Add armv6 support to lang/ocaml

[Andy Ray]

Hi,

I've been working on OCaml 4.01.0 FreeBSD armv6 support (specifically on the raspberry pi but with other targets in mind as well).

I have a small patch to enable native code compilation here; https://github.com/andrewray/mirage-fpga/releases

At the moment I am basically running from source using OPAM but it would be really nice to roll this support into ports, if possible.

Please let me know if you are interested in this and if there is anything I can do to help.

Cheers, Andy

[Michael Grünewald]

Hi Andy!

It would be great to support armv6, unfortunately I do not have access to such an architecture and will then be unable to test it by myself.

I suggest that you:

1. Clone the repository ports-bsd
2. Start a branch ocaml-4.01.0-armv6 off master
3. Add your patch in that branch.

once you are done, I will take a look at your patch, test it on amd64 and on RedPorts. Once we arrive at something satisfying, we will submit a patch.

I will also open a PR for this.

Cheers, Michael

[Andy Ray]

Great stuff. I will see what I can pull together in the next couple of days.

I'm a newbie with FreeBSD (but enjoying the experience!) so I may have a stupid question or two incoming...!

Cheers, Andy

[Michael Grünewald]

Hi Andy,

so welcome to FreeBSD! If you did not already, you really should subscribe to questions@, this mailing list is the primary source of information about our OS. If you are interesting by porting, maybe you should consider subscribing to ports@ as well and could have a look at the Porter's Handbook — while I do not think you need to read it for this patch, it is worth mentioning this excellent documentation.

We have now have a PR and I suggest that we continue discussion about this topic there, so that it is easily accessible to other FreeBSD users.

Cheers! Michael

P.S.: Do not forget to clone the repository in bitbucket, so that we can esaily share our work!

P.P.S.: Feel free to ask any question you like!

[Andy Ray]

I am trying to fork your repository in bitbucket but it seems to be private.

For example, the links in http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=188158 were working yesterday but not today.

[Michael Grünewald]

Oh you are right. I made the repository public again.

[Andy Ray]

I have a plan....I've use 'make makepatch' and got a couple of new patches for arm.S and arch/arm.ml. This is fine with the small caveat that the filenames do not seem to follow the convention you use (using '__' for directory separators).

I now need to make a couple of small changes to the configure script. This seems to be changed in two places during patching - first 'files/patch-configure' is run, then the Makefile target 'post-patch'.

In order to make my change I am assuming I need to apply 'files/patch-configure', make my changes then generate a new patch which is then to be processed by 'post-patch'?

I will then be able to start trying things out on my board - the only other possible change might be to the 'as' flags passed to the configure script in the makefile depending on what value ${ASFLAGS} takes.

[Michael Grünewald]

Your plan seems fine, but there is a small difficulty bound to the post-patch script: we do not want to have these automatic modifications in patch produced by make makepatch.

Modifications done by post-patch have two goals:

1. Genericize the compiler used, i.e. do not hardcode gcc
2. Edit installation routines to support staging.

I would suggest to rename the post-patch target to post-patch-disabled while you a re cooking your patch, you can still try to build in this setting. When you are ready to test your build, rename post-patch-disabled to post-patch and make clean install.

Have fun! :)

[Andy Ray]

Thanks. I managed much the same with some manual patching.

I have a working build and a few other questions. I will send a pull request shortly and do a write up on the PR you opened.

[Michael Grünewald]

Thank you Andy for your detailed comments. I just built your branch on RedPorts, If you like, you can review the logs:

https://redports.org/buildarchive/20140501163252-43028

I merged your branch. I would like to take the opportunity of the change to fix #9 as well, so we may have to delay a but before sending the patch.

[Andy Ray]

That's great. A short delay will give me a chance to test the port in anger as well and I will report back if I find any problems (all looking good so far though).

[Michael Grünewald]

Support native code compilation on armv6 (raspberry pi)

• asmrun/arm.S - select appropriate asm configuration for armv6 softfp under freebsd

• asmcomp/arch.ml - map freebsd to use EABI

• configure - detect arm--freebsd* as an appropriate platform for native code compilation and set arch/machine/system appropriately

• Makefile - set correct options for assembly. map armv6 to back to arm so the correct back end is compiled by ocaml

Closes #8

→ <<cset 6c749249c96d>>

[Michael Grünewald]

I prepared a fix for #9 and bundled it together with your fix #8, the resulting branch is called ocaml-4.01.0,3.

As John changed the port, I had to rebase your fix against the new state of the port. It would be very nice if you could test the tip of ocaml-4.01.0,3 to be sure that I rebased correctly.

Did you try your fix in anger as well?

[Andy Ray]

I am away on holiday for a week so won't be able to test this until next Friday or so.

Been doing a load of compiling with the port and it seems to be working fine.

[Michael Grünewald]

HI Andy! I hope your holiday was great! Once you find time for your tests, we can submit a patch for arm support.

Cheers, Michael

[Andy Ray]

Thanks for the prod...been a busy few weeks!

I will do a big recompile of everything from the kernel through ocaml and on to the latest opam and a large application. It will take a few days so hopefully I should be able to report the results by the end of the week.

Cheers, Andy

[Andy Ray]

Sorry for the long delay in getting this properly tested.

Everything is now rebuilt and working great from your ocaml-4.01.0,3 branch.

Cheers, Andy