New bootstrap FPC 2.6.4 for Windows?? Where?

[rvk]

Since Trunk version 31410 the minimum requirement to compile FPC is version 2.6.4 (according to the Makefile).

But in ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/pub/fpc/dist/2.6.4/bootstrap/ there are no Windows-version of FPC 2.6.4.
In ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/pub/fpc/dist/2.6.2/bootstrap/ there is but that's version 2.6.2 which doesn't compile FPC anymore.

Why was this requirement increased without providing a proper bootstrap FPC 2.6.4?

Makefile:2856: *** The only supported starting compiler version is 2.6.4. You are trying to build with 2.6.2..  Stop.

Edit:
Changing the REQUIREDVERSION back to 2.6.2 in the Makefile seems to work:

Code: [Select]

REQUIREDVERSION=2.6.2(but of course I don't want to do that every time I check out a trunk version)

[Jonas Maebe]

The only supported way to bootstrap FPC always has been and always will be based on a complete installation of the previous official release. The bootstrap compilers are sometimes uploaded for certain source-centric packagers, but they are 100% unsupported and you should not use them.

If it were up to me, all of these bootstrap compilers would be removed from the ftp site, because using them instead of a full installation can lead under some circumstances to hard to diagnose problems if you don't know the details of the FPC build process.

[rvk]

How is fpcup going to deal with that?

Download a complete installation, unpack the FPC and use that to recompile the just downloaded Lazarus.exe?

Every script which builds from scratch (i.e. without previous installed trunk version) uses the bootstrap version. So I'm wondering what's going to happen to that. I will save my own ppc386.exe for now but this is definitely not an easy/correct way to get users to use the trunk/development version.

[Jonas Maebe]

fpcup should require that you have the latest official FPC release already installed (or possibly install it by itself). You don't have to redownload and reinstall the latest release all the time, it doesn't change that often. You can also keep multiple versions of FPC installed side by side, so I don't see how this makes things more difficult versus a bootstrap binary.

[rvk]

I'm not sure if fpcup searches for existing fpc-installations at the moment... but okay...

Let's see how many questions we get about that the coming days

[jacobb]

I think fpcup is meant to automate things for you. If you have an older version of fpc and it detects you need a newer version or it is entirely missing then it will download whatever is still needed. Imho that's a lot more useful than printing a message that you need to update your installed fpc.

Besides that, why is there a bootstrap folder at all then. If this is not supposed to be done then there should not be bootstrap compilers available for other targets either.

[Jonas Maebe]

I think fpcup is meant to automate things for you. If you have an older version of fpc and it detects you need a newer version or it is entirely missing then it will download whatever is still needed. Imho that's a lot more useful than printing a message that you need to update your installed fpc.

It could also download an execute the installer of the latest release.

Besides that, why is there a bootstrap folder at all then. If this is not supposed to be done then there should not be bootstrap compilers available for other targets either.

As I said earlier "If it were up to me, all of these bootstrap compilers would be removed from the ftp site". But it's not just up to me.

[jacobb]

Besides that, why is there a bootstrap folder at all then. If this is not supposed to be done then there should not be bootstrap compilers available for other targets either.

As I said earlier "If it were up to me, all of these bootstrap compilers would be removed from the ftp site". But it's not just up to me.

Then as long as there is no consensus I think all targets should be treated equal and thus be available for download.

[marcov]

The bootstrap compilers are sometimes uploaded for certain source-centric packagers, but they are 100% unsupported and you should not use them.

(to be exact: it started with the FreeBSD ports tree)

If it were up to me, all of these bootstrap compilers would be removed from the ftp site, because using them instead of a full installation can lead under some circumstances to hard to diagnose problems if you don't know the details of the FPC build process.

I'm not sure the complaints won't go away if you remove the bootstrap compiler. The constant demand for something was the reason to add them for the public in the first place.

IMHO continue and keep making clear it is meant for intermediate or expert level.

[Jonas Maebe]

The official policy, on which there is consensus, is that bootstrapping is only supported starting from a full installation of the latest release.

Everything extra is up to individual initiative, as is usually the case with open source projects..

[DonAlfredo]

FPCUP uses the supplied bootstrap compilers from ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/pub/fpc
Naturally, this does not work anymore.

We have to think of something else to get things working !

[rvk]

So, there is no known maintainer who uploaded the other bootstraps and the Windows one for 2.6.2?

That really inspires confidence in the whole Lazarus project

(For now I use my own ppc386.exe 2.6.4 zipped which I download from my own server in my script instead of the one provided by the fpc server)

[marcov]

So, there is no known maintainer who uploaded the other bootstraps and the Windows one for 2.6.2?

Uploading the bootstrap compilers is a job of the platform maintainer. Sometimes somebody fixes it for missing targets.

That really inspires confidence in the whole Lazarus project

So you are volunteering for release engineering? Cool!

[rvk]

So, there is no known maintainer who uploaded the other bootstraps and the Windows one for 2.6.2?

Uploading the bootstrap compilers is a job of the platform maintainer. Sometimes somebody fixes it for missing targets.

That really inspires confidence in the whole Lazarus project

So you are volunteering for release engineering? Cool!

No problem for me uploading the zip of the released ppc386.exe 2.6.4 (just need access). I just thought it would have been done simultaneously with the normal releases.

[rvk]

The only supported way to bootstrap FPC always has been and always will be based on a complete installation of the previous official release.

Where can I download the official release of FPC 2.6.4 for x86_64 (64bit) ???

Or do I need to first install FPC 2.6.4 32bit and then the cross-compiler for 64bit? Could the ppcrossx64.exe be used to compile FPC trunk 64bit? It's smaller than the ppcx64.exe which is released with Lazarus 1.4.2 64bit.

Or do I need to install complete Lazarus 64 bit to compile FPC trunk 64bit ?? (even in cases where Lazarus is not needed)