cross-compile problems in generators

[teverman]

Cross-compiling for PPC on x86, pi_gen_fe_defines can't execute because it's compiled for the target environment instead of the build host.

../generators/pi_gen_fe_defines: line 117: /generators/.libs/lt-pi_gen_fe_defines: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

[antoninbas]

This binary is run as part of the make to compile examples only. As a result the solution is probably to do one of the following:

1. exclude them from the build when we are cross-compiling (pretty sure we can detect that in configure.ac)
2. remove them from the automake build and use a separate Makefile for people to compile the examples if they wish (this Makefile will assume that the PI binaries are installed on the system doing the compilation)
3. compile the examples as part of the "make check" instead. This would make sense I think because "make check" cannot be run when cross-compiling.
   Right now I'm hesitating between 2) and 3). I may go with 3) now for the sake of time, with 2) potentially being a better long term solution.

[teverman]

Thanks Antonin.

I think we owe you a sorting out of PI from our perspective of:

1. What parts we need in common for all platforms, which need to be
   cross-compiled.
2. What additional parts we need for running in a "full P4" environment,
   i.e. the soft switch or a Tofino platform. Some of these probably don't
   need cross-compiling. For example, when we cross-compile a platform,
   with-bmv2 is off, but when I compile in a mininet VM, with-bmv2 is on.
3. Things the controller needs that aren't in 1 or 2, if any.
4. Anything left that we don't need.

I should be in a better position to do this in a few days.

Tom

On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 9:16 AM, Antonin Bas notifications@github.com
wrote:

This binary is run as part of the make to compile examples only. As a
result the solution is probably to do one of the following:

1. exclude them from the build when we are cross-compiling (pretty sure we
   can detect that in configure.ac)
2. remove them from the automake build and use a separate Makefile for
   people to compile the examples if they wish (this Makefile will assume that
   the PI binaries are installed on the system doing the compilation)
3. compile the examples as part of the "make check" instead. This would
   make sense I think because "make check" cannot be run when cross-compiling.
   Right now I'm hesitating between 2) and 3). I may go with 3) now for the
   sake of time, with 2) potentially being a better long term solution.

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[antoninbas]

That would be nice to have, but then again it's not very hard for me to have a rough idea of what falls into each category.
For this specific issue you raised, this binary is only used to compile examples, so it's pretty safe for me to disable it.

[antoninbas]

Went for 3) for not. Leaving this open in case I want to do 2) later.