Action plan for 16.x upgrades

[AshCripps]

This issue is the tracker for the updates and upgrades we need to undertake before the release date of 16.x in April 2021.

Toolchain updates

These machines will need the new versions installed and added to the ansible scripts

• Linux x86
• Linux arm
• Linux cross compiling
• MacOS
• Windows
• AIX
• zLinux
• Linux on P
• IBMi
• zOS
• smartos

Scripts

• Select-Compiler
• Possible some other jenkins scripts?

Known Issues/Blockers

[rvagg]

From #2423, so far there's agreement that we need to get to at least devtoolset-7 for all the Linux platforms. V8 will force this on us. If we can get to a later one then even better but this is probably going to be dictated by IBM folks.

[AshCripps]

We would like to go to devtoolset-8 (GCC8) - A lot of our systems already have that available and ones we have in the pipleline are targeting 8 aswell.

[richardlau]

We don't release on it, but we still test on smartos -- I assume we'll need to update those too?

[AshCripps]

ah I forgot to mention feel free to update the list as I knew I wouldve forgotten something - Ill add smartos now

[rvagg]

yeah, and we should also look at what we should retire when we do these, we often don't clean up old combos as we move forward.

[AshCripps]

@rvagg 100% agree if we get on top of this early enough we can clear a lot of cruft from the buildfarm especially with 10.x going EOL roughly around the same time.

[anlexN]

i think we don't need more talking, many and many os already have newer toolchain that nodejs need. so please quickly upgrade. i need many modern C++ syntax (for example: smart pointer) to write nodejs, i think if so, nodejs source code can be decreased very much and lighter. can we go further? action plan for 15.x, not wait 16.x.

[AshCripps]

@anlexN Unfortunatly we can't push the update to 15.x as not all the platforms we support have GCC8 compatability and won't have it until near 16.x's release date. Also V8 won't require c++17 support until mid 2021 - https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/styleguide/c++/c++.md#modern-c_features

[anlexN]

but at least, we must remove python 2. it is died.

[AshCripps]

With nodejs/node#37677 landing - AIX will be up to date and running GCC8 on master. IBMi has GCC10 coming but as its only running on daily jobs and not regular test runs it should be fine to wait - same with z/OS. The Linux on P and Z machines already run devtoolset-8 so from the RH/IBM side we should be in the clear.

from a little poking around on the other platforms -

• smartos is running GCC7 so will need updating
• I think linux will be fine as there are GCC6 and GCC8 builds and the others are running a later compiler
• Windows was updated recently so should be fine
• Macos is running a fairly recent xcode so is ok
• Arm builds have GCC8 version so are fine
• Cross compiling however does need an update

We also need to update configure.py in core to warn on anything below GCC8 and update the rest of the docs in core

[mhdawson]

@rvagg are you going to be able to do the cross compilation updates?

[rvagg]

this has completely exited my mental stack - what's the requirement here, gcc8 all-round? this is a hard requirement going in to 16.x because of future upgrades, or actual code problem today? I think I got an initial gcc8 cross for armv7 prepared, but I'd need to revisit that, it would have been quite a while ago.

[AshCripps]

@rvagg I think we are future proofing as c++17 features are coming in V8 later this year IIRC

[targos]

nodejs/node#37871 updates the GCC requirement to 8.3
nodejs/node#37872 suggest to update Xcode to version 11

[rvagg]

Need to test the next nightly but I think Linux cross compiling can soon be ticked off, >=16.x should be compiling with gcc 8.3.0 and glibc v2.24 🤞.