Re: Emacs 29.0.50 Snapshot binaries for WIndows

[Corwin Brust]

On Sun, Feb 20, 2022 at 10:34 PM Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote:
>
> However, I have a feeling that you're focusing on the free GNU/Linux
> distros that we do or could recommend.  (Please correct me if I'm
> mistaken.)  If that is true, what is the situation with the most
> popular GNU/Linux distros, such as Ubuntu?

That's right.  I would tend to focus on Trisequel or ARCH first.  Most
very large distributions offer packaged binaries made from Emacs
development versions such as snapshots from master or pre-releases
(e.g. from the emacs-28 branch) via volunteers working on those
distros.  Here is an example of a team that produces Emacs snapshot
builds for Ubuntu:
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-elisp/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

>
> We avoid suggesting people use those.  But, many people use Ubuntu
> despite its nonfree software, just as many do use Windows despite its
> nonfree software.  Are Emacs snapshots superfluous for Ubuntu?
> Is this the case for Ubuntu?

Basically yes:  if I did what I do for windows for Ubuntu that work
would generally be wasted as the "Ubuntu Emacs Lisp Team" has already
done this and made their packages easy for Ubuntu users to fetch and
install via the distros package management tools.

>
>   > So, if we try to make snapshots for GNU/Linux, we are likely "chasing
>   > the tail" of efforts happening (and which, indeed, should be
>   > happening) nearer to users' explicitly trusted sources/controls
>
> This idea might be a good one:

More than for the sake of having binaries build for various distros
around, I think it might be helpful to regularly run tests against
such compiled versions.   We could also offer then for download, but I
think few people would need to use Emacs snapshot binaries.

>
> One question about basic info.  Could you tell me more about the
> Windows snapshots that are being made?  What sources are they being
> made from, and when?

Snapshots are made from the Emacs "master" branch.  Pre-releases are
made from the emacs-28 branch.  In either case, they are made by using
git to pull the latest changes down to a machine running Windows.
That machine is already loaded with compilation tools and dependencies
supplied by MSYS/MinGW.  When the binaries are finished I also create
zip files of the Emacs sources used as well as one with the sources
for the MSYS/MinGW packages used.

Here's an example set that I created yesterday adding the compilation
option to create native elisp (ELN) files for all of the included
elisp programs/libraries.  (We haven't decided to create and
distribute any "NATIVE_FULL_AOT" versions via official GNU servers,
but I wanted to try packaging one.)  The first link (README) lists and
describes each file produced by the "packaging" process I'm using to
create binaries of Emacs for Windows.  The second link lists the files
for download (from my own webserver, not any GNU resource):

https://corwin.bru.st/emacs-28/snapshots/NATIVE_FULL_AOT/README
https://corwin.bru.st/emacs-28/snapshots/NATIVE_FULL_AOT

Having automated builds of Emacs and testing reports from each one is
something I'd like to work on.  If others feel that is worth doing,
I'd be happy to coordinate efforts with/per Emacs
maintainers/devs/etc.,  In that case, the first question is probably
where/which servers to use.  If I were to take the "head-first"
approach I would use non-GNU servers to create my "proof of concept".
I think I can do that without much additional assistance from Emacs
maintainers.  I'm also happy to wait while a more considered plan is
crafted and then perhaps there will be bits of that plan I can help
with,

Kind regards,
Corwin