Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: bart <bc@freeuk.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Python recompile
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2025 21:30:40 +0000
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 65
Message-ID: <vqfoht$3nugk$1@dont-email.me>
References: <vq1qas$j22$1@gallifrey.nk.ca> <vq3oag$18iv6$1@dont-email.me>
 <vq4hf2$1brf7$1@dont-email.me> <vq4l3d$1ck9e$1@dont-email.me>
 <vq4m0u$1ctpn$1@dont-email.me> <vq4n05$1d5dv$1@dont-email.me>
 <vq4om7$1dbo2$2@dont-email.me> <vq6dqh$1pskk$1@dont-email.me>
 <vq6f8p$1pmnk$1@dont-email.me> <vq6gqc$1qcp8$1@dont-email.me>
 <vq6ips$1pmnk$2@dont-email.me> <vq6j5h$1qosf$1@dont-email.me>
 <20250304092827.708@kylheku.com> <vq7g1p$1vmg5$1@dont-email.me>
 <vq94dt$2boso$1@dont-email.me> <vqcsk7$23bfo$1@paganini.bofh.team>
 <vqefn1$3flpt$1@dont-email.me> <vqeu5c$3imil$1@dont-email.me>
 <vqeun4$3iqbq$1@dont-email.me> <vqfcbe$3lkkc$1@dont-email.me>
 <871pv861ht.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2025 22:30:38 +0100 (CET)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="ef0e5752bdffd2710a2294b6a977f418";
	logging-data="3930644"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+rR6CK///BfHbxLWXxINd/"
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:9WK8+UB2e2jIWiH/fwWv6HYkc5c=
In-Reply-To: <871pv861ht.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com>
Content-Language: en-GB
Bytes: 4116

On 07/03/2025 20:15, Keith Thompson wrote:
> bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
> [...]
>> I just (well, nearly 2 hours ago!) downloaded the sources for gcc. It
>> was 0.75GB in all, 142,000 files, 5,500 folders. There are 84,000 .c
>> files, and 4,600 .h files.
>>
>> It took something over 90 MINUTES to unzip, using a SSD.
> 
> Whatever you downloaded, it wasn't (just) the sources for gcc.
> The latest release of gcc (14.2.0) has 58503 .c files and 4131
> .h files, and the gcc project does not make it available as a
> .zip file.  When you say "the sources for gcc", I presume you're
> referring to some software package that includes gcc.  Why didn't
> you mention that?

It was from here:

   https://github.com/gcc-mirror/gcc

The ZIP file is the one you get on the '<> Code' pulldown menu. You get 
that on every project, whether it targets Windows or not.

I've no idea where the official gcc source code resides. Googling 
'github cpython' worked for that product; this was the first hit for 
'github gcc'.

> On my system, unpacking gcc-14.2.0.tar.gz and gcc-14.2.0.tar.xz took
> 15 and 20 seconds, respectively.  I created a zip file; unzipping
> it took 23 seconds.

I would have expected a few minutes at most; I don't know what it spent 
an hour and a half doing.

> Whatever is wrong with your system, I suggest it's not topical here.

I never said it was.

> The gcc maintainers are not particularly interested in supporting
> Windows

And yet gcc exists on Windows.

The big thing everybody lauds gcc for is the range of targets it 
supports. But not supporting that obscure target called Win64-x64 is fine!

  (and are under no obligation to do so), so it's not
> surprising that building it from source on Windows is awkward.
> Complaining about it here is not useful.

I'm not complaining about it. I was responding to a suggestion that 
providing a choice of prebuilt binaries for a range of platforms, was 
more complicated than downloading source code.

This was a huge counter-example. Your 58000-file example would do as well.


> I've never tried to build gcc on Windows without using some Unix-like
> emulation layer, so I can't help you with that (not that you asked).
> I don't know whether it's possible.

I wouldn't attempt it. You must know by now that I strive to keep such 
things on small scale and to keep aspects like building from source as 
simple, fast and effortless as possible.