[HEADS UP] Clang 8.0.0 upgrade on 13.0-CURRENT

[Jan Beich]

Robert Huff <roberthuff at rcn.com> writes:

> Jan Beich writes:
>
>>  Recently /projects/clang800-import branch was merged[1] into /head.
>>  13.0-CURRENT now comes with Clang/libc++/LLD 8.0.0 (RC3 atm) in
>>  base.  Many ports have been fixed in advance but many also
>>  remain[2] broken.  If you receive mail from pkg-fallout@ one of
>>  your port no longer builds on head-*-default jails or the package
>>  you're using is no longer available this maybe the cause.
>
> 	_Please_ make sure to announce this in src/UPDATING and
> ports/UPDATING.

src/UPDATING has

  20190304:
          Clang, llvm, lld, lldb, compiler-rt and libc++ have been upgraded to
          8.0.0.  Please see the 20141231 entry below for information about
          prerequisites and upgrading, if you are not already using clang 3.5.0
          or higher.

This mail is meant for non-current@ population of users that maybe confused
as to what's going on. Clang upgrade in base doesn't affect just ports/ but
all software not explicitly opting to use different compiler.

As for ports/UPDATING default devel/llvm* update is a separate effort tracked
in bug 235215. OTOH, it's not disruptive enough to warrant UPDATING entry
due to few consumers.

> If this manages to truly replace previous versions a lot of people
> will want to know.

What does "truly replace" mean? If you mean broken ports then no Clang
upgrade ever had zero or, at least, none recently. Stuff gets fixed
based on the number of ports blocked first and those people are interested in.
Abandonware or ports without maintainers may never get fixed.

This isn't really specific to Clang upgrades. A lot of ports end up
being pruned each year due to failing to keep up with APIs of libraries
they depend on. For one, Qt4 is going to be removed soon but a number
of consumers haven't migrated to Qt5.

GCC upgrades also frequently break consumers but the impact is smaller
because it's not used on Tier1 architectures outside of Fortran as much.