On 21 May 2024, at 09:31, Nicolas Graves via Pharo-dev <pharo-dev@lists.pharo.org> wrote:

Hi Pharo community,

I'm trying to package pharo in the GNU Guix linux distribution. Since
the distribution is focused on reproducibility and avoids using binary
code when possible, for that I need to reproduce the bootstrapping steps
that are embedded in Pharo. I understand from some developper online
comment that this is possible.

I've started to work on this and it seems feasible, at least I get the
dependency loop, what I've some difficulty is to get precisely when it's
possible to get started.

     -------------------
     |                 v
 pharo VM            pharo
     ���                 |
     -------------------

If I'm correct,
- bootstrapping is very clear after version ~7.0.0, and with a proper
build, just follow the distribution numbers in wget's with a cmake
build-system.
- for earlier versions, there's the repository
https://github.com/pharo-project/PharoBootstrap
that seems (git history) to be able to go back to Pharo 30.
- I understand that at some point, Squeak and Pharo used to have the
same VM. I have access to a squeak-vm 4.10.2.2614 in Guix, and I've seen
this is in Pharo's ftp files, so I guess I can start there.

What I need:
- Some indication about the first version of Pharo that I'm able to
build purely from squeak-vm, and where to find its source code
(git+version or commit if possible, I seem to only be able to find its
binaries currently in phero's ftp files).
- Any useful information for early bootstrap steps.

Some useful information on my side:
- During the build process in Guix, we can't download data, so the
entire bootstrap chain has to be explicited at once, hence the need to
go back to the beginning in this case.

Thanks in advance!

--
Best regards,
Nicolas Graves