Re: [PATCH 00/13] Remove metag architecture

[Arnd Bergmann]

On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 12:38 AM, James Hogan  wrote:
> These patches remove the metag architecture and tightly dependent
> drivers from the kernel. With the 4.16 kernel the ancient gcc 4.2.4
> based metag toolchain we have been using is hitting compiler bugs, so
> now seems a good time to drop it altogether.
>
> Quoting from patch 1:
>
> The earliest Meta architecture port of Linux I have a record of was an
> import of a Meta port of Linux v2.4.1 in February 2004, which was worked
> on significantly over the next few years by Graham Whaley, Will Newton,
> Matt Fleming, myself and others.
>
> Eventually the port was merged into mainline in v3.9 in March 2013, not
> long after Imagination Technologies bought MIPS Technologies and shifted
> its CPU focus over to the MIPS architecture.
>
> As a result, though the port was maintained for a while, kept on life
> support for a while longer, and useful for testing a few specific
> drivers for which I don't have ready access to the equivalent MIPS
> hardware, it is now essentially dead with no users.
>
> It is also stuck using an out-of-tree toolchain based on GCC 4.2.4 which
> is no longer maintained, now struggles to build modern kernels due to
> toolchain bugs, and doesn't itself build with a modern GCC. The latest
> buildroot port is still using an old uClibc snapshot which is no longer
> served, and the latest uClibc doesn't build with GCC 4.2.4.
>
> So lets call it a day and drop the Meta architecture port from the
> kernel. RIP Meta.

I've pulled it into my asm-generic tree now, which is also part of linux-next,
and followed up with patches removing frv, m32r, score, unicore32
and blackfin. I have not removed the device drivers yet, but I'm working
on that.

   Arnd

Re: [PATCH 00/13] Remove metag architecture

[Arnd Bergmann]

On Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 12:02 PM, James Hogan  wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 11:26:58AM +0100, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
>> On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 12:38 AM, James Hogan  wrote:
>> > So lets call it a day and drop the Meta architecture port from the
>> > kernel. RIP Meta.
>>
>> Since I brought up the architecture removal independently, I could
>> pick this up into a git tree that also has the removal of some of the
>> other architectures.
>>
>> I see your tree is part of linux-next, so you could also just put it
>> in there and send a pull request at the merge window if you prefer.
>>
>> The only real reason I see for a shared git tree would be to avoid
>> conflicts when we touch the same Kconfig files or #ifdefs in driver,
>> but Meta only appears in
>>
>> config FRAME_POINTER
>> bool "Compile the kernel with frame pointers"
>> depends on DEBUG_KERNEL && \
>> (CRIS || M68K || FRV || UML || \
>>  SUPERH || BLACKFIN || MN10300 || METAG) || \
>> ARCH_WANT_FRAME_POINTERS
>>
>> and
>>
>> include/trace/events/mmflags.h:#elif defined(CONFIG_PARISC) ||
>> defined(CONFIG_METAG) || defined(CONFIG_IA64)
>>
>> so there is little risk.
>
> I'm happy to put v2 in linux-next now (only patch 4 has changed, I just
> sent an updated version), and send you a pull request early next week so
> you can take it from there. The patches can't be directly applied with
> git-am anyway thanks to the -D option to make them more concise.
>
> Sound okay?

Yes, sounds good, thanks!

   Arnd

Re: [PATCH 00/13] Remove metag architecture

[James Hogan]

On Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 11:26:58AM +0100, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 12:38 AM, James Hogan  wrote:
> > So lets call it a day and drop the Meta architecture port from the
> > kernel. RIP Meta.
> 
> Since I brought up the architecture removal independently, I could
> pick this up into a git tree that also has the removal of some of the
> other architectures.
> 
> I see your tree is part of linux-next, so you could also just put it
> in there and send a pull request at the merge window if you prefer.
> 
> The only real reason I see for a shared git tree would be to avoid
> conflicts when we touch the same Kconfig files or #ifdefs in driver,
> but Meta only appears in
> 
> config FRAME_POINTER
> bool "Compile the kernel with frame pointers"
> depends on DEBUG_KERNEL && \
> (CRIS || M68K || FRV || UML || \
>  SUPERH || BLACKFIN || MN10300 || METAG) || \
> ARCH_WANT_FRAME_POINTERS
> 
> and
> 
> include/trace/events/mmflags.h:#elif defined(CONFIG_PARISC) ||
> defined(CONFIG_METAG) || defined(CONFIG_IA64)
> 
> so there is little risk.

