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

[H. Peter Anvin]

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.

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