ghc: disable on powerpc64le#282591
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The first step of bootstrapping ghc on powerpc64le uses an ancient ghc-8.6.5 binary which never worked very well and has always segfaulted part of the time. Unfortunately of late something in newer Linux kernels, or maybe glibcs, or maybe something else is causing it to segfault 100% of the time for me. Sadly this means we can no longer build GHC on nixpkgs. IMHO, long term it just isn't sustainable for us to support compilers that don't have either a bootstrap path from C/C++ or else a solid self-cross-compilation-from-x86 bootstrap path. I think we need to wait for GHC to get the latter. Also, recently people have been spraying ShellCheck far and wide with wild abandon, which means that deliberately breaking GHC on powerpc64le is the most straighforward way to get nixpkgs to skip these ShellChecks (which of course need GHC). So... this commit actually is necessary now in order to build the NixOS installer.
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Sounds reasonable, I don’t have any stake in powerpc. I need a clarification here: Is the problem with ShellCheck that you don’t like the checks or that the tests always fail because they depend on an effectively broken ghc? |
sternenseemann
approved these changes
Jan 21, 2024
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ShellCheck is often conditionally enabled based on GHC availability. If GHC is technically available but effectively broken, it becomes a nuisance. |
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@amjoseph-nixpkgs If we abandon this bootstrap path, we should also remove all the powerpc64le special casing from |
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Description of changes
The first step of bootstrapping ghc on powerpc64le uses an ancient ghc-8.6.5 binary which never worked very well and has always segfaulted part of the time. Unfortunately of late something in newer Linux kernels, or maybe glibcs, or maybe something else is causing it to segfault 100% of the time for me.
Sadly this means we can no longer build GHC on nixpkgs. IMHO, long term it just isn't sustainable for us to support compilers that don't have either a bootstrap path from C/C++ or else a solid self-cross-compilation-from-x86 bootstrap path. I think we need to wait for GHC to get the latter.
Also, recently people have been spraying ShellCheck far and wide with wild abandon, which means that deliberately breaking GHC ond powerpc64le is the most straighforward way to get nixpkgs to skip these ShellChecks (which of course need GHC).
So... this commit actually is necessary now in order to build the NixOS installer.
Things done
nix.conf? (See Nix manual)sandbox = relaxedsandbox = truenix-shell -p nixpkgs-review --run "nixpkgs-review rev HEAD". Note: all changes have to be committed, also see nixpkgs-review usage./result/bin/)Add a 👍 reaction to pull requests you find important.