#1101476 coq: Please whitelist ocaml-native-compilers to supported architectures

Package:
src:coq
Source:
src:coq
Submitter:
John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
Date:
2025-10-09 18:55:01 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#1101476#5
Date:
2025-03-28 07:16:37 UTC
From:
To:
Hello,

I just tried building coq on ppc64 by overriding the build-dependencies and
it's generally supported, there is just a warning about byte-code being used.

Could you therefore limit the ocaml-native-compilers build-dependency to the
architectures which actually have a native OCaml compiler and allow the other
architectures to use byte-code?

Thanks,
Adrian

#1101476#10
Date:
2025-10-07 19:59:31 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

attaching a patch which allowed me to build coq 9.1.0+dfsg-1 on architectures
without a native OCaml compiler.

Could you please apply this patch for the next upload of coq in experimental?

Thanks,
Adrian

#1101476#17
Date:
2025-10-08 07:14:50 UTC
From:
To:
Hello,

Le 28/03/2025 à 08:16, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz a écrit :

The goal to put ocaml-native-compilers in Build-Depends was exactly to
avoid builds on bytecode architecture... Because at that time, coq was
randomly broken and upstream did not want to support that configuration.

Did something change?

If bytecode is fully supported, then the simplest would be to remove
ocaml-native-compilers from Build-Depends altogether.


Cheers,

#1101476#22
Date:
2025-10-08 07:49:51 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Stéphane,

I verified that it builds fine on multiple targets without native compiler
support.

Looks like as the failures are gone.

OK.

Adrian

#1101476#27
Date:
2025-10-08 08:00:17 UTC
From:
To:
Le 08/10/2025 à 09:49, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz a écrit :

Did you try reverse dependencies as well?


Cheers,

#1101476#32
Date:
2025-10-08 08:11:51 UTC
From:
To:
I actually uploaded coq 9.1.0 to unreleased for sparc64 and I had hoped for
the packages to start building, but it still shows BD-Uninstallable for coq-hott,
so I will have to try manually.

I will report back.

Adrian

#1101476#37
Date:
2025-10-08 08:32:45 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

Le mercredi 08 octobre 2025 à 10:11 +0200, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz a
écrit :


I'm actually actively maintaining the Coq/Rocq related packages in
Debian, even if it doesn't show that much. :-/

There is a big transition (renaming from Coq to Rocq), which is partial
in the various upstreams and which for this reason shouldn't appear in
Debian yet. Indeed, I'd rather make a complete transition at once
rather than handle a continuous mess!

My current status on updating the packages is at the end of this
paragraph, but it doesn't show:
- the rocq-stdlib package stands in the NEW queue, so it's a roadblock
until it clears ;
- the paramcoq package is obsolete upstream so will need removal
(already not in my to-work-on below) ;
- but the current coqeal in Debian still depends on paramcoq, so it's
too eatrly for a RM bug ;
- the next coqeal doesn't build correctly with Coq/Rocq 9.1 yet ;
- the dh-coq package will need a new version too to cope with the new
deps ;
- I have a metacoq package in store (I thought I had uploaded it
already, but apparently not...).

Here is my org-mode chunk on the matter:

* Update Coq/Rocq in Debian [5/8]
 - [X] step 1 [2/2]
   - [X] elpi 3.4.1-1
   - [X] rocq 9.1.0-1
 - [X] step 2 [1/1]
   - [X] rocq-stdlib 9.0.0-1
 - [X] step 3 [16/16]
   - [X] aac-tactics 8.20.0-2
   - [X] coq-bignums 9.0.0+rocq9.1-1
   - [X] coq-dpdgraph 1.0+9.0-1 PATCH
   - [X] coq-elpi 3.4.0-1 BEWARE touchy compilation?
   - [X] coq-ext-lib 0.13.0-2
   - [X] coq-hammer 1.3.2+9.0 PATCH
   - [X] coq-hott 9.0-2 PATCH
   - [X] coq-libhyps 2.0.8-5
   - [X] coq-menhirlib 20250912+ds-1
   - [X] coq-record-update 0.3.6-1
   - [X] coq-reduction-effects 0.1.6-1
   - [X] coq-stdpp 1.12.0-1
   - [X] coq-unicoq 1.6-8.20-2 PATCH
   - [X] coq-unimath 20240923-1
   - [X] flocq 4.2.1-2
   - [X] ott 0.34+ds-2
 - [-] step 4 [6/8]
   - [ ] coq-equations 1.3.1-9.0-1 FAIL Sorts.family unbound type
constructor
   - [X] coq-gappa 1.7.1-1
   - [X] coq-hierarchy-builder 1.10.0-1
   - [X] coq-iris 4.4.0-1
   - [X] coq-math-classes 9.0.0-1
   - [ ] coq-mtac2 1.4+8.20-2 PATCH
   - [X] coq-simple-io 1.11.0-2
   - [X] coqprime 8.20.1-2
 - [-] step 5 [2/3]
   - [X] coq-corn 9.0.0-1
   - [ ] metacoq 1.4-9.0-1 WAIT coq-equations
   - [X] ssreflect 2.4.0-1
 - [X] step 6 [8/8]
   - [X] coq-deriving 0.2.2-1
   - [X] coq-reglang 1.2.2-1
   - [X] coq-relation-algebra 1.8.0-1
   - [X] coquelicot 3.4.4-1
   - [X] mathcomp-bigenough 1.0.3-1
   - [X] mathcomp-finmap 2.2.1-1
   - [X] mathcomp-zify 1.5.0+2.0+8.16-5
   - [X] coq-quickchick 2.1.1-1
 - [X] step 7 [6/6]
   - [X] coq-extructures 0.5.0-2
   - [X] coq-interval 4.11.3-1
   - [X] mathcomp-algebra-tactics 1.2.7-1
   - [X] mathcomp-analysis 1.13.0-1
   - [X] mathcomp-multinomials 2.4.0-1
   - [X] mathcomp-real-closed 2.0.3-1
 - [ ] step 8 [0/1]
   - [ ] coqeal 2.1.0-2 PATCH but still FAIL!?


