Re: OCaml bootstrap

[Julien Lepiller]

We had some discussion here, but there's still some work to do: 
https://github.com/Ekdohibs/camlboot/issues/59

Le 3 mai 2023 23:15:49 GMT+02:00, "Ludovic Courtès" <ludo@gnu.org> a écrit :
>Hello,
>
>Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> skribis:
>
>> Well, 4.07 is the version that is de-bootstrapped, i.e. bootstrapped
>> using ’camlboot’ via Guile – for details see [2].
>>
>> However, higher versions (4.09, 4.14, 5) does not use this seed and thus
>> they are not de-bootstrapped.  Well, I do not know the status upstream;
>> from my point of view, we have two options:
>>
>>  a) Agree with other distros and OCaml folks to rely on a common OCaml
>>  4.07 bootstrapped using camlboot and then use this OCaml 4.07 as the
>>  seed for the subsequent versions.  Somehow having a way to verify the
>>  current OCaml compiler without running again and again via camlboot.
>>
>>  b) Build ourselves a chain from 4.07 bootstrapped with camlboot to
>>  modern OCaml compilers.  However, each time we modify one dependency of
>>  camlboot, it means rebuild the complete chain.  Well, bootstrapping via
>>  camlboot can be very slow and I do not know if we have the resources
>>  for non-x86_64 architecture.  Here, the list of the emerged
>>  dependencies:
>
>Julien, do you happen to know if there are plans to make camlboot more
>capable so it can be used to build newer versions of OCaml?  Maybe
>something to discuss with Nathanaëlle Courant and Gabriel Scherer?
>
>Ludo’.