[markh]

Hello all,

I am looking at open-sourcing some code I wrote a long time ago (nothing spectacular, some hobby stuff) and it looks like the best way to do this is to use git to push this to a publicly available server (like github).
Is there an already built executable of git somewhere for download or is downloading the source and trying to compile it the best way to go?

[Raion]

Well git for IRIX is too old to work properly, and it's a nasty piece to compile last I checked.

An alternative is to tar it up, upload it here to the forum or elsewhere, and someone, (e.g. me) can make a git repo. Similarly, transfer it to a modern PC and doing it that way is more feasible.

There are newer binaries of git, but it's a pain. The RSE stuff is onerous to install and setup properly, IMHO. It's also overkill.

[markh]

Hmm, that is unfortunate.

I downloaded the latest source of git to have a look and it seems there are some references to MipsPro in there.
Unfortunately, I couldn't give it a go as it needed bash which I don't have installed.
Downloaded the source for that to see if that will compile. Ran into an assumption that it is being compiled with gcc, so no luck there yet.
I will see if I can at least get that working or does someone have an executable for it?

I do remember that github allows access to a git repository with subversion. I might give that a go as I do have subversion installed.

[Raion]

Do you have a modern Linux box? If so just tar up the source and copy it over and set it up that way is what I suggest.

I don't have access to just a bare binary unfortunately.

For a bashless alternative, there's Game of Trees from OpenBSD: http://gameoftrees.org/portable.html

I haven't tried building that however in a while. You have any questions or need any help I'm happy to offer it.

The problem with older nekoware releases is TLS obsolescence.

[markh]

I do have a modern FreeBSD box, but I would rather not have the extra step. Thanks for the options though.

I had a go at compiling bash and I think I have it working.
There were a few small problems that I needed to fix, but the patch is very small.
I can try to create a package for it if someone is interested. Which folder should it be installed in? Is /usr/nekoware still being used for new packages?

Will now have a go at Git to see how bad it is, so I know what my options are.

[Raion]

/usr/nekoware is used, but you need to update other dependencies (something I've been interested in, but haven't had the time) to use the package effectively. I need to do back and do a version bump on several packages at some point.

Good luck with git. You'll need a 1.1.1 build of OpenSSL and some other bits, I have recent builds of that (it's not hard) http://contrib.irixnet.org/dual-mips3-mips4/

There's relnotes that works for 1.1.1 there.

[markh]

I managed to compile it and ran a small test. It seems to be fine. I will see if I can create a tardist.

[jwhat]

Hi markh,

I am also silly enough to want to get a relatively recent version of git (& related GNU tools) onto IRIX 6.5.

In looking at this I came across your github repository: https://github.com/markhellegers/nekoports

I have an "idea" which is kind of like what you are doing with nekoports, but with slightly different angle.

This it to see if FreeBSD Ports could be "adapted" to build a small subset of key GNU / other SW.

FreeBSD Ports uses similar approach to what your nekoports is doing:
- It keeps record of target version to build
- Maintains a patch mechanism
- Runs build process

What FreeBSD ports adds in additional to this is:
- runs config process to allow you to select build options
- maintains dependency list and will automatically build the dependencies

The dependency management is essential to make this easy, as even doing something like building openssl (which is an essential base part) brings in perl and all its tangle of stuff, so building by "hand" quickly requires lots of effort to chase down and build the dependencies.

By adapting FreeBSD Ports approach, we can then have a process that is 100% source code based and do away with need for "Nekoware" forever.

As lets be honest nekochan (is completely dead) and nekoware is almost dead and putting energy into trying to keep nekoware alive seems a bit like watching the doctor in emergency room continuing to apply CPR even though the patient has been flatlined for 15 minutes...

The FreeBSD Port approach just builds things into UNIX standard /usr/local space, which to me is fine and acceptable and has proven to work over more than 30 years....

Given where we are now (last IRIX release was in 2006), I do no see much value in trying to build IRIX "inst" usable binary packages, it is just simpler to use source build process.

Just soliciting thoughts / feedback as you seem to be one of few who has had some success with building old SW on IRIX using an automated process.

Cheers from Oz,


jwhat/John.

[Raion]

Jwhat, I actually have a partial FreeBSD ports tree. Still working on it off and on, but I would be interested in it.

Some of the ideas I have are to setup flavors for ports that would allow multiple distribution of packages to be built. 

I kept this to myself because I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Bmake is tough. I can't get it to switch from using libfetch/fetch(1) to curl. We need to port some utilities like mtree, checksum commands etc. 

It's more user-friendly than pkgsrc, because curses menu for options instead of guessing with mk.conf, and it is better suited for our use cases. 

I'm happy to share my hack of it, but it's out of date and won't work well yet. We need a bmake expert to help sort it out. 

I don't wanna port libfetch, because it's superfluous. Curl is already portable to IRIX and builds easy.

[jwhat]

Hi Raion,

yes very happy to take on anything which will help "grease the wheels".

I am going to fork the FreeBSD Ports tree and see where this leads me...

NOTE: on libfetch / curl etc, I am totally pragmatic... when I build GNU stuff manually I got most of the tar balls via original SGI FW wget ;-)

Did you do updates via git/cvs or some other SCM tool ?

NOTE: I am no secret squirrel, I am happy to fail in full public view, just as I make a bit of a fool of myself when I try to use the kids skateboards ;-)

Cheers from Oz,

jwhat/John