We will get somewhere at some point, but for now most of the work is
behind the scene.

Cheers,

J.Puydt

#1101476#42
Date:
2025-10-08 08:41:42 UTC
From:
To:
Le mercredi 08 octobre 2025 à 10:11 +0200, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz a
écrit :
their mind, they are not interested in supporting non-native
compilation, so even if it happens to work at the moment, I'm reluctant
to start shipping packages on architectures which I know upstream
doesn't care about: I don't feel I would be able to do anything by my
own if some broke at some point.

I might close this bug as a won't-fix eventually - keeping it open for
now to make it clear I'm not against the idea per se. I reject it for
some good reasons, but I'd like to be proven wrong.

Cheers,

J.Puydt

#1101476#47
Date:
2025-10-08 08:58:46 UTC
From:
To:
I have to admit that I don't understand why OCaml upstream is so hostile
against other architectures. They have removed basically every architecture
from native support except for x86_64, arm64, ppc64el, riscv64 and s390x
and they also refusing to add new ones like loongarch64.

Plus, they're making it hard to use the byte compiler. Really strange
attitude towards downstreams. But I guess I'll just ignore OCaml stuff
for now.

Adrian

#1101476#52
Date:
2025-10-08 09:01:11 UTC
From:
To:
Le mercredi 08 octobre 2025 à 10:58 +0200, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz a
écrit :


I don't know if it's really hostility -- perhaps just missing the hands
and hardware to cover as much ground as they'd like...

J.Puydt

#1101476#57
Date:
2025-10-08 09:07:55 UTC
From:
To:
There are projects like the GCC Compile Farm that provide access to various
hardware and software platforms for testing. No one needs to own all of that
hardware.

I also don't think they own a s390x mainframe which costs a couple of millions
of Dollars, so I doubt it's this. On the other hand, they could even get free
LoongArch hardware if they bothered to add LoongArch support [1].

I guess it's a works-for-me project and not a community project. At least that's
the impression of the OCaml project I have from what I have seen so far.

Adrian

#1101476#62
Date:
2025-10-09 18:43:38 UTC
From:
To:
Le mercredi 08 octobre 2025 à 11:07 +0200, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz a
écrit :

I see the discussion is still ongoing, and I notice that my point about
spreading thin has been made by upstream.

I don't think they completely closed the door to the contribution, it's
just that this new arch isn't on their radar yet...

Cheers,

J.Puydt

#1101476#67
Date:
2025-10-09 18:47:36 UTC
From:
To:
»The lack of support for Rocq on bytecode-only architectures looks to me like
 a potential issue with the packaging of Rocq, rather than a fundamental issue
 with the OCaml compiler. As far as I know, it is perfectly possible to use Rocq
 in bytecode mode (of course it is slower than in native mode, but usable), and
 there is support in the Rocq configure script for this scenario.«

Source: https://github.com/ocaml/ocaml/pull/11974#issuecomment-3381299696

Can we give it a try? I mean, we still have a lot of time for testing until forky
gets frozen. We can still revert it if it doesn't work.

Adrian

#1101476#72
Date:
2025-10-09 18:52:48 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

Le jeudi 09 octobre 2025 à 20:47 +0200, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz a
écrit :

The set of coq packages in Debian isn't ready for an upload right now,
but we'll see how things turn :

https://salsa.debian.org/ocaml-team/coq/-/commit/d76e2b1240b77becd23b9d3bf93988a3cf516fbc


Cheers,

J.Puydt

#1101476#77
Date:
2025-10-09 18:53:55 UTC
From:
To:
Great, thank you! Much appreciated.

Adrian