From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from list by lists.gnu.org with archive (Exim 4.71) id 1fnPRg-0004kR-72 for mharc-grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Aug 2018 10:28:16 -0400 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:38348) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fnPKM-0003Xc-3L for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Aug 2018 10:20:42 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fnPKL-0002ON-6z for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Aug 2018 10:20:42 -0400 Received: from rock.gnat.com ([2620:20:4000:0:a9e:1ff:fe9b:1d1]:37441) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fnPKK-0002O4-H7 for grub-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Aug 2018 10:20:40 -0400 Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by filtered-rock.gnat.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id BF8B85604A; Wed, 8 Aug 2018 10:20:39 -0400 (EDT) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at gnat.com Received: from rock.gnat.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (rock.gnat.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id nSGR1VCgyon9; Wed, 8 Aug 2018 10:20:39 -0400 (EDT) Received: from joel.gnat.com (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by rock.gnat.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7EC1A56045; Wed, 8 Aug 2018 10:20:39 -0400 (EDT) Received: by joel.gnat.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 71AD382C91; Wed, 8 Aug 2018 07:20:37 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2018 07:20:37 -0700 From: Joel Brobecker To: John Paul Adrian Glaubitz Cc: Alan Modra , binutils@sourceware.org, The development of GNU GRUB Subject: Re: Recent removal of a.out and COFF support for sparc Message-ID: <20180808142037.GK2432@adacore.com> References: <2d2f1c2a-1715-1348-c35a-ad562a3acbb2@physik.fu-berlin.de> <27449274-9250-97a3-1ff9-8b9c818659d4@physik.fu-berlin.de> <20180808015529.GP26457@bubble.grove.modra.org> <20180808131659.GA1544@bubble.grove.modra.org> <643f686e-d568-978d-07ab-31a62336966f@physik.fu-berlin.de> <20180808135443.GJ2432@adacore.com> <4206dacb-2f78-a860-99dd-cffac1227510@physik.fu-berlin.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4206dacb-2f78-a860-99dd-cffac1227510@physik.fu-berlin.de> User-Agent: Mutt/1.9.4 (2018-02-28) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 3.x X-Received-From: 2620:20:4000:0:a9e:1ff:fe9b:1d1 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Wed, 08 Aug 2018 10:28:14 -0400 X-BeenThere: grub-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: The development of GNU GRUB List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2018 14:20:43 -0000 > Again, I understand the problem, it's not the first time I am having > such a discussion. There was a similar one regarding POWER5 support > in Golang [1] and the SPE backend in gcc [2]. > > The problem is just that we are talking about code here that people > are actively using so I'm not sure what the alternatives are. I only see two alternatives: 1. Someone has enough interest to step up and maintain the code; 2. Use an older version of binutils. I think option (2) is a good option. It might mean that your host system doesn't have that option out of the box, but you can still build an older version of binutils separately. We do this all the time so as to avoid depending on the host distribution to determine what version of binutils we use. -- Joel