I'm happy to put v2 in linux-next now (only patch 4 has changed, I just
sent an updated version), and send you a pull request early next week so
you can take it from there. The patches can't be directly applied with
git-am anyway thanks to the -D option to make them more concise.

Sound okay?

Thanks
James


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Re: [PATCH 00/13] Remove metag architecture

[Arnd Bergmann]

On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 12:38 AM, James Hogan  wrote:
> These patches remove the metag architecture and tightly dependent
> drivers from the kernel. With the 4.16 kernel the ancient gcc 4.2.4
> based metag toolchain we have been using is hitting compiler bugs, so
> now seems a good time to drop it altogether.
>
> Quoting from patch 1:
>
> The earliest Meta architecture port of Linux I have a record of was an
> import of a Meta port of Linux v2.4.1 in February 2004, which was worked
> on significantly over the next few years by Graham Whaley, Will Newton,
> Matt Fleming, myself and others.
>
> Eventually the port was merged into mainline in v3.9 in March 2013, not
> long after Imagination Technologies bought MIPS Technologies and shifted
> its CPU focus over to the MIPS architecture.
>
> As a result, though the port was maintained for a while, kept on life
> support for a while longer, and useful for testing a few specific
> drivers for which I don't have ready access to the equivalent MIPS
> hardware, it is now essentially dead with no users.
>
> It is also stuck using an out-of-tree toolchain based on GCC 4.2.4 which
> is no longer maintained, now struggles to build modern kernels due to
> toolchain bugs, and doesn't itself build with a modern GCC. The latest
> buildroot port is still using an old uClibc snapshot which is no longer
> served, and the latest uClibc doesn't build with GCC 4.2.4.
>
> So lets call it a day and drop the Meta architecture port from the
> kernel. RIP Meta.

Since I brought up the architecture removal independently, I could
pick this up into a git tree that also has the removal of some of the
other architectures.

I see your tree is part of linux-next, so you could also just put it
in there and send a pull request at the merge window if you prefer.

The only real reason I see for a shared git tree would be to avoid
conflicts when we touch the same Kconfig files or #ifdefs in driver,
but Meta only appears in

config FRAME_POINTER
bool "Compile the kernel with frame pointers"
depends on DEBUG_KERNEL && \
(CRIS || M68K || FRV || UML || \
 SUPERH || BLACKFIN || MN10300 || METAG) || \
ARCH_WANT_FRAME_POINTERS

and

include/trace/events/mmflags.h:#elif defined(CONFIG_PARISC) ||
defined(CONFIG_METAG) || defined(CONFIG_IA64)

so there is little risk.

  Arnd

Re: [PATCH 00/13] Remove metag architecture

[Graham Whaley]

On 22 February 2018 at 09:48, James Hogan  wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 10:26:54AM +0100, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
>> On Wed, Feb 21, 2018 at 11:38:12PM +, James Hogan wrote:
>> > So lets call it a day and drop the Meta architecture port from the
>> > kernel. RIP Meta.
>>
>> So long, and thanks for all the fish!
>>
>> Nice cleanup though, most welcome :-)
>
> I thought you might like it ;-)
>
>> Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) 
>
> Thanks
> James

RIP indeed. As I sit here listening to my META powered radio for
the series in general:

Acked-by: Graham Whaley 

Re: [PATCH 00/13] Remove metag architecture

[James Hogan]

On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 10:26:54AM +0100, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 21, 2018 at 11:38:12PM +, James Hogan wrote:
> > So lets call it a day and drop the Meta architecture port from the
> > kernel. RIP Meta.
> 
> So long, and thanks for all the fish!
> 
> Nice cleanup though, most welcome :-)

I thought you might like it ;-)

> Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) 

Thanks
James


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Re: [PATCH 00/13] Remove metag architecture

[Peter Zijlstra]

On Wed, Feb 21, 2018 at 11:38:12PM +, James Hogan wrote:
> So lets call it a day and drop the Meta architecture port from the
> kernel. RIP Meta.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Nice cleanup though, most welcome :-)

Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel)