GNAT 3.13p build for Solaris 8_x86

GNAT 3.13p build for Solaris 8_x86

[Andreas Almroth]

Hi all,

I apologise, for this semi-related topic to the language itself.

I have been using GNAT 3.12p on my laptop with Solaris 8 now for a
while, and  I have been wondering about why there is no 3.13p for
Solaris 8_x86 around?

OK, if you have the time, you could compile 3.13p from 3.12p level,
which is exactly what I have done now... Everything seems to work so
far... It is not verified/certified in any way, but it works for me...

Having looked at how the binary distribution for 3.12p works, I'm now
wondering, if I now have it working on my system, why couldn't I
package a 3.13p binary distribution?

Well, it leads to three major questions of my concern;
1. Will I get in trouble doing so? It is after all FSF copyrighted, so
I should be able to do so, or? What are the legal implications?
2. I couldn't find out who made the 3.12p package available, so I now
wondering what are the procedures/tools to use in order to package
3.13p in the same manner as 3.12p?
3. If, I at all succeed in creating a package, who should I contact
for actually making it available?

I know this may seem as a minor thing, but wouldn't be nice to have a
binary distribution of 3.13p on Solaris 8_x86 available for public?
I'm sure there is one for contract customers...

Well, if you have a split second, I would appreciate if you enlighten
me on this topic...

Regards,
Andreas

Re: GNAT 3.13p build for Solaris 8_x86

[Robert Dewar]

almroth@attglobal.net (Andreas Almroth) wrote in message news:<e19796c6.0107110722.24186f28@posting.google.com>...

> I have been using GNAT 3.12p on my laptop with Solaris 8 now for a
> while, and  I have been wondering about why there is no 3.13p for
> Solaris 8_x86 around?

Because no one built one ...
 
> OK, if you have the time, you could compile 3.13p from 3.12p level,
> which is exactly what I have done now... Everything seems to work so
> far... It is not verified/certified in any way, but it works for 
> me...

OK, good work, it's really not that hard! And for the public version
it really does not matter that it is not validated (indeed none of
the public versions of GNAT are validated).

> Having looked at how the binary distribution for 3.12p works, I'm now
> wondering, if I now have it working on my system, why couldn't I
> package a 3.13p binary distribution?

Of course you can distribute it, that's what the GPL says, and moreover
you are very much encouraged to do so. 

> Well, it leads to three major questions of my concern;
> 1. Will I get in trouble doing so? It is after all FSF copyrighted, 
> so I should be able to do so, or? What are the legal implications?

The GPL permits you to make this available, providing you also make
the sources available, or point to where you got them from.

> 2. I couldn't find out who made the 3.12p package available, so I now
> wondering what are the procedures/tools to use in order to package
> 3.13p in the same manner as 3.12p?

It is up to you how you package it, no one is requiring anything
specific here.

> 3. If, I at all succeed in creating a package, who should I contact
> for actually making it available?

I am sure the Ada mirror sites would be happy to pick this up, you
could start by contacting Dave Botton at adapower. If you tell this
group where to pick the version you have built up, I am sure that
the distribution will take care of it.

> I know this may seem as a minor thing, but wouldn't be nice to have a
> binary distribution of 3.13p on Solaris 8_x86 available for public?

Most certainly, and the availability of such versions depends on
volunteers like you who take the effort to do the builds. I am sure
that others interested in a publically available version of the 
Solaris x86 GNAT will appreciate your work.
 
> Well, if you have a split second, I would appreciate if you enlighten
> me on this topic...

I trust you are enlightened :-)

Robert Dewar
Ada Core Technologies

Re: GNAT 3.13p build for Solaris 8_x86

[Andreas Almroth]

Hi all again!

Well, said and done... I have now compiled a binary package of
GNAT 3.13p for Solaris 8_x86. It is distributed in the standard
pkg format (that is, use pkgadd). It installs in /opt/AAgnat313p,
in order to not disturb any other GCC/GNAT related software in
/usr/local.

I have made it available on my home page http://pws.prserv.net/almroth.
Look at the Software page (http://pws.prserv.net/almroth/software.html).

Taken the limited space I have, I would appreciate if someone could
transfer the file to a public Ada FTP resource, so that I can remove
it from my web space.

Well, I hope you will have use for the package... I sure have now...

And Robert, thanks for the enlightning response! :)

