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authorLudovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>2013-07-07 01:02:48 +0200
committerLudovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>2013-07-07 01:03:03 +0200
commit8b315a6dd5f1b32d1a8a84c0f525dc4850b1e889 (patch)
tree39a54d698471bedabce12bc8765f4861b1f93980 /doc/guix.texi
parent401c53c46917f7e3e8c8fcf1d316f0c274279165 (diff)
downloadguix-8b315a6dd5f1b32d1a8a84c0f525dc4850b1e889.tar
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doc: Add a "Porting" section.
* HACKING (Porting the Guix distro on a new platform): Remove. * doc/guix.texi (Porting): New node. Describe cross-compilation as the only approach.
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diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi
index 4d674b1b20..c217416b0a 100644
--- a/doc/guix.texi
+++ b/doc/guix.texi
@@ -1434,6 +1434,7 @@ tools that help users exert that freedom.
@menu
* Package Modules:: Packages from the programmer's viewpoint.
* Bootstrapping:: GNU/Linux built from scratch.
+* Porting:: Targeting another platform or kernel.
@end menu
Building this distribution is a cooperative effort, and you are invited
@@ -1588,6 +1589,35 @@ unknown, but if you would like to investigate further (and have
significant computational and storage resources to do so), then let us
know.
+@node Porting
+@section Porting to a New Platform
+
+As discussed above, the GNU distribution is self-contained, and
+self-containment is achieved by relying on pre-built ``bootstrap
+binaries'' (@pxref{Bootstrapping}). These binaries are specific to an
+operating system kernel, CPU architecture, and application binary
+interface (ABI). Thus, to port the distribution to a platform that is
+not yet supported, one must build those bootstrap binaries, and update
+the @code{(gnu packages bootstrap)} module to use them on that platform.
+
+Fortunately, Guix can @emph{cross compile} those bootstrap binaries.
+When everything goes well, and assuming the GNU tool chain supports the
+target platform, this can be as simple as running a command like this
+one:
+
+@example
+guix build --target=armv5tel-linux-gnueabi bootstrap-tarballs
+@end example
+
+In practice, there may be some complications. First, it may be that the
+extended GNU triplet that specifies an ABI (like the @code{eabi} suffix
+above) is not recognized by all the GNU tools. Typically, glibc
+recognizes some of these, whereas GCC uses an extra @code{--with-abi}
+configure flag (see @code{gcc.scm} for examples of how to handle this.)
+Second, some of the required packages could fail to build for that
+platform. Lastly, the generated binaries could be broken for some
+reason.
+
@c *********************************************************************
@node Contributing