Re: Getting the ARC port reviewed and accepted

[Andrew Haley <aph at redhat dot com>]

On 10/01/2013 09:11 AM, Richard Biener wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 6:09 PM, Jeremy Bennett
> <jeremy.bennett@embecosm.com> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> You've probably seen that Joern Rennecke (amylaar) has been pinging
>> repeatedly for help reviewing the ARC port:
>>
>>   http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2013-09/msg02072.html
>>
>> Joern is approved as a maintainer, and the tests have been reviewed and
>> approved (thanks to Mike Stump). However approximately a year since the
>> original submission, after making various changes suggested at that time,
>> the port itself still awaits review of acceptance.
>>
>> We are in the curious position of a port that has a maintainer and testsuite
>> accepted, but no actual port.
>>
>> What can we do to move this to completion for 4.9 stage 1? It is not the
>> smallest port (the ARC is a complex reconfigurable processor family), but it
>> has been in use for a long time, causes no regression errors in other
>> targets, and has been submitted by a long-standing contributor to GCC.
>>
>> Advice on how to move this forward much appreciated.
> 
> From a RM point of view we can accept a new port also during stage3 if
> the required middle-end changes are minimal.
> 
> That said, GCC is still mostly volunteer driven in this area (I don't know
> of any company sponsoring review of ports that are not their own ...).
> Also I guess the only reviewers that are able to approve the port technically
> are global reviewers (and maybe the port maintainers themselves for
> port specific parts?!).  Clarification from the SC would be most welcome here,
> also ideas on how to address this (recurring) issue.

I can't see the point of insisting on technicalities here.  Joern is very
experienced, capable of maintaining the port over time, and it as long
as there aren't middle-end changes it won't break anything.

Andrew.