Re: Fwd: GNU tools netbsd vs netbsdelf

["John Ericson" <mail%johnericson.me@localhost>]

On Thu, Jun 10, 2021, at 9:00 PM, Thomas Mueller wrote:

Are you trying to cross-compile from Linux (Nix) to NetBSD, or from NetBSD to Linux?

It looks like Linux/Nix to NetBSD.

Yes, that is what we are working on right now, but cross compilation in both ought to work. We by no means want to assume the native case is always Linux. (For example, some people have done macOS -> Windows cross compilation in the past!)

Is it possible to cross-compile/bootstrap NixOS from NetBSD?

NixOS images can be cross compiled so I would expect that to work as well once various package-specific kinks are worked out.

We want to support native Nix on NetBSD too; the plan is to cross compile tools for a native bootstrap so as not to increase our opaque trust root. Impure *BSD bootstraps relying on the tool chains people already have installed have been attempted in the past, but they always bit-rot too quickly. We think this approach will fair better.

John