Re: [PATCH 08/11] lrzsz: remove the recipe

[Phil Blundell <pb@pbcl.net>]

On Thu, Nov 21, 2019 at 10:10:30AM +0000, Richard Purdie wrote:
> On Thu, 2019-11-21 at 09:24 +0000, Ross Burton wrote:
> > 2) the source is positively ancient and building it on modern linux is 
> > getting harder over time

Just to put this in perspective, I tried fetching lrzsz-1.20.0.tar.gz
from the upstream site, unpacked it on my Debian "buster" host, did
"./configure && make" without modifying any files, and it built 
absolutely fine using gcc-8.3.0.  There were a few compiler warnings
but nothing worse than that.  

Now, I am happy to accept that building it inside oe-core is somewhat 
more difficult, and regenerating the autotools bits using modern tools
does look like it will require some patching, but I don't think we should
exaggerate the extent to which "old code" equals "problematic code".

> I just wanted to highlight that the way things are trending, its likely
> we'll end up with Linux builds alongside RTOS builds with multiconfig.
> These will likely need to communicate and the mechanism(s) for that
> remain to be seen.

meta-oe has a recipe for kermit... :-}

> over into Linux. I therefore have a slight inclination to try and keep
> this around if we can.
> 
> I do take the point about needing work to keep it maintained/working
> though :(.

I also have at least a passing fondness for lrzsz and if a small amount
of maintenance now will suffice to keep it working for another 21 years
then I think I would consider that a good outcome.  I will have a quick
look at the code and see if I can fix whatever is apparently problematic
about it.

I have no particular opinion as to whether it ought to stay in oe-core
or move into some sort of meta-retrocomputing layer.

p.