Re: Porting to Haiku

On 01/11/2013 04:36 PM, Mark Hellegers wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have read the developers FAQ which directed me to this mailing list.
> I am still using Postgresql on Zeta (descendant of BeOS), but it is
> becoming time to upgrade, so I installed Haiku (open source
> reimplementation of BeOS) on another machine and downloaded the 9.2.1
> source of Postgresql.
> I used an older version of Postgresql which still contained the BeOS
> support to see what needed to be done to get 9.2.1 working on Haiku.
> Now that I have Postgresql running (with some issues I am still
> investigating), I would like to create patches to get Haiku support
> added to the official tree of Postgresql.
> I do have some questions before I submit a patch:
> - Assuming all patches are applied to get Postgresql running, what does
> it require to keep it in there? I noticed you removed the BeOS port,
> because no one was maintaining it. What does it take to maintain a
> port?
> - Can I submit patches for smaller parts or do I need to submit all the
> patches in one go? For example, can I submit the patch for the
> configure part first and other changes later?
> - I have a problem compiling Postgresql after I installed iodbc. Iodbc
> also contains a header called sqltypes.h, which the compiler picks up
> before the one in the ecpg include directory as it is in the general
> include directory for the system. Is that something someone has seen
> before and knows what is wrong? It could be some mistake I made in my
> changes.
>
> I am planning to get the latest sources from git and apply my patches
> on that source as I am assuming that is preferred and I don't need
> 9.2.1 specifically.
>

I think we'd only support a new platform prospectively, so yes, use git
master.

You can submit patches in small parts, but I would really hope that the
changes required are not going to be very big, so there's not a lot of
point. If they are going to be huge it might in fact make us think twice
about the value of supporting it.

You will make us a lot more comfortable about supporting Haiku if you
will undertake to set up and maintain a buildfarm animal running it. One
thing we don't want is new port that we have no way of making sure stays
current.

cheers

andrew