gcj/java status

[Matthias Klose <doko@cs.tu-berlin.de>]

[didn't see this email reaching the lists, sending it again]

Please consider moving the following packages to testing:

	gcj-4.1
	java-gcj-compat
	gcc-defaults
	ecj-bootstrap
	gjdoc

The packages don't show regressions compared to the versions currently
in testing.  For m68k, both a working compiler and runtime is provided
with gcj-4.1.1-16/17.

Architecture specific problems (testing and unstable) are:

 - s390: #338755, ecj won't be built anymore with eclipse-3.2
   (although eclipse isn't yet supported on s390), doesn't seem to
   be an issue.

 - alpha: #390982, bus errors in the interpreter, doesn't show any
   build issues, status of the runtime is rather unknown. Falk?

 - hppa: #390982, bus errors in the interpreter, worked around by
   a wrapper to gij; forwarded, status unknown.
   #388505: segfaults in gcj-dbtool-4.1, worked around in the
   packages, unable to use the byte-code compiled to native code.

 - arm: debian only port, not yet submitted to upstream; runtime is
   currently non-functional, testsuite shows failures for all
   interpreter test cases.
   #388505: segfaults in gcj-dbtool-4.1, not addressed.

Going back to gcj-4.0 for arm could be an alternative, at least simple
programs did compile to native code and run sucessfully. The testsuite
in 4.0 shows over 100 test failures, in 4.1 over 700. Reverting back
to 4.0 for arm would mean to use an older java-gcj-compat for arm as
well. Another alternative would be to replace the gcj runtime with
kaffe, using patches from upstream CVS (suggested by Dalibor Topic).

For etch, I currently don't have the time and hardware resource to
spend work on arm.

  Matthias