OCaml bootstrap

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> skribis:

> Well, 4.07 is the version that is de-bootstrapped, i.e. bootstrapped
> using ’camlboot’ via Guile – for details see [2].
>
> However, higher versions (4.09, 4.14, 5) does not use this seed and thus
> they are not de-bootstrapped.  Well, I do not know the status upstream;
> from my point of view, we have two options:
>
>  a) Agree with other distros and OCaml folks to rely on a common OCaml
>  4.07 bootstrapped using camlboot and then use this OCaml 4.07 as the
>  seed for the subsequent versions.  Somehow having a way to verify the
>  current OCaml compiler without running again and again via camlboot.
>
>  b) Build ourselves a chain from 4.07 bootstrapped with camlboot to
>  modern OCaml compilers.  However, each time we modify one dependency of
>  camlboot, it means rebuild the complete chain.  Well, bootstrapping via
>  camlboot can be very slow and I do not know if we have the resources
>  for non-x86_64 architecture.  Here, the list of the emerged
>  dependencies:

Julien, do you happen to know if there are plans to make camlboot more
capable so it can be used to build newer versions of OCaml?  Maybe
something to discuss with Nathanaëlle Courant and Gabriel Scherer?

Ludo’.