[OpenPower-Firmware] Dropping Power8 in op-build

[Joel Stanley]

On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 at 05:38, Paul Menzel
<pmenzel+openpower-firmware at molgen.mpg.de> wrote:
>
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> Dear OpenPower folks,
>
>
> Am 17.06.20 um 02:34 schrieb Klaus Heinrich Kiwi:
>
> > On 1/3/2020 6:05 AM, Artem Senichev wrote:
> >> On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 10:24 PM Stewart Smith <stewart at flamingspork.com> wrote:
>
> >>      > On 1 Jan 2020, at 23:26, Joel Stanley <joel at jms.id.au> wrote:
> >>      >
> >>      > Hello openpower firmware list,
> >>      >
> >>      > I maintain the buildroot overlay used in op-build, which normally
> >>      > follows upstream releases. Buildroot 2019.05 was the last release with
> >>      > GCC 6 support and hostboot for Power8 does not build with newer
> >>      > versions of GCC, so in order to keep Power8 in the tree we've not
> >>      > moved forward for some time now.
>
> >   I think it's time for us to move forward with this.
> >
> >>     It’d probably be good to tag a final op-build before cutting p8
> >> off, as there are platforms still used and maintained (vesnin).
> >>
> >> I would suggest to create a P8 branch in op-build, like it has been
> >> done for OCC and hostboot.
> >> Actually, we don't have any significant plans for P8, but as long as I
> >> have to support our VESNIN platform I can also maintain this branch by
> >> merging critical fixes from Skiboot, petitboot etc.
> >>
> >>     I have a PR up for cutting out p8 that’s sat idle for months.
> >
> > I tried to collect the meaningful PRs below (in a somewhat reverse
> > chronological order), but it's looking like
> > always converge towards not being able to keep Hostboot, OCC up-to-date
> > with newer compilers.
> >
> > P8 build fixes for modern GCC - https://github.com/open-power/hostboot/pull/193
> > P8 build fixes for modern GCC - https://github.com/open-power/occ/pull/28
>
> Thank you for collecting the merge/pull requests.
>
> It looks like they are held up due to failing in IBM internal build
> environment. Can that internal environment be integrated into the public
> CI infrastructure?

If the reason we can't merge is internal CI fails to build, won't that
same internal CI fail to build if we remove Power8 from the tree and
update to the newer compilers?

I can't see the downside to merging these patches in. There's no
guarantee of support or testing, but it allows folks like Paul to
still build from master, and take advantage of updates to skiboot,
buildroot and Linux.

> > My proposal here is to remove all Power8 support from master op-build,
> > and if someone is still interested in
> > maintaining a Power8 branch, we have op-build-2.5.y or other older
> > branches available for that (patches welcome),
> > or one could fork and maintain their own tree (I'd be happy to point to
> > it in our official documentation).
>
> As patches are available, it’d be great to keep POWER8 in master. No
> idea, how to solve the issue with the internal build tools conflict.