On Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 1:10 AM, David Edelsohn <dje....@gmail.com> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 3:53 PM, Sandra Loosemore > <san...@codesourcery.com> wrote: >> On 02/16/2017 03:19 PM, Segher Boessenkool wrote: >>> >>> On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 02:49:47PM -0700, Sandra Loosemore wrote: >>>>> >>>>> I propose to mark powerpc*-*-*spe* as obsolete in GCC 7. This includes >>>>> the spe.h installed header file, all the __builtin_spe* intrinsics, the >>>>> -mfloat-gprs= command-line option, and the support for the SPE ABIs. >>>>> >>>>> No one has properly tested these targets in a long time (the latest >>>>> testresults I could find are from July 2015, >1000 failures), and the >>>>> SPE support makes a lot of code much more complex. >>>>> >>>>> Any objections to this obsoletion? GCC 7 will then be the last release >>>>> with support for SPE (it will need --enable-obsolete to build these >>>>> targets), and we will delete the SPE support during GCC 8 development. >>>> >>>> >>>> Can I ask that we hold off a bit before making a decision on this? >>> >>> >>> Of course, that is what we're doing in any case. >>> >>> Note that obsoleting it in GCC 7 means GCC 7 will still work, and that >>> we *can* remove it in GCC 8; we do not have to. You have plenty of time >>> to find some way to keep SPE support in GCC. The obsoletion notice _is_ >>> the advance warning you're asking for. >>> >>> The gcc-7/changes.html text I'll propose later says: >>> >>> >>> <li><p>Support for a number of older systems and recently >>> unmaintained or untested target ports of GCC has been declared >>> obsolete in GCC 7. Unless there is activity to revive them, the >>> next release of GCC will have their sources permanently >>> <strong>removed</strong>.</p> >>> >>> <p>The following ports for individual systems on >>> particular architectures have been obsoleted:</p> >>> >>> <ul> >>> <li>PowerPC SPE (powerpc*-*-*spe*) as announced >>> <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2017-02/msg00041.html";> >>> here</a>.</li> >>> </ul> >>> </li> >> >> >> I understand that you're not going to remove the SPE support tomorrow. But >> that notice is going to scare users who depend on it, and I think it's not a >> good idea to scare users unnecessarily. AFAIK GCC 7 is not going to be >> released tomorrow, either, so why not give folks a little more time to look >> into alternatives to announcing the support is being obsoleted? IMO that >> should only be done when new maintainers have been solicited and nobody has >> come forward. > > Sandra, > > This is not a new issue. The maintainer did not suddenly resign last > week. There have been numerous efforts to reach out to the SPE > community for over a *decade*, cajoling them to step up with > maintenance for the port. I am glad that this notice of obsolescence > has focused more attention on the long-standing problem.
+1 I'd like us to be more agressive in deprecating/removing of unmaintained parts of GCC. It's not only target/host support but also things like unmaintained language extensions (or frontends) as well as optimization passes. Richard. > Thanks, David
