Porting to powerpc-linux

Simon Marlow fldrsimonmar@microsoft.com
Tue, 10 Oct 2000 03:15:49 -0700


> I'm considering taking some effort to port GHC to powerpc 
> linux.  The task
> seems moderately doable, given that GHC once ran on the powerpc
> architecture.

Cool! :)

> I guess as a good first question: should I start with 4.08.1, 
> or should I
> venture off with the CVS tree.  The driver in CVS seems to have been
> written in Haskell, and it seems to be needed to build the 
> runtime.  This
> sounds like it would preclude building from .hc files.

I would start from 4.08.1, for exactly that reason.  We haven't tackled the
issue of bootstrapping with the Haskell driver.  The plan was to use a
handwritten Makefile to build an unregisterised driver from .hc sources
using plain gcc, but this isn't done yet.  Furthermore, we're about to merge
the driver with the compiler proper as part of the GHCi reorganisation, so
things are going to be broken for a while...

> I've got my x86 linux box ready to build some unregistered .hc files.

You'll need two build trees.  In the first tree, build the compiler as
normal, and the libraries/RTS with -unreg -keep-hc-files-too.  You should be
able to use these .hc files to try out some simple programs on the PPC.

In the second tree, bootstrap the compiler using the compiler from the first
tree with -unreg -keep-hc-files-too.  Take these .hc files to the PPC and
bootstrap them there.

Cheers,
	Simon

PS. there may be some difficulties with the -unreg flag: it actually
specifies way 'u', so you may get .u_hc files instead of .hc files.  It
might be a better idea to expand -unreg into its component parts:

	-optc-DNO_REGS -optc-DUSE_MINIINTERPRETER -fno-asm-mangling
	-funregisterised -fvia-C