Re: PATCH [0/3]: Simplify the kernel build by removing perl.

H. Peter Anvin
2009-01-04T02:39:52Z

Jamie Lokier wrote:
>
> Related query:
>
> Does the Perl script being replaced use 64-bit arithmetic? Because
> many Perl installations only do 32-bit arithmetic.
>
> If the Perl version works in 32-bit arithmetic, why does the shell
> version not do the same thing?
>

The Perl version uses Math::BigInt, a Perl standard module (with a
canned-values fallback for ancient or minimal Perl installations) to do
arbitrary precision arithmetic.

The original version also produced constants that could be used with
64-bit values, but since gcc doesn't support 128-bit arithmetic on
32-bit platforms (gcc *does* support 128-bit arithmetic on 64-bit
platforms) we didn't end up using it and removed them, although the code
to generate them can still be activated.

-hpa

--
H. Peter Anvin, Intel Open Source Technology Center
I work for Intel. I don't speak on their behalf.