Subject: Can we trim the fat from gcc3, please?
To: None <tech-pkg@netbsd.org>
From: Frederick Bruckman <fredb@immanent.net>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 06/15/2003 09:44:08
I propose to strip down lang/gcc3 to just the stuff that we need,
namely, C and C++. The java libraries are huge. They're raising the
bar unnecessarily in regards to what hosts can build and use this
package. The bloat has at least three bad effects I can think of:

1) It hampers the cause of testing gcc-3.3 in advance of it being
committed to the base NetBSD sources. I've built dozens of packages
with it lately, and so far the only new problems are obviously errors
in the package's code, which I've fixed. I'd like to see more people
doing that.

2) It makes it hard to test and troubleshoot the "gcc3" package
itself.

3) We're requiring "gcc" or "gcc3" for a few packages already -- for
the C and C++ front-ends. No package currently uses the other
capabilities, so their addition is simply a burden on end users of
pkgsrc, who have no particular interest in exercising all of "gcc-3*".

I posted a patch in PR pkg/21848. If folks are already relying on
gcc3's "gcj", I suppose I could make another package for them,
although I'd really rather someone else did that. It actually looks to
be fairly trivial to clone the package with a different "--with-lang".
The only hard part will be making sure certain files (such as
"libiberty.a") don't conflict, and of course, finding a host that can
actually build it, and a day or two to do so.

Comments?

Frederick