Windows will no longer be supported by ASDF, or ASDF, Windows, Cygwin -- oh, my!

[Stas Boukarev]

On Sun, Mar 20, 2016 at 11:23 PM, Robert Goldman <rpgoldman at sift.net> wrote:
> I can set the configuration properly from an environment variable.
>
> But there are a number of tests that then reach out into the environment
> and try to reconfigure the source or otherwise read information.
>
> These are test-program.script test-try-refinding.script
> test-utilities.script
>
> None of these work properly when Lisp is running under cygwin.
>
> I'm inclined to think that this is an ASDF+Windows problem, and not a
> problem to be fixed in the tests.  If you run a Lisp under cygwin, and
> you call some of these functions, they should simply error out, because
> the cygwin environment is going to give the lisp pathnames that it can't
> handle.
>
> Further, (a) we don't know how to call out to cygwin; (b) we can't call
> out to CMD.EXE when running under cygwin, because we have a polluted
> environment; and (c) UIOP cannot detect when it is running under cygwin.
>
> Under the circumstances, RUN-PROGRAM simply doesn't run reliably under
> cygwin.  Worse, since we can't detect Cygwin, we really can't reliably
> run under windows at all, since we don't know when these functions will
> and won't work.
>
> This suggests the following:
>
> 1. We desperately need ASDF to be able to detect when it's running under
> cygwin, so it can at least error out when it's going to function wrong.
>
> 2. I don't know how to program make.bat.  I will not be learning how to
> program make.bat.  The test scripts that I can run are shell scripts.  I
> have not been able to make Fare's lisp build and test scripts work and I
> am no longer trying to make them work at all, ever, anywhere.  I don't
> believe they work any better under Cygwin, anyway.
>
> Ergo, if ASDF works on Windows, it will only be a matter of luck.
>
> Ergo, ASDF needs a windows tester and maintainer.  I quite simply
> decline to perform this function.  Someone who wants ASDF to work on
> Windows should step up.
>
> Unless someone steps up by the end of March, all further ASDF releases,
> starting with 3.1.7 will be officially Windows non-supporting.  Windows
> patches and bug reports will be accepted.  I will not make any attempt
> to fix Windows ASDF bugs myself.  I will make only those Windows tests
> that I can make under Cygwin.
>
Then I guess SBCL holding back on ASDF upgrades is a good strategy after all.

-- 
With best regards, Stas.