Allow building on FreeBSD/i386

[UnitedMarsupials]

Generally, I don't think, explicitly prohibiting build on a platform is wise. If it fails -- it fails, but it should not be prevented from trying...

In particular, the below patch allows build to be attempted on FreeBSD/i386 -- setting the already used CLR_CMAKE_HOST_UNIX_X86:

--- eng/native/configureplatform.cmake	2025-03-13 17:40:22.000000000 -0400
+++ eng/native/configureplatform.cmake	2025-04-15 11:53:10.858273000 -0400
@@ -168,4 +168,6 @@
     elseif (CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR STREQUAL aarch64 OR CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR STREQUAL arm64)
         set(CLR_CMAKE_HOST_UNIX_ARM64 1)
+    elseif(CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR STREQUAL i386)
+        set(CLR_CMAKE_HOST_UNIX_X86 1)
     else()
         clr_unknown_arch()
--- eng/native/configurecompiler.cmake	2025-03-13 17:40:22.000000000 -0400
+++ eng/native/configurecompiler.cmake	2025-04-15 11:55:26.890280000 -0400
@@ -429,4 +429,6 @@
     elseif(CLR_CMAKE_HOST_UNIX_AMD64)
       message("Detected FreeBSD amd64")
+    elseif(CLR_CMAKE_HOST_UNIX_X86)
+      message("Detected FreeBSD i386")
     else()
       message(FATAL_ERROR "Unsupported FreeBSD architecture")

With the above changes, I was able to build the dotnet-executable on my FreeBSD-14/i386 here using the lang/dotnet-host port.

Maybe, if this