Retiring GNU objdump 2.17.50

[Renato Botelho]

On 09/01/20 12:56, Konstantin Belousov wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 09, 2020 at 10:31:55AM -0500, Ed Maste wrote:
>> We currently install and use at most three tools from GNU binutils
>> 2.17.50, depending on target architecture:
>>
>> 1. as - assembler
>> 2. ld - linker
>> 3. objdump - diagnostic / information tool
>>
>> I hope to retire all use of these obsolete binutils before FreeBSD 13.
>> Here I'd like to discuss objdump. It is a diagnostic tool that
>> provides information about object files, binaries and libraries. It's
>> not required as a bootstrap tool (i.e., not needed to build FreeBSD
>> world or kernel). It is required to build a limited number of ports,
>> and is used by some developers.
>>
>> I have a tracking PR for GNU objdump's retirement open in PR 229046.
>> https://bugs.freebsd.org/229046.
>>
>> There are two ways we can proceed with its retirement:
>>
>> 1. Remove it without replacement. Ports that need objdump to build
>> will have to depend on the binutils package/port, and users who wish
>> to use it will have to install it.
>>
>> Related links for this path:
>> Ports exp-run: https://bugs.freebsd.org/212319
>> Patch review: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D7338
>>
>> 2. Install llvm-objdump in its place (perhaps via a symlink).
>> llvm-objdump is broadly compatible in both command-line argument
>> parsing and output format, but there are many small differences and
>> it's not a full drop-in replacement.
>>
>> Related links for this path:
>> Patch review: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D18307
>>
>> I am interested in feedback on the preferred approach. Installing
>> llvm's objdump has the advantage that for most use cases everything
>> will "just work", but may also introduce subtle failures.
> 
> IMO no. 1 is preferrable because we do not need to track differences, nor
> we need to explain them.  Having to install binutils port is not a high cost,
> and if somebody needs details about binary at the level provided by objdump,
> including disassembler, she would need binutils port anyway.

+1

-- 
Renato Botelho