[LLVMdev] Removal of IA-64 target

[Marcel Moolenaar]

On Jul 16, 2009, at 1:38 PM, Dan Gohman wrote:

> Hello,
>
> LLVM's IA-64 target has not been maintained for a few years, and it is
> currently unable to compile many simple testcases. I'm planning to
> remove it from the tree soon, unless someone objects.

Ouch.

The FreeBSD project is putting serious effort in getting the
OS to compile with LLVM with a future possibility to make it
the default compiler. I'm maintaining FreeBSD/ia64 and while
I was aware that the LLVM/ia64 target had bitrotted, I hoped
to find time to work on that.

I'm still interested in getting it up to par, but know that
it's also a lot of work and maintaining FreeBSD/ia64 already
eats its share of resources. As such, I'm not at all in the
position to object to the removal -- LLVM wasn't built with
(false) promises or (good) intentions.

However ... (didn't we see that coming from afar :-)

What I'll do right now is update, built and run tests. LLVM
built on FreeBSD/ia64 last week, so that much I know. I'll
look into the test results to see how bad it is. In the mean
time I hope that there's a way for me to put my money where
my mouth is and come to some arrangement along the lines of:
test X and Y through Z needs to pass before <event/date> or
else... *axed*

Alternatively (I don't know how bad the target is and thus
how much ramp-up time I need to get anything done), keep it
in the tree for a bit longer, but disconnect it?

BTW: I don't run Linux at all, so no Linux/ia64 support.
I can see how that could be a problem for people.

Anyway: my case is a weak one and I would understand if the
target get axed without considering my email/request...

FYI,

-- 
Marcel Moolenaar
xcllnt at mac.com