Re: My IXP425 binutils/gcc/glibc patches

[Lennert Buytenhek <buytenh at wantstofly dot org>]

On Wed, Jan 19, 2005 at 10:51:34AM -0500, Christopher Faylor wrote:

> >> I'm going to submit the following patches to mainstream
> >> binutils/gcc/glibc, any comments?
> >
> >None other than wishing you the best of luck trying to reach any
> >of the gcc people.
> >
> >This one has been in bugzilla for half a year (originally made for
> >a big-endian IXP2400):
> >
> >	http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=16350
> 
> Since the gcc people are very busy, you sometimes have to resubmit
> patches several times before they are considered.

I don't like this approach very much myself -- if they are so busy
already, me bugging them about my big endian ARM-specific annoyance (I
can't really call it a problem) that 99.99% of the gcc community doesn't
care about isn't going to help the overall scalability of the project.


> If this patch is languishing, then a patch ping to gcc-patches with the
> above reference is certainly appropriate.

Since the 3.4 branch is in "regression fixes only"-mode, they'll most
likely tell me that it won't go into 3.4 because it's not a regression.

So yeah, I can then go and prepare a patch for gcc 4 and submit another
bug report, but then:
- The report will rot for a year and then I'll be told that it's not a
  regression so they won't fix it in the 4.0 branch.  (And the same thing
  for 4.1, etc.)
- Since not many people use gcc 4 yet, once 4.0.0 comes out there'll
  most likely a set of other bugs preventing it from working properly
  out-of-the-box on the ARM anyway, which will sort of negate the "I
  want this patch in mainline because then the next release of gcc will
  work properly out of the box on my platform"-idea behind submitting
  any patches in the first place.

Sorry for being somewhat acerbic about the whole gcc thing, but no thanks.
Until they apply it I'll just keep applying it by hand myself with each new
release -- less work for all of us.


cheers,
Lennert

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