[llvm-dev] Python build dependency in LLVM and/or clang?

[Tim Northover via llvm-dev]

On Thu, 11 Jul 2019 at 21:44, Joerg Sonnenberger via llvm-dev
<llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
> That's what I said. The cmake based build system needs it. LIT is
> optional. It is entirely feasible to have a custom build system and no
> Python at all. It would be quite painful to break that.

To be explicit (and correct me if I misstate facts), NetBSD wants to
build Clang with minimal dependencies because it's the system
compiler. And so it completely replaces our build system with
something not far removed from a hard-coded set of build steps to
eliminate CMake/make/ninja (maybe you allow make?). Tests are not run
(at that stage?) since they do always require Python.

To be frank, I do not think we should compromise LLVM to support this
system. It's just not a realistic thing to impose on an external
project: NetBSD's footprint constraints are its choice, and it should
bear the burden of supporting them.

Personally, I support adding Python as a build dependency. Though I'd
be interested in seeing responses to Mehdi's comments.

Cheers.

Tim.