Re: Final toolchain dir

["Yann E. MORIN" <yann dot morin dot 1998 at anciens dot enib dot fr>]

Andy, All,

On Saturday 26 March 2011 13:51:21 Michael Zintakis wrote:
> > But, do you really, really need the toolchain to be writable? What for?
> >   
> One purpose where I see this *might be* practical is when the toolchain 
> is built for the sole purpose of completing a software image build and 
> it then gets deleted. In this case it may seem "easier" to just build 
> the whole image root there (I know it is tempting) otherwise one needs 
> to copy the files needed from it in a separate location (i.e. 
> /my-image-root). That is how I see it anyway.

In case this is a one-time-and-throw-away build, yes, you could do that.
That's not really neat, but hey! that's your prerogative to use it the
way you want! ;-)

But mostly, that covers the lone developper with a fire-and-forget
procedure, where all builds, successfull or not, are throwable.

> I agree with you though - the toolchain should be read only and 
> preserved clear not least because if there is some kind of error or 
> fault during the image build and files get overwritten/deleted then the 
> whole toolchain needs to be built again and that is a bit of a pain!

Yep! And especially when the toolchain is a ressource shared by many
developpers, you do not want any of them to fumble in the sysroot.

There is a use-case (which is as valid, no-more-no-less, than your lone
developper use-case above), where the toolchain is the responsibility of
a team that provides all the build tools: toolchain, file system image
generators (eg. genext2fs, mksquashfs...), the build machines (HW+SW).
That team invests time to provide tested and proven toolchains to the
developper team, whose role is to put software on one or more boards.
The dev-team mostly has no knowledge about what a toolchain is (trust
me, a basic C++ or Java developper has no idea what a compiler is!
Especially the Java devel has no clue! Hehe! :-] ).

For example, I do maintain toolchains for many targets (ARM, MIPS,
i686, SuperH) for a 100+ team of developpers. And amongst them, I think
maybe one or two has deep understanding of what a toolchain is, the
same level as I do (and I do not know everything!), while about 5-10
have a relatively good understanding, and the rest is absolutely clueless.
And the (not so) surprising thing is, the higher level the developper,
the more clueless he/she is! :-]

Enough ranting for today, resuming normal activities.

BTW gcc-4.6.0 is out! Integration into crosstool-NG in progress.
ETA: when hell freezes over. Or later. Or earlier. Who knows? :-]

Regards,
Yann E. MORIN.

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