[llvm-dev] [cfe-dev] Fwd: Raising CMake minimum version to 3.4.3

[Renato Golin via llvm-dev]

On 27 April 2016 at 15:28, Florent Castelli <florent.castelli at gmail.com> wrote:
> If you want to build a bleeding edge compiler on a system from 2002, you may have bigger issues
> than trying to run CMake.

If you're cross compiling, you have less of a choice over what's on
the target and host.


> Maintenance burden.
> Few people will understand why there’s 2 code paths in the build script and will duplicate the wrong
> one when creating a new module and looking for “inspiration".

That would be quickly caught by buildbots. We deal with that issue already.

To be clear, I'm not against moving the version up, I just want to
make sure that people understand that this is not *just* a version
upgrade, but a development philosophy move for all Linux developers
and production environments (of which we have plenty). This move was
proposed before and was rejected for the reasons I pointed out:
maintenance.

Once we go the path of accepting compiled versions of CMake, then
anyone will be able to add any feature and put the maintenance burden
on who had nothing to do with it, ie, production environment
maintainers. Having a cap on CMake/Ninja has the great advantage that
production environments will remain stable for as long as possible and
I can plan my migrations.

So far, the argument for a new CMake is that it's "nicer", not that it
has a feature that we cannot go without, and that's not strong enough,
especially when against increased production environment maintenance
cost.

--renato