimum of effort, leading
> >   to fewer version-bug-related problems.
> >
> > i just updated the bootstrap.tar.gz ... it still had regex-extras in it, it
> > was from 6 weeks ago, and it was missing the posixwin file (which, especially
> > now that theres a theoretically working msvc build script, is kinda vital).
>
> Yes, the bootstrap thing is a horrible hack, but sometimes useful
> when one experiments with the compiler and is left in a situation
> where no running chicken executable is available.
>
> I would suggest not to worry too much about it. A bootstrapping subdir
> is probably a good idea. But automatically regenerating it might be
> exactly the wrong thing to do: you want backup .c files to generate
> a chicken that is guaranteed to work.

the problem is that as theres still significant changes to core functionality
being made, the bootstrap sources get very far out of date very quickly.
example being the put! bug that keeps cropping up, or the 64bit stat bug
handled again yesterday.  However, I grok your point regarding the need for
it to be safe... perhaps keeping a separate bootstrap directory (not in 
the main tree) with sources believed to be good since the last major 
interface add/change would be advisable, with a commit hook so that 
when someone wants them to be updated, the scm file can be commited there and
turned into c automagially?

-elf