[LLVMdev] RFC: Drop support running LLVM on Windows XP

Aaron Ballman
Fri, 31 Jul 2015 13:34:16 -0000

On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 9:09 AM, Greg Bedwell <gregbedwell at gmail.com>
wrote:
> It sounds like there are no objections to jumping to Windows 7 as the
> baseline.  Is it worth getting a note added to the next LLVM weekly to give
> the potential change a bit of a wider viewership before going ahead with it
> or are we in a position to just do this now?  If so, what are the actual
> mechanics of the change, and who'd like to do it?

I think we should definitely get a note into the weekly update. We may
also want to get it into the 3.7 release notes as a warning to users.

I suspect we're in a position to make the switch now. As for the
mechanics, I'm less certain of all the places we have to touch, but
intuition suggests cmake and WindowsSupport.h.

~Aaron

> Thanks!
> -Greg
>
> On 14 July 2015 at 06:55, NAKAMURA Takumi <geek4civic at gmail.com>
wrote:
>>
>> +1. We may focus Windows 7, aka NT6.1, as the baseline.
>>
>> 2015年7月14日(火) 7:48 Aaron Ballman <aaron at aaronballman.com>:
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jul 13, 2015 at 6:26 PM, Reid Kleckner <rnk at
google.com> wrote:
>>> > Nobody objected to raising the bar, so I think we can go ahead
and do
>>> > this.
>>> > Keeping the XP support until 3.7 ships seems reasonable as
it's less
>>> > disruptive.
>>>
>>> Agreed.
>>>
>>> > Should we consider bypassing Vista and jumping to 7 as the
lowest
>>> > supported
>>> > Windows version as David suggested? I think we should document
7 as the
>>> > recommended baseline. After we start using some of the newer
APIs, we
>>> > can
>>> > see if users complain and evaluate the burden of maintaining
Vista
>>> > support
>>> > at that time.
>>>
>>> I think it's reasonable to switch to Windows 7 at this point.
Vista's
>>> mainstream support ended in 2012 and only has extended support
until
>>> 2017, so it's sunsetting already.
>>>
>>> ~Aaron
>>>
>>> >
>>> > On Mon, Jul 13, 2015 at 2:28 PM, Greg Bedwell <gregbedwell
at gmail.com>
>>> > wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> Hi all,
>>> >>
>>> >> It looks like this conversation stalled.  I have a local
patch that
>>> >> I'd
>>> >> like to send upstream (automatically generating Windows
crash dumps on
>>> >> clang/LLVM crashes) that makes use of a Windows API
function that
>>> >> requires
>>> >> _WIN32_WINNT set to 0x0600 at minimum so I'd like to
restart the
>>> >> conversation!
>>> >>
>>> >> As there have so far been no objections that I've seen
and we're
>>> >> branching
>>> >> imminently, it feels like a perfect time to make this
change as soon
>>> >> as the
>>> >> release branch is taken, and adding a release note for 3.7
to the
>>> >> effect of
>>> >> it being the final version supporting XP.  I don't
think there's been
>>> >> a
>>> >> clear conclusion on what we should raise it to though.
>>> >>
>>> >> Any thoughts on this?
>>> >>
>>> >> Thanks,
>>> >> -Greg
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> On 31 October 2014 at 16:30, Robinson, Paul
>>> >> <Paul_Robinson at playstation.sony.com> wrote:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> We formally support our toolchain only on Windows 7
onward, so it's
>>> >>> okay
>>> >>> with us.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> (Please make sure this goes in the release notes when
you start doing
>>> >>> something not supported in XP and/or Vista.)
>>> >>>
>>> >>> --paulr
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> From: llvmdev-bounces at cs.uiuc.edu
>>> >>> [mailto:llvmdev-bounces at cs.uiuc.edu] On
>>> >>> Behalf Of Jim Rowan
>>> >>> Sent: Friday, October 31, 2014 1:05 PM
>>> >>> To: Reid Kleckner
>>> >>> Cc: LLVM Developers Mailing List
>>> >>> Subject: Re: [LLVMdev] RFC: Drop support running LLVM
on Windows XP
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> +1
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> On Oct 30, 2014, at 3:29 PM, Reid Kleckner wrote:
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I'd like to raise our baseline Windows system
requirements to Vista,
>>> >>> dropping support for running LLVM on Windows XP.
Microsoft dropped
>>> >>> support
>>> >>> for XP half a year ago in April 2014.
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Our current status is that we require VS 2012 to build
LLVM, and VS
>>> >>> 2012
>>> >>> only runs on Vista+, but it has the ability produce
binaries that run
>>> >>> on XP.
>>> >>> During the C++11-pocalypse, users expressed interest
in keeping this
>>> >>> working. I'm proposing that we drop support for
this.
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Vista introduced a lot of handy system APIs that could
significantly
>>> >>> simplify LLVM's Support library. For example,
I'd really like to use
>>> >>> the
>>> >>> blessed one-time initialization routines in this CL:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> http://reviews.llvm.org/D5922
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Vista also introduced a bunch of condition variable
APIs that I know
>>> >>> less
>>> >>> about, but that's another reason we might want to
raise our base
>>> >>> requirement
>>> >>> as people look into parallel LTO and codegen. It also
seems likely
>>> >>> that we
>>> >>> will want to use some of the new C++11 library
features that are only
>>> >>> present in newer CRTs, which don't run on XP.
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Please respond if you have any objections. If there
are no strong
>>> >>> objections, I think we can start using Vista+ APIs in
a week or so.
>>> >>> We can
>>> >>> still change our minds and revert stuff before the
release if users
>>> >>> feel
>>> >>> this is too short notice.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> _______________________________________________
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>>> >>> http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc. is a member of Code
Aurora Forum,
>>> >>> hosted
>>> >>> by the Linux Foundation
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
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>>> >>>
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> >
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>>
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