Adding 32 bit application to ports

R

russellallen

Hi,
I have an open source app (a language VM) which compiles and runs on FreeBSD.
It is a 32 bit x86 app, and is unlikely to be updated to x64 any time soon.
It would be nice to have it in ports, but I'm unsure how you package 32 bit applications for use on x64.
Is this possible? Is there some information out there that someone can point me to?
Compatibility-wise, it doesn't require much, just 32 bit versions of core libraries (eg libc, libx11).
 
Is there a reason it won't be updated to support 64-bit?
Is it also Intel-only? Or will it work on i.e 32-bit Armv6?

The only similar project I know of that isn't 64-bit clean is (also a language VM) the Inferno Dis VM for Limbo.
 
shkhln said:
That's both very easy and effectively not allowed. Ask https://www.freebsd.org/portmgr/ for details.
Click to expand...
Ok, thanks.

kpedersen said:
Is there a reason it won't be updated to support 64-bit?
Is it also Intel-only? Or will it work on i.e 32-bit Armv6?
Click to expand...
It’s cross platform: it also runs on such modern architectures as 32 bit Sparc and PPC :)

It’s an old code-base.

kpedersen said:
The only similar project I know of that isn't 64-bit clean is (also a language VM) the Inferno Dis VM for Limbo.
Click to expand...
Possibly for the same reasons. The memory system relies on pointers being 32 bits, and the system is a JIT compiler which compiles to x86.

Moving to 64 bit is a big undertaking. I suspect a from scratch rewrite is more likely.
 
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