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xuanrui

Member

Registered: 2018-09-27

Posts: 52

Packaging software depending on really old version of LLVM

I have recently taken charge of the smlsharp package. It builds pretty well, but the only issue is that it depends on (a very small set of functionality provided by) LLVM 3.7.1. Now, I am not sure how to deal with this obsolete dependency:

1. package LLVM 3.7 into llvm37, like llvm35 and llvm39, and declare a conflict with llvm
2. package LLVM 3.7 into llvm37, like llvm33, installing into /opt instead of /usr, and don't declare a conflict with llvm
3. add the source of LLVM 3.7 into my source array and compile & install only what I need.

I'm thinking that is 2 probably the most sensible thing to do for my case. What is actually preferred then?

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,438

Website

Re: Packaging software depending on really old version of LLVM

Just my 2 cents: I agree 2 sounds best, but 3 seems like a reasonable alternative, 1 would almost certainly cause problems as users may want/need an up-to-date LLVM for other purposes.

Last edited by Trilby (2018-12-27 14:29:06)

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: Packaging software depending on really old version of LLVM

4. Get upstream to fix their project so that it builds with a modern compiler

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No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
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eschwartz

Fellow

Registered: 2014-08-08

Posts: 4,097

Re: Packaging software depending on really old version of LLVM

5) Build an llvm37 package that can be coinstalled into /usr/lib just like the [extra] packages llvm-libs and llvm6-libs can be coinstalled... and then get upstream to fix their stuff so it builds with a modern code generator.

Last edited by eschwartz (2018-12-27 15:53:35)

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xuanrui

Member

Registered: 2018-09-27

Posts: 52

Re: Packaging software depending on really old version of LLVM

4. Get upstream to fix their project so that it builds with a modern compiler

I am 120% sure that upstream won't fix - the package I'm maintaining is a research compiler (which happens to be actually useful), and upstream is likely not going to spend time on updating their dependencies, because they don't have time. So, we're kind of stuck with LLVM 3.7.1.