[opam-devel] Using binaries

[Gabriel Scherer]

Out of curiosity, do we have a pointer to the "relocation patch" and its
upstreaming discussion? If some upstream changes can be made to make binary
distribution easier, we could try to push them.

(If I understand
https://github.com/ocaml/opam-repository/blob/master/compilers/4.02.3/4.02.3%2Bmusl%2Bstatic/4.02.3%2Bmusl%2Bstatic.comp
correctly, the upstream compiler needs no patching to work with musl.)

On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 8:53 AM, Anil Madhavapeddy <anil at recoil.org> wrote:

> On 22 Jan 2016, at 05:47, Louis Gesbert <louis.gesbert at ocamlpro.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Le vendredi 22 janvier 2016, 08:34:34 Gabriel Scherer a écrit :
> >> I would be interested in some more information on this. This seems very
> >> simple as you say it, but I had not thought about the fact that OPAM
> >> already has the capacities to act as a binary distribution platform -- I
> >> somehow thought that there would be an announcement of some new extra
> >> features at some point designed for binary distribution.
> >>
> >> Louis, you are saying that this is feasible. Are you aware of this
> actually
> >> having been done? For example, is anyone working on providing a, say,
> opam
> >> repository for x86-64 binaries corresponding to the packages available
> on
> >> opam-repository?
> >>
> >> I suppose that if people proposed that, they would probably pre-build
> >> binaries for only a subset of the possible packages or configurations.
> >> Would it work to mix a "binary repository" that provides only a subset
> of
> >> the packages, and the official source repository, and would package
> query
> >> solvers have a way to do the right thing there? Or would it be the
> >> responsibility of the alternate repository provider to include a
> >> source-only fallback for the non-distributed packages? (This would make
> it
> >> harder to have a single repository with binary packages for several
> >> architectures.)
> >
> > `ocp-bin` was an experiment to provide such a cache of pre-built
> packages,
> > falling back to building from source when unavailable for the current
> setup.
> > With the official OCaml distribution, you would hit issues of relocation
> > though, although there are some hacks around that
> > (https://github.com/OCamlPro/ocp-reloc)
> >
> > So although there are no real barriers in Opam for a binary repository,
> doing
> > something like a conversion from source repo to binary repo, especially
> with
> > OCaml, raises some challenges.
>
> How about an OPAM switch that uses the compiler relocation patch and musl
> libc and the right CFLAGS to link everything statically by default?  That
> should provide an experience similar to Go, with an output binary that is
> standalone (including libc).
>
> Anil
>
>
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