| 28 Jan 2026 |
 aleksi | Thank you so much everybody! I'm so glad to see this merged 😁 | 19:34:19 |
 Grimmauld (any/all) | so does this mean we don't need bootstrap tarballs on those platforms anymore? | 22:12:48 |
 Atemu | Yes, they're gone: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/479322/changes#diff-2d0187fb41342548148d9566346dc58e2af6166ff248ba3df66541877920799c | 22:25:20 |
| Atemu | The only non-source things we need now are:
- x86-compatible hardware/firmware
- booted Linux kernel
- something implementing nix instantiation and realisation
- stage0 binary seed
| 22:28:18 |
| Atemu | * The only non-source things we need now are:
- x86-compatible hardware/firmware
- booted Linux kernel
- something implementing nix instantiation and realisation
- stage0 binary seed
| 22:28:50 |
| Atemu | 2. and 3. can be solved using https://github.com/fosslinux/live-bootstrap | 22:29:53 |
| Atemu | (As described in this paper https://discourse.nixos.org/t/a-full-source-bootstrap-for-nixos/74801) | 22:30:33 |
 Ramses 🇵🇸 | Don't we also use binary bootstrap sources for things like rust and go? | 22:30:40 |
| Atemu | No | 22:30:49 |
| Ramses 🇵🇸 | Wait, we have a bootstrap chain for rust now, starting from C? | 22:31:25 |
| Atemu | Oh sorry, I missed the first word somehow | 22:32:03 |
| Atemu | We still use bootstrap binaries for those | 22:33:10 |
| Ramses 🇵🇸 | Yeah, ok, that's what I thought | 22:33:23 |
| Atemu | There were a few efforts to build rust compilers in C but I don't think they went anywhere | 22:33:34 |
| Ramses 🇵🇸 | I think the GCC backed is still being worked on upstream | 22:34:02 |
| Ramses 🇵🇸 | * I think the GCC backend is still being worked on upstream | 22:34:15 |
| Atemu | Like, you could use them but you'd need to chain through way too many rustcs to get to the current version | 22:34:20 |
| Atemu | Yeah, that's my hope too | 22:34:31 |
 whispers [& it/fae] | mrustc does currently work for rustc bootstrap, but it still tends to lag behind some number of versions (e.g. the current release supports 1.74.0, which means we'd have to build ≈20 versions to get to latest stable) | 22:35:16 |
| Atemu | But we'll have to see how quickly they implement new features required by the latest rustc in practice | 22:35:23 |
| whispers [& it/fae] | * mrustc does currently work for rustc bootstrap, but it still tends to lag behind some number of versions (e.g. the current release supports 1.74.0, which means we'd have to build ≈20 versions to get to latest stable. work is ongoing for 1.90.0, but this is mostly a single-person project and the chain will keep growing) | 22:36:12 |
| whispers [& it/fae] | as for go, dish has an open pr but whether that's something that folks want is an open question (see replies) https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/435345 | 22:38:18 |
| Atemu | There is also some early development in Haskell where someone is building a Haskell compiler that can (barely) be ran using hugs and supports some modern Haskell features. Don't think anyone has tried building GHC with it yet though.
https://github.com/augustss/MicroHs
| 22:43:44 |
| whispers [& it/fae] | * as for go, dish has an open/draft pr but whether that's something that folks want is an open question (see replies) https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/435345 | 22:44:56 |
 dish [Fox/It/She] | In reply to @whispers:catgirl.cloud
as for go, dish has an open/draft pr but whether that's something that folks want is an open question (see replies) https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/435345 frankly i would like that PR merged even if distpack comes at a later date but I am biased | 22:48:22 |
| dish [Fox/It/She] | just felt like they immediately blocked it and then havent done the work they insisted on blocking mine on | 22:48:46 |
| dish [Fox/It/She] | but that is coming from my perspective so... grain of salt | 22:49:04 |
| whispers [& it/fae] | same, but :/ | 22:49:36 |
| Atemu | One issue that is not clear to me is sustanability | 22:54:20 |
| Atemu | Is the bootstrap compiler still getting updates? | 22:54:45 |
