Bootstrapping binaries

Kevin Kofler kevin.kofler at chello.at
Fri Apr 23 00:17:46 UTC 2010


Matt McCutchen wrote:
> In such cases, we should seriously consider trying to repeat the entire
> bootstrapping process purely from source code.

In many of the problematic cases (where the compiler can only be 
bootstrapped with itself), this involves either going up an extremely long 
chain of old versions of the same compiler, which may not be available 
anymore and which may not build anymore on current Fedora, or bootstrapping 
from a proprietary compiler, which may not be available for Fedora and which 
may not be available anymore at all, or even both. Unfortunately, bootstrap 
binaries are often the only viable solution.

Unfortunately, many compiler writers write their compiler in its own 
language, probably because that's what they know best and/or what they 
believe to be the best language to write programs in. The bootstrapping 
issue is given little consideration in that kind of decision. :-(

        Kevin Kofler



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