Cheers,
Andreas


dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar) wrote in message news:<5ee5b646.0107111915.222cebe2@posting.google.com>...
> almroth@attglobal.net (Andreas Almroth) wrote in message news:<e19796c6.0107110722.24186f28@posting.google.com>...
> 
> > I have been using GNAT 3.12p on my laptop with Solaris 8 now for a
> > while, and  I have been wondering about why there is no 3.13p for
> > Solaris 8_x86 around?
> 
> Because no one built one ...
>  
> > OK, if you have the time, you could compile 3.13p from 3.12p level,
> > which is exactly what I have done now... Everything seems to work so
> > far... It is not verified/certified in any way, but it works for 
> > me...
> 
> OK, good work, it's really not that hard! And for the public version
> it really does not matter that it is not validated (indeed none of
> the public versions of GNAT are validated).
> 
> > Having looked at how the binary distribution for 3.12p works, I'm now
> > wondering, if I now have it working on my system, why couldn't I
> > package a 3.13p binary distribution?
> 
> Of course you can distribute it, that's what the GPL says, and moreover
> you are very much encouraged to do so. 
> 
> > Well, it leads to three major questions of my concern;
> > 1. Will I get in trouble doing so? It is after all FSF copyrighted, 
> > so I should be able to do so, or? What are the legal implications?
> 
> The GPL permits you to make this available, providing you also make
> the sources available, or point to where you got them from.
> 
> > 2. I couldn't find out who made the 3.12p package available, so I now
> > wondering what are the procedures/tools to use in order to package
> > 3.13p in the same manner as 3.12p?
> 
> It is up to you how you package it, no one is requiring anything
> specific here.
> 
> > 3. If, I at all succeed in creating a package, who should I contact
> > for actually making it available?
> 
> I am sure the Ada mirror sites would be happy to pick this up, you
> could start by contacting Dave Botton at adapower. If you tell this
> group where to pick the version you have built up, I am sure that
> the distribution will take care of it.
> 
> > I know this may seem as a minor thing, but wouldn't be nice to have a
> > binary distribution of 3.13p on Solaris 8_x86 available for public?
> 
> Most certainly, and the availability of such versions depends on
> volunteers like you who take the effort to do the builds. I am sure
> that others interested in a publically available version of the 
> Solaris x86 GNAT will appreciate your work.
>  
> > Well, if you have a split second, I would appreciate if you enlighten
> > me on this topic...
> 
> I trust you are enlightened :-)
> 
> Robert Dewar
> Ada Core Technologies

Re: GNAT 3.13p build for Solaris 8_x86

[Larry Kilgallen]

In article <5ee5b646.0107111915.222cebe2@posting.google.com>, dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar) writes:
> almroth@attglobal.net (Andreas Almroth) wrote in message news:<e19796c6.0107110722.24186f28@posting.google.com>...

>> OK, if you have the time, you could compile 3.13p from 3.12p level,
>> which is exactly what I have done now... Everything seems to work so
>> far... It is not verified/certified in any way, but it works for 
>> me...
> 
> OK, good work, it's really not that hard! And for the public version
> it really does not matter that it is not validated (indeed none of
> the public versions of GNAT are validated).

I was under the impression that the validation tests are available to
all.  If you were to run the tests yourself, some people might not be
satisfied they were not run by the official testing site ($10,000 a
pop ?).  But presumable other people, including especially _you_ would
be satisfied.

Re: GNAT 3.13p build for Solaris 8_x86

[Andreas Almroth]

Kilgallen@eisner.decus.org.nospam (Larry Kilgallen) wrote in message news:<pffjeWzAZDhz@eisner.encompasserve.org>...
> In article <5ee5b646.0107111915.222cebe2@posting.google.com>, dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar) writes:
> > almroth@attglobal.net (Andreas Almroth) wrote in message news:<e19796c6.0107110722.24186f28@posting.google.com>...
>  
> >> OK, if you have the time, you could compile 3.13p from 3.12p level,
> >> which is exactly what I have done now... Everything seems to work so
> >> far... It is not verified/certified in any way, but it works for 
> >> me...
> > 
> > OK, good work, it's really not that hard! And for the public version
> > it really does not matter that it is not validated (indeed none of
> > the public versions of GNAT are validated).
> 
> I was under the impression that the validation tests are available to
> all.  If you were to run the tests yourself, some people might not be
> satisfied they were not run by the official testing site ($10,000 a
> pop ?).  But presumable other people, including especially _you_ would
> be satisfied.

Well, they are available for everyone interested at;
http:/adaic.org/compilers/testing.html

But I have found that they are using another naming convention for
source files, than GNAT usually use. I'm sure there is a toolset for
converting it to GNAT naming convention. It is probably easily done
with a simple perl script that reads the package declaration, and then
renames the file accordingly.

Anyway, I don't think I'm really up for this one. A bit too heavy for
a normal programmer... Would be fun though, even though the results
would never count...

If anyone else have done this for GNAT before, that is, having the
ACVC 2.3 ready for GNAT, then I would be more than happy to run it on
my laptop, just for the fun of it...

Meanwhile, I think I will continue on my original work, now that I
have 3.13p working... :)

Cheers,
Andreas

Re: GNAT 3.13p build for Solaris 8_x86

[Randy Brukardt]

>Well, they are available for everyone interested at;
>http:/adaic.org/compilers/testing.html
>
>But I have found that they are using another naming convention for
>source files, than GNAT usually use. I'm sure there is a toolset for
>converting it to GNAT naming convention. It is probably easily done
>with a simple perl script that reads the package declaration, and then
>renames the file accordingly.
>
>Anyway, I don't think I'm really up for this one. A bit too heavy for
>a normal programmer... Would be fun though, even though the results
>would never count...


