Bootstrapping with HC files

[Donald Bruce Stewart]

duncan.coutts:
> On Mon, 2005-12-12 at 18:20 +0000, Andrew Walrond wrote:
> > I run a source based linux distro called Heretix, and I want to make a ghc 
> > package which will install with or without an existing ghc. At the moment, we 
> > supply a binary-ghc package, whch is a prerequisite of the from-source ghc 
> > package.
> 
> When we first added ghc to gentoo we considered doing an hc build but
> decided against it in the end. We now just do what you currently do,
> that is provide a binary package as a dependency of the source package.
> 
> The ghc build system doesn't easily support hc builds and my impression

I wouldn't say that was true.

> is that it would take quite a bit of effort on the part of the ghc
> developers to improve the support for that kind of build. Given that it
> is quite a bit of work and there are simple workarounds (ie use a binary
> package) it has not been a high priority.

No, .hc builds just work. They've been built nightly for amd64,x86 and
sparc openbsd for a couple of years now.

> Changing the build system tends to be the kind of task that can only be
> done by core developers and it is these developers whose time is most
> valuably spent on other tasks.
> 
> So I think you're unlikely to get the changes you're looking for. My
> advice is to just stick to the binary bootstrap method.

You won't have to hack the build system ;)

-- Don