Subject: bug#54394: closed (Re: bug#54394: [PATCH core-updates 00/12] Remove old GNU utilities from early bootstrap)

From: [email-masked] (GNU bug Tracking System)
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2022 19:54:02 +0000

Your bug report

#54394: [PATCH core-updates 00/12] Remove old GNU utilities from early bootstrap

which was filed against the guix-patches package, has been closed.

The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to [email-masked].

-- 
54394: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=54394
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact [email-masked] with problems

Subject: Re: bug#54394: [PATCH core-updates 00/12] Remove old GNU utilities from early bootstrap
From: Timothy Sample <[email-masked]>
To: Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2022 13:53:14 -0600
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Hello,

Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]> writes:

> Timothy Sample <[email-masked]> skribis:
>
>> The next two patches spruce up the ‘gnu-bootstrap’ module.  One fixes an
>> omission, and the other gets it ready to handle Gash-Utils 0.2.0, which
>> unfortunately has two module directories.
>>
>> The next three are updates.  The bootar update optimistically assumes
>> that someone with access will upload the source file to the Guix mirror
>> URL: “mirror://gnu/guix/...” as was done with previous versions.
>>
>> The rest hopefully speak for themselves.  Sadly, the last one is
>> something of a jumble.  Originally I wanted to remove the utilities one
>> at a time, but it turns out there are interference effects.  I can’t
>> remember the exact details now, but to get an idea, removing both old
>> Bash and old Grep might work, but removing one and then the other (in
>> either order) might not.  Hence, many utilities get updated in one
>> commit.
>
> The patches all LGTM!  I think you can push them to ‘core-updates’ if
> there are no objections.

Pushed!  (Maybe I didn’t leave enough time for objections – apologies if
it ends up requiring a revert!  I’ll be around to work through any
issues this might cause.)

> Then Maxim, Ricardo, or myself (I think we’re the three people who can
> do that currently) can upload bootar to ftp.gnu.org.  Let us know.

Yes, please!

> It’s quite something to see these intermediate versions of Bash, Gawk,
> tar, grep, coreutils, and sed go away in the last patch, and that tells
> something about the magnitude of the work that has gone in this
> Gash-Utils release.  Thumbs up, and big thanks!

When the Scheme-only bootstrap landed, it was very exciting, but it made
a real mess of ‘commencement.scm’.  Since I played a part in creating
that mess, I figured I ought to work to fix it.  :)  I’m hoping our
Scheme-heavy approach to bootstrapping will result in something clean
and comprehensible, so taking an explicit step in that direction makes
me happy.

-- Tim

Subject: [PATCH core-updates 00/12] Remove old GNU utilities from early bootstrap
From: Timothy Sample <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2022 16:47:50 -0600
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Hi all!

This is culmination of a lot of work, so I’m excited to be submitting
it!  The main thrust of this series is to update Gash and Gash-Utils,
and then remove most of the old GNU utilities we use during early
bootstrap.  To elaborate, the current situation is that we climb a
ladder through time: first we build Bash 2, then we build Bash 4, and
finally we build Bash 5.  This is true for most GNU utilities: Sed,
Gawk, Coreutils, etc.  The reason?  Until now, our Scheme
implementations of those utilities (Gash and Gash-Utils) were very
limited.  Bash 2 used to be a lot more useful then Gash, for example.
Now, with recent releases of Gash and Gash-Utils, the Scheme utilities
are, in general, capable of powering the builds of modern GNU software.

To be clear, we still climb the time-ladder in a few cases.  The main
ones are GCC, Glibc, and Binutils.  For example, we have to use GCC 2 to
transition from TCC To GCC 4 (which is the last non-C++ GCC [1]).
Fixing this would require quite a bit of TCC hacking, I imagine.  There
are others, though.  We still use old versions of Gzip, Make, patch, and
Gawk.  The fact that Gawk is still there disappoints me quite a bit, but
‘glibc-mesboot’ fails in a way that I just can’t figure out when
building with Gash-Utils.  Gzip is not strictly necessary, but also
pretty easy to replace.  I’m not sure, but I think patch is only there
to avoid using patches in ‘origin’ records during bootstrap.  We now
have a way to do that, so it may no longer be necessary.  Make will
likely need to be rewritten in Scheme, but we have a head start: Potato
Make [2].

[1] https://bootstrappable.org/projects.html
[2] https://github.com/spk121/potato-make

Here’s some detailed info for reviewers.

The first patch is pretty independent.  That testing package has been
broken since GNU Hello was upgraded to 2.11.

The next two patches spruce up the ‘gnu-bootstrap’ module.  One fixes an
omission, and the other gets it ready to handle Gash-Utils 0.2.0, which
unfortunately has two module directories.

The next three are updates.  The bootar update optimistically assumes
that someone with access will upload the source file to the Guix mirror
URL: “mirror://gnu/guix/...” as was done with previous versions.

The rest hopefully speak for themselves.  Sadly, the last one is
something of a jumble.  Originally I wanted to remove the utilities one
at a time, but it turns out there are interference effects.  I can’t
remember the exact details now, but to get an idea, removing both old
Bash and old Grep might work, but removing one and then the other (in
either order) might not.  Hence, many utilities get updated in one
commit.

I have built this series all the way to the ‘hello’ package (the regular
one, not the ‘-mesboot’ one).  Based on that, I assume that everything
should be fine.  There’s always room for surprises, though!  :)

Let me know what you think.

Timothy Sample (12):
  gnu: hello-mesboot: Downgrade to 2.10.
  gnu-bootstrap: Configure PACKAGE_NAME.
  gnu-bootstrap: Allow multiple module directories.
  gnu: gash-utils: Update to 0.2.0.
  gnu: bootar: Update to 1b.
  gnu: gash: Update to 0.3.0.
  gnu: gash-utils-boot: Create 'echo' wrapper.
  gnu: bzip2-mesboot: Remove package.
  gnu: sed-mesboot0: Remove package.
  gnu: binutils-mesboot0: Update to 2.20.1a.
  gnu: %boot-tcc-inputs: Remove extra "gash-utils".
  gnu: commencement: Remove many old utilities.

 gnu/local.mk                                  |   1 -
 gnu/packages/commencement.scm                 | 895 ++++--------------
 gnu/packages/patches/gash-utils-ls-test.patch |  25 -
 gnu/packages/shells.scm                       |  27 +-
 guix/build/gnu-bootstrap.scm                  |  32 +-
 5 files changed, 192 insertions(+), 788 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 gnu/packages/patches/gash-utils-ls-test.patch

-- Tim