The State of Rust in MacPorts Today

Tue Dec 13 21:27:04 UTC 2022

Is it possible to build recent versions directly with rust-1.54?  For
example, mrustc -> rust 1.54 -> rust 1.65?

On Tue, Dec 13, 2022 at 12:07 PM Kirill A. Korinsky via macports-dev <
macports-dev at lists.macports.org> wrote:

> David,
>
> the idea is creating a dependency chain:
>
> Port rust (version 1.66) depends on rust-1.65 to be build;
> Port rust-1.65 depends on rust-1.64 to be build;
> Port rust-1.64 depends on rust-1.63 to be build;
> ...
> Port rust-1.56 depends on rust-1.55 to be build;
> Port rust-1.55 depends on rust-1.54 to be build;
> Port rust-1.54 depends on mrsutc to be build.
>
> :)
>
> When someone would like to add rust 1.67, he need to add port rust-1.66
> which should be used as bootstrap compiler.
>
> I hate this way, but it is the only way to bootstrap it from scratch.
>
> When mrust had support new rust, we may cut the tree by removing a lot of
> unused ports.
> --
> wbr, Kirill
>
> On 13. Dec 2022, at 17:53, David Gilman <davidgilman1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The work on mrustc is novel but I don't think it solves the issues we have
> here. On modern systems MacPorts uses bootstrap compilers provided by Rust
> upstream. MCL's bootstrap compilers are for older systems.
>
> To update rust, my understanding is that you have to do the usual work of
> rebasing patches (my PR), but you also have to provide the binaries for
> older systems which I could not provide.
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 11:07 AM Kirill A. Korinsky via macports-dev <
> macports-dev at lists.macports.org> wrote:
>
>> Folks,
>>
>> From the third hand we may build our own bootstrap chain of rust from
>> scratch.
>>
>> Or almost.
>>
>> We have a https://ports.macports.org/port/mrustc/details/ which is able
>> to bootstrap 1.54 rust on x86_64 and arm64.
>>
>> Unfortunately support of i386 isn't yet finished at upstream. I plan to
>> fix it, but it requires time and availability of hardware to test it :)
>>
>> I do have a commits which implements rust bootstrap by cahin: mrustc ->
>> rust 1.54 -> rust 1.55 -> rust 1.56; I can start to open PRs to move
>> step-by-step and in month we'll have the last rust via this chain.
>> --
>> wbr, Kirill
>>
>> On 13. Dec 2022, at 16:49, Christopher Jones <jonesc at hep.phy.cam.ac.uk>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> In my opinion, hosting and maintaining these ‘bootstrap’ compilers
>> outside the macports infrastructure was a poor choice, for all the reasons
>> you mention below. I thought this at the time it was done, and even more so
>> now.
>>
>> Personally, I would suggest you think about a change to how the rust
>> compiler is package, to mirror a bit how things are done with gcc and
>> clang. Namely, move to a model where the version is part of the port name,
>> e.g. the current one would be called something like rust-1.61.
>>
>> The main reason for doing this, is adding a new version would that not
>> remove the previous version, and thus you could simple use it as the
>> bootstrap compiler. So with the above, when you add rust-1.62 that would
>> simple configure itself to bootstrap using the macports rust-1.61 port.
>>
>> Yes, this will require some work to set up. You will need to make all the
>> various rust versions installable along side each other, so some tweaking
>> of the install prefix would be needed.
>>
>> One thing I would do differently though to how gcc/clang do things is I
>> would try and have a single rust port file, that implements all the
>> versions as sub-ports. I suspect most of what each needs can then just be
>> shared , such that what needs to be different for each sub-port is actually
>> not that much.
>>
>> Regarding how users of rust then use these ports, there are a couple
>> options
>>
>> 1. Add a shim port ‘rust’ which simply installs sym-links etc. to the
>> ‘current best version’ that mimics the current installation, i.e. in the
>> main prefix. If done well, users should then be blind to the changes above.
>> 2. Users that want an older rust could explicitly depend on and use a
>> specific versioned rust-N
>>
>> For me, this approach makes a lot more sense than the current way these
>> bootstrap compilers are maintained.
>>
>> cheers Chris
>>
>> On 13 Dec 2022, at 2:57 pm, Herby G <herby.gillot at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> Right now, Rust in MacPorts is severely out of date. It's about 5
>> versions behind the current release, which at the moment is at 1.65.0. In
>> comparison, MacPorts Rust is currently at 1.61.0.
>>
>> As a core language underlying a lot of other ports, many of these ports
>> cannot be updated to their latest versions because these versions require
>> current versions of Rust. At the time of this writing, 156 ports are being
>> built using Rust ( https://ports.macports.org/port/rust/details/ ), some
>> quite heavily used by the community, including projects like `git-delta`,
>> `bat` and `fd`.
>>
>> MarcusCalhoun-Lopez's PR here (
>> https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/14277 ) heavily rewrote
>> the Rust port to run on older systems, and was very much celebrated and
>> endorsed. However, as a result of this PR, the Rust port became a lot more
>> complicated, and also introduced a new critical bootstrap compiler
>> (referenced in the Rust portgroup here:
>> https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/blob/2d39b30a32fcf0f5e1cff04f172e9d55ae08ba48/_resources/port1.0/group/rust-1.0.tcl#L140),
>> which is being hosted in MarcusCalhoun-Lopez's personal Github account (
>> https://github.com/MarcusCalhoun-Lopez/rust/releases ).  Marcus did try
>> to ask about a more official location to host the bootstrap compiler in a
>> macports-dev thread:
>> https://lists.macports.org/pipermail/macports-dev/2022-April/044243.html
>> , but ultimately per the  responses he decided to just host it in his
>> personal account himself.
>>
>> Since this massive change to the Rust port at 1.60.0, it's only seen one
>> update since then to 1.61.0 (
>> https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/commit/8431ccb48eec4824736eca51f643523356091cd6
>> )
>>
>> David Gilman opened a PR recently attempting to update Rust to 1.64.0 (
>> https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/16329 ), but Gilman
>> doesn't have access to update the bootstrap compiler, because as of right
>> now, only MarcusCalhoun-Lopez knows how to build it, and also it's hosted
>> in Calhoun's Github account as mentioned prior.
>>
>> We need to figure out a more sustainable approach for this bootstrap
>> compiler, including how it can be built, and hosting it somewhere where a
>> small set of MacPorts maintainers can build and update it so that we can
>> get MacPorts Rust back on track.  As things are today, only
>> MarcusCalhoun-Lopez has all the pieces required to update this port, and
>> there's been no word from him for months now as the Rust port has fallen
>> further and further behind. Being such a critical core language port, it
>> may make sense to create a repo within the MacPorts Github organization
>> where a set of maintainers can host and update the Rust bootstrap compiler.
>>
>>
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