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[Axiom-developer] RE: algebra Makefiles with explicit dependencies, boot


From: Bill Page
Subject: [Axiom-developer] RE: algebra Makefiles with explicit dependencies, bootstrap, fixed-points etc.
Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 21:19:17 -0500

Tim,

On Monday, January 03, 2005 6:29 PM you wrote:
> 
> Ah, you've hit the nail in my memory. The cyclic dependencies
> will cause the system to build in an arbitrary way. Adding the
> dependencies causes the algebra to violate the build order
> because make thinks it knows better.

If you give make the correct dependencies then it *does* know
better. I do not agree that "cyclic dependencies will cause the
system to build in an arbitrary way."

> 
> Once the algebra exists you can rebuild in any order so the bug
> only shows up in the first build.

What "bug"? I do not agree that "you can rebuild in any order".

> Thus the algebra does not "really" depend on the dependencies you
> are trying to hard code.

Yes it does.

> You can remake any algebra file without making the files it
> depends on if you have a running axiom with already built
> algebra.

No, that does not solve the problem. It only hides it.

> Indeed, if you modify one of the .spad.pamphlet files then typing
> "make" will do the minimum amount of work correctly.

I do not believe that.

> 
> re: BOOTSTRAP everything
> 
> The problem with this idea is that it is not needed.

I think you are wrong. You do not seem to understand what the
existence of a cyclic dependency implies.

> The bootstrap files are very fragile but only for the first build.

I am not sure what you mean by "fragile". They are lisp source code
files that should always compile the way they were intended.

> Once the algebra files have been built it is possible to change the
> .spad files any way you'd like.

It is possible to make such a change, but as a consequence Axiom
will no longer be in a consistent state. It will depend on the
order in which the changes have been made rather than just on
the spad source code itself. As a minimum all of the spad files
that depend on the file that you changed, and those that depend
on these in turn, need to be recompiled. But life in not even
this simple because there are cyclic dependencies and this
could potentially lead to an infinite loop. Just breaking this
loop in an arbitrary manner the way the Axiom build does now
is not enough.

> The 'hole' that a user can fall thru happens when they change an
> algebra file that has BOOTSTRAP code (which they did NOT update)
> and then try to build the system from scratch. In this case
> the first copy of the system will be built with no-longer-valid
> code.
> 
> What the user needs to do to change algebra which has 
> BOOTSTRAP code is:
> 
> build the system
> change the .spad file
> recompile the .spad file
> replace the BOOTSTRAP section of code with the newly
> generated .lsp
> 
> now the BOOTSTRAP code mirrors the algebra code and all
> is well.
>

All is not well even though the all of the code has
compiled.

This is a necessary step but it does not guarantee that the
Axiom system is fully consistent because this is a *cyclic*
dependency. Once you replace the bootstrap code, then you
must (once again) rebuild all of the code that depends on
it... potentially ad in finitum, except that you (usually
but I can not prove always) will reach a "fixed-point" after
the changes have propagated throughout each of the modules
in the cycle. The convergence to a fix-point might involve
at least as many repetitions as the longest cyclic dependency
in the code.

> I don't ever expect a user to reach that far down into the
> algebra. Making BOOTSTRAP files for all of the algebra opens
> this hole everywhere.

The hole already exists everywhere. The current make process
just does not address it. I doubt that the current build of
Axiom is self-consistent.

Whenever there is a "cyclic dependency" it is just like
solving a set of interdependent equations

   ax+b=y
   cy+d=x

i.e. y depends on x and x depends on y. We want to find values
for x and y that simultaneously satisfy both equations. We know
how to solve this for the general case when the relations are
linear. But if we didn't, we could try a "bootstrap" approach.
We could start with some (bootstrap) value for x, compute y and
they use y and the old value of x to compute a new x, etc. In
complex systems of equations, this is a fairly efficient
algorithm with which to solve the system.

The same thing is happening in the Axiom algebra spad code, but
solving this (i.e. producing the correct binary code for all
of the spad files in the cycle) is not so easy because the
relationships between the spad files can be quite "non-linear".
changes could potentially propagate in rather complex ways.
A single pass through the bootstrap loop such as you describe
above is quite unlikely to produce a consistent solution for
all of the modules in a cycle except where the changes actually
fail to propagate (possible in some cases where the dependency
is conditional).

Regards,
Bill Page.





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