Re: Python recompile

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.