[erlang-questions] Patch Package OTP 22.0.6 Released

[Mikael Pettersson]

On Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 1:55 PM Grzegorz Junka <list1@REDACTED> wrote:
>
>
> On 14/07/2019 15:48, Mikael Pettersson wrote:
> > On Fri, Jul 12, 2019 at 12:57 PM Grzegorz Junka <list1@REDACTED> wrote:
> >> On 10/07/2019 22:00, Mikael Pettersson wrote:
> >>> On Wed, Jul 10, 2019 at 6:08 PM Loïc Hoguin <essen@REDACTED> wrote:
> >>>>>      OTP-15949    Application(s): dialyzer, hipe
> >>>>>
> >>>>>                   The HiPE compiler would badly miscompile certain
> >>>>>                   try/catch expressions, so it will now refuse to compile
> >>>>>                   modules containing try or catch.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>                   As a consequence of this, dialyzer will no longer
> >>>>>                   compile key modules to native code.
> >>>> This means --enable-native-libs is now broken. Results in:
> >>>>
> >>>> hipe.erl: native-code compilation failed because of an unimplemented
> >>>> instruction (catch).
> >>>>
> >>>> That's a bit rough.
> >>>>
> >>>> Is HiPE just going to slowly rot or are there plans to revive it somehow
> >>> I had this discussion with Björn from the OTP team at the latest EUC
> >>> (er, "Code BEAM Sto").
> >>>
> >>> The issue is that the original implementers of HiPE have long since
> >>> moved on to other things
> >>> and can't spend time on it any more.  At the same time the OTP team is only able
> >>> to support things their customers care about and pay for.  HiPE isn't
> >>> one of those things.
> >>>
> >>> So it's up to the community as a whole to support HiPE, if it wants
> >>> it.  This could take the
> >>> form of one or more dedicated individuals taking on maintenance of
> >>> HiPE and fixing issues
> >>> as they are discovered.  (There's at least one such individual working
> >>> on the bit syntax
> >>> compilation issue in OTP-22 right now.)  Another solution could be for
> >>> interested parties to
> >>> fund maintenance via the Erlang Ecosystem Foundation.
> >>>
> >>> The try/catch issue is news to me, but since the bit syntax
> >>> compilation issue was known
> >>> as OTP-22.0 was released, my view is that OTP should have deprecated
> >>> HiPE at that point
> >>> with the understanding that OTP-23 would delete HiPE unless the
> >>> community stepped up
> >>> and fixed the issues.  (And by that I don't mean "silently don't
> >>> compile things we can't handle
> >>> any more".)
> >>>
> >>> /Mikael, ex-HiPE developer
> >>
> >> Mikael, would it be possible for you or someone else from the OTP team
> > Note: drop "else", I'm not in the OTP team, just a long-time contributor
> > to Erlang/OTP.
> >
> >> to provide more details about the minimal amount of work required to
> >> bring HiPE back to the working order? I am looking for things like:
> >>
> >> 1. Any test suites available for HiPE (I would expect some tests not
> >> passing due to recent changes)
> > HiPE used to maintain its own internal test suite.  The HiPE compiler
> > application in OTP includes some tests, but I have no idea how
> > complete it is; a quick look indicates it doesn't include everything
> > from the old internal test suite.  A snapshot of that test suite as of early
> > 2011 is available in <https://github.com/andysan/hipe_tests>, but there
> > are a few later additions that AFAIK are only available in a 2014 CVS
> > snapshot I have locally.
>
>
> Thanks for all the info. Is that CVS snapshot available anywhere apart
> from your local comp? Is it possible to upload it for example to Github?

Not yet, but I can fork andysan's repo and add the missing bits on my github.