Re: [DynInst_API:] dyninst 9.3.2 and gcc 4.4

["Mark W. Krentel" <krentel@xxxxxxxx>]

As Matt points out, Blue Gene doesn't get any updates for front-end
compilers.  They continue to sit at RH 6.x and gcc/g++ 4.4.

The local admins could install later FE compilers, but they don't.
Red Hat could do better by providing packages for later compilers.

But that's part of the point.  Unless it's always available, then
you're back to providing a path for systems that don't have some
package.  And directions that include, "go build this compiler," or
"install this as root," are a big deal.

Clang is available at Argonne.  I've been reluctant to go that route
because we also build several other packages and I don't know how many
failures will need to be patched for them.  It will be a different set
from yours, but I don't know if it will be zero.  Either that or I
have to mix and match, this with gnu, that with clang, etc.

I guess all I really "want" is a clear policy of what the line is and
some understanding of what the line means.  (In this case, >4.4 makes
Blue Gene more difficult.)

That's about all ... with a few exceptions.  :-)

--Mark



On 05/12/17 15:30, Matthew LeGendre wrote:
> On Fri, 12 May 2017, Bill Williams wrote:
> > First question: do these systems have a default version of clang or
> > icc that supports this feature? It should be fine to build Dyninst
> > with either of those assuming they're recent enough (and I've been
> > working with icc builds off and on locally).
> mira is a BlueGene, so certainly no icc.  IBM isn't relasing upgraded FE
> compilers, so I'd be surprised if there were any new ones on mira--we
> certainly don't have any.
>
> > Second, and more general, question: is there any rhyme or reason to
> > which HPC systems are stuck on a RHEL6 or equivalent baseline, and how
> > difficult is it to convince the sysadmins to make a reasonable
> > compiler available?
> For the BlueGene/Q systems no one's upgrading past RHEL6.  That's IBM's
> supported distro.  I'd guess there's 1-2 years lifetime left on most
> BlueGene/Q installations.
>
> For LLNL's linux clusters, I'd guess RHEL6 has another 1-1.5 years left.
> But it's much easier to have upgraded compilers on them, so we have
> plenty of alternative gcc/clang/icc installations.  Clusters tend to
> have a lifetime of approx 4-5 years, and major OS upgrades are hard, so
> we can linger on old OS versions for a while.
>
> -Matt