Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH 1/8] doc: update Linux GSG system requirements section

[Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson@intel.com>]

On Thu, Nov 28, 2019 at 03:22:05PM +0100, Thomas Monjalon wrote:
> 28/11/2019 15:11, Bruce Richardson:
> > On Thu, Nov 28, 2019 at 12:51:27PM +0100, Thomas Monjalon wrote:
> > > 22/11/2019 17:03, Bruce Richardson:
> > > [...]
> > > > -*   GNU ``make``.
> > > > +*   General development tools including ``make``, and a supported C compiler such as ``gcc`` or ``clang``.
> > > 
> > > Why referring to make and not meson?
> > 
> > Because even with meson build we still use make for building kernel
> > modules, and this first bullet item is all about getting the basic build
> > packages which come from build-essential etc. Make is part of that build
> > tools group on distros, meson and ninja are not.
> 
> OK
> 
> > > > -*   gcc: versions 4.9 or later is recommended for all platforms.
> > > > -    On some distributions, some specific compiler flags and linker flags are enabled by
> > > > -    default and affect performance (``-fstack-protector``, for example). Please refer to the documentation
> > > > -    of your distribution and to ``gcc -dumpspecs``.
> > > 
> > > I think we need to keep some compiler requirement somewhere.
> > > What do you suggest?
> > 
> > I'm happy to keep this compiler requirements in here. Is 4.9 still
> > regularly tested with DPDK to ensure it works? Also, if we put in a GCC
> > requirement, do we not also need to put in a clang one? For recent distros
> > is this really something most users need to worry about?
> 
> It allows us to know which compiler we must support.
> And for distributions, it can help.
> I think we should have clang version too.
> 

Ok, I'll add 4.9 recommendation in V2. If we have a minimum clang version
you want included, I can add that too, if someone gets it to me in time :-)

<snip>
> > > > +*   Meson (v0.47.1+) and ninja
> > > >  
> > > > +    * Recommended to use the latest versions from Python's "pip" repository:
> > > > +      ``pip3 install meson ninja``
> > > 
> > > Why recommending pip? Is 0.47.1 enough?
> > 
> > It is enough, this was done again in the interests of simplification -
> > rather than worry about what versions are in what distro and having the
> > user check, it simplifies things if everyone just uses pip, which is why I
> > recommend it.
> 
> I think we should let users take the responsibility of using their distro
> package or pip.
> Recommending pip is a little pushy.
> 

Ok, will add possibility of using distro packages in V2.

<snip>