Policy for removing target support

[Rainer Orth]

Hi Nick,

>>> * Remove support for Solaris < 10 immediately.
>>>
>>>    Given that all affected targets are long dead, support for them in
>>>    GCC has been removed between 10 and 12 years ago and they don't even
>>>    build since binutils 2.41, there's little point claiming support if it
>>>    doesn't actually work and nobody noticed.
>>>
>>> * Alternatively, one could obsolete them instead and remove support at a
>>>    later point (when?).  That has the disadvantage of leaving the support
>>>    in bfd/config.bfd and ld/configure.tgt more complex than necessary and
>>>    sort of advertising support for OS versions that don't actually work.
>
> Obsolete first, remove later.
>
> Specifically, set the target string(s) as pending obsolescence by adding them
> to the case statement at the start of the config.bfd file - so that they can
> only be built by configuring with --enable-obsolete.  Then after the next major
> release (ie 2.46), move the string(s) to the completely obsolete list that
> follows in the next case statement.  At that point completely removing the code
> is fine.

thanks for the clarification.  I'll go that way with my upcoming Solaris
config cleanup patch then.

> This has been the standard way that we have remove support for various targets
> in the past, and I think that it should work here.
>
> If it helps, one of the steps in the README-how-to-make-a-release document
> is to explicitly move pending obsolesence targets into the fully obsolescent
> list, so whomever makes the 2.46 release should automatically handle the
> making-fully-obsolescent step for you.

Good: that avoids forgetting about the issue by then.

	Rainer

-- 
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Rainer Orth, Center for Biotechnology, Bielefeld University