RFC: Cygwin 64 bit?
JonY
jon_y@users.sourceforge.net
Sun Jun 26 12:11:00 GMT 2011
On 6/26/2011 19:45, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
>
> I'm not sure if you agree, but as far as I can see, 32 bit systems are
> more and more reduced to a niche market, namely Netbooks and other very
> small systems. On the Desktop, 32 bit is declining fast, in the server
> segment it's practically dead.
>
> Given this, I'm wondering how much future Cygwin has if we stick to
> 32 bit. I think it will be pretty limited. In fact, we're probably
> rather late in the game.
>
> Lately I read a bit more about how 32 and 64 bit processes can interact
> with each other on Windows, and it seems we could come up with a 64 bit
> DLL which shares all important information with its 32 bit counterpart,
> so that we could run 64 and 32 bit processes in parallel on a 64 bit
> system acting as a single system. This would be especially important,
> given the fact that 64 bit Cygwin applications will be pretty rare in
> the beginning.
>
Yes please, 64bit Cygwin will be very nice.
> As far as I can see what we have to do in about this order is
>
> - Discuss certain basics. This is probably the most crucial step.
> For instance:
>
> - What name should the 64 bit DLL have?
I think they should still use the "cyg" prefix, the libtool people was
against it when I suggested using a new prefix for 64bit mingw.
> - Where should 64 bit binaries and libs go?
Its best that if we can separate 32bit/64bit completely, so there won't
be any conflicting files.
> - Do we define "long" as 32 bit or 64 bit type?
I suggest 32bit, they'll be some awkwardness accessing w32api at the
Cygwin backend if they're 64bit.
> - What defines should a 64 bit Cygwin compiler define?
__CYGWIN__ and __CYGWIN64__? Just so to allow programmers to tell that
its cygwin and its 64bit.
> - What Windows headers and link libs do we use?
>
Bootstrap with mingw-w64? :)
> - Create a x86_64-pc-cygwin cross toolchain.
>
Yeah, I suppose newlib has to be ported first.
> - Create x86_64 replacements for x86 code and in general try to make the
> Cygwin code 64 bit clean where it isn't so far.
>
> - Decide how we can integrate 64 bit stuff into the distro. Will we have
> a 32 bit and a distinct 64 bit distro? Or, should we stick to a single
> distro? If so, how do we separate 64 and 32 bit stuff? What is the
> best package layout?
>
I suggest separating them, since I don't imagine they can interact with
each other anyway.
> - Change setup to allow installation of 64 bit stuff on 64 bit systems.
>
> This is a big project which can only work if we have help and support
> from the community. Before we can even contemplate to start discussing,
> I would like to learn:
>
> - How much interest do you have in a 64 bit Cygwin?
>
> - How much interest do you have to help to make 64 bit Cygwin real?
>
> - What part of the project would most interest you to help? Coding
> Cygwin? Documentation? Setup? Toolchain? You name it.
>
I'd like to help, but I don't know much on win32 API.
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