Re: [Caml-list] [RFC] Remaining changes for cross-compilation support in OCaml

[Anil Madhavapeddy <anil@recoil.org>]

On 20 Feb 2014, at 16:53, Xavier Leroy <Xavier.Leroy@inria.fr> wrote:

>> 
>> **************************** Further Goals ****************************
>> - cross-compile the compiler: build a native Windows toolchain on Linux
>> - canadian cross support: ${build}, ${target}, ${host} are all
>>  different, i.e. on Linux, build a toolchain that runs on Windows 64b
>>  but targets Windows 32b or a different architecture/OS like ARM Linux.
> 
> That could be a nice touch if it's not too much extra work.  The issue
> was discussed at the last OCaml dev team meeting that Wojciech
> attended, and we agreed that some scenarios were less important than
> others, e.g. nobody really needs to compile from a 32-bit host for a
> 64-bit target.

This would actually be quite useful for Mirage compilation, since we've
had quite a few (~10) reports of people attempting to compile up OCaml
kernels intended for Xen (x86_64) using x86_32 host machines, with one
brave chap even trying on an ARM32 Chromebook.  The output kernels are
spun up on a remote cloud service like Amazon or Rackspace, and so being
flexible about the host machine is helpful.

(This scenario is certainly less important than the 32-bit target for
a 64-bit host, but I just thought I'd point it out)

-anil