[Vm-dev] Travis CI Update: Trusty as default Linux is coming

[Alistair Grant]

Hi Fabio,

On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 05:14:57PM +0000, Fabio Niephaus wrote:
> Hi Alistair,
> 
> On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 8:28 AM Alistair Grant <akgrant0710 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>     Hi Fabio,
> 
>     On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 06:16:58AM +0000, Fabio Niephaus wrote:
>     > FYI: https://blog.travis-ci.com/
>     2017-07-11-trusty-as-default-linux-is-coming
>     >
>     > We currently still use Precise to build OSVM on Linux.
>     > I hope migrating to Trusty won't cause any problems for us...
>     >
>     > Fabio
> 
>     I assume that the move to a newer OS will mean testing with a newer
>     version of gcc (4.6.3 seems to be the current default).
> 
>     The good news is that a few people have tested building the VM with gcc
>     4.8.x (4.8.5 in my case). 
> 
> 
>     However moving to Trusty also means that when Ubuntu 18.04 is released
>     in less than a year it will most likely be difficult for anyone
>     upgrading to get access to gcc 4.8.5, since 5.4 is the release used in
>     16.04.
> 
> 
> Why would anyone still need access to gcc 4.8.5?

My understanding is that gcc 4.8(.4) is the default version in trusty,
so if anyone else wants to build the VM with the same compiler, they'll
need gcc 4.8.

At the moment it is needed because a few people have found that the VM
doesn't work properly if compiled with gcc 5.4.


> The binaries should work
> on 14.04+ and hopefully also on 12.04, right?

I hope so, although if it doesn't work on 12.04 I think we can live with
that.


>     Would it be possible to move straight to Xenial (16.04)?
> 
> Travis does not support Xenial yet, but they are working on it [1].

OK, I guess that limits things.


> Does the OSVM compile with gcc 5.4?

Yes, but it has problems, see:

http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/vm-dev/2017-May/025216.html


> Best,
> Fabio
> 
> [1] https://github.com/travis-ci/travis-ci/issues/5659#issuecomment-314564030


Thanks!
Alistair