Recent conformity assessment (validation) test reports include a sample
script showing how they were run. So, all you need do is look up an
appropriate test report for GNAT and reproduce that. You can find the
test reports at www.adaic.org/compiler/acat/reports

>If anyone else have done this for GNAT before, that is, having the
>ACVC 2.3 ready for GNAT, then I would be more than happy to run it on
>my laptop, just for the fun of it...


BTW, ACATS 2.3 was replaced by ACATS 2.4 on April 1. Get it at
www.ada-auth.org/acats. The adaic.org is getting a through overhaul, and
the old one isn't being updated.

>Meanwhile, I think I will continue on my original work, now that I
>have 3.13p working... :)


            Randy Brukardt
            ACAA Technical Agent

Re: GNAT 3.13p build for Solaris 8_x86

[Robert Dewar]

"Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com> wrote in message news:<WVo37.44$Cp1.1778@client>...
> Recent conformity assessment (validation) test reports include a
> sample script showing how they were run. So, all you need do is look 
> up an appropriate test report for GNAT and reproduce that. You can 
> find the test reports at www.adaic.org/compiler/acat/reports

Well it's not quite so easy, in particular, running and evaluating
the B tests and the L tests is quite complex.

Re: GNAT 3.13p build for Solaris 8_x86

[Randy Brukardt]

Robert Dewar wrote in message
<5ee5b646.0107121644.eb04f71@posting.google.com>...
>"Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com> wrote in message
news:<WVo37.44$Cp1.1778@client>...
>> Recent conformity assessment (validation) test reports include a
>> sample script showing how they were run. So, all you need do is look
>> up an appropriate test report for GNAT and reproduce that. You can
>> find the test reports at www.adaic.org/compiler/acat/reports
>
>Well it's not quite so easy, in particular, running and evaluating
>the B tests and the L tests is quite complex.

True enough. Running isn't usually a problem, but figuring out whether
they pass or not is extremely time-consuming (even for compiler
vendors). But most of the value of the ACATS is in the C-Tests,
especially when you're starting with a compiler for which it is known
that for some version the B-Tests pass. I can see end-users usefully
running C-Tests, and that is what I'm trying to encourage. In the case
in question, insuring that all of the C-Tests pass would go a long way
toward verifying his build is correct.

            Randy Brukardt

Re: GNAT 3.13p build for Solaris 8_x86

[Laurent Guerby]

"Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com> writes:
> True enough. Running isn't usually a problem, but figuring out whether
> they pass or not is extremely time-consuming (even for compiler
> vendors). But most of the value of the ACATS is in the C-Tests,
> especially when you're starting with a compiler for which it is known
> that for some version the B-Tests pass. I can see end-users usefully
> running C-Tests, and that is what I'm trying to encourage. In the case
> in question, insuring that all of the C-Tests pass would go a long way
> toward verifying his build is correct.

When GNAT gets commited into the GCC CVS repository, the ACATS C tests
will be put in too (I haven't got the FSF lawyer response on the
license yet) and the regular GCC "make check" will run them. I hope
this will help people porting GNAT to check their work.

-- 
Laurent Guerby <guerby@acm.org>

Re: GNAT 3.13p build for Solaris 8_x86

[tmoran]

> But I have found that they are using another naming convention for
> source files, than GNAT usually use. I'm sure there is a toolset for
> converting it to GNAT naming convention. It is probably easily done
> with a simple perl script that reads the package declaration, and then
> renames the file accordingly.
  Even more easily done with the gnatchop utility that comes with GNAT.

Re: GNAT 3.13p build for Solaris 8_x86

[Robert Dewar]

Kilgallen@eisner.decus.org.nospam (Larry Kilgallen) wrote in message news:<pffjeWzAZDhz@eisner.encompasserve.org>...
> I was under the impression that the validation tests are available to
> all.  If you were to run the tests yourself, some people might not be
> satisfied they were not run by the official testing site ($10,000 a
> pop ?).  But presumable other people, including especially _you_ 
> would be satisfied.


And even if they were run by the official testing site, this would
not make the compiler validated, since to have an officially validated
compiler, you have to have some kind of formal guarantee that the
compiler you are using is the one that was validated, which typically
requires a formal commercial contract of some kind.

But indeed it is useful to run the tests informally, and that is
certainly possible, since the test suite is indeed freely available.
However, it is far from trivial to setup this test suite (we have
probably invested in aggregate 6-12 person months setting up our
testing environment, but that environment is much more complex than
is required for this kind of use.

I think it is still asking a lot for someone to try to set this up
on their own (certainly running the validation tests is a much harder
task than building GNAT from sources).

One positive thing here is that Laurent Guerby has volunteered to setup
a suitable test environment for GNAT version 5.00p (that will be the
designation of the GNAT sources that are placed at the GNU site that
are compatible with GCC 3.x). This test environment will include the
ACVC tests, as well as a set of tests that we at ACT have generated for
testing GNAT specific features (the main test suites we use, the
DEC test suite, and the much more extensive ACT suite, are not
distributable, since they contain proprietary customer code in both
cases).

Robert Dewar
Ada Core Technologies