Bug#1087831: openal-soft: FTBFS on powerpc|ppc64: assumes that PowerPC machines, toolchains support Altivec

[Simon McVittie]

On Wed, 20 Nov 2024 at 14:56:07 -0500, Sean McGovern wrote:
> I wonder if 'powerpc' will see the same issue of support for 64-bit atomics
> also noted for 'armel' and 'sh4' configurations in #1087824.

Maybe - I don't know what atomic operations 32-bit powerpc supports.

armel has usually been the outlier in its lack of useful lock-free
atomics: most of the other "reasonable" 32-bit architectures, like
armhf and i386, have enough lock-free atomics to meet upstream projects'
typical assumptions. I hadn't realised until I opened #1087824 that sh4
has the same limitation. sh4 is an embedded processor from the late 90s,
most famously used in the Sega Dreamcast, so most upstreams are unlikely
to be particularly interested in having their software run on it.

If openal-soft becomes available on ppc64 but not powerpc as a result of
fixing or working around this particular bug, that's certainly better than
nothing! (And I would consider that to be a solution to #1087831.)

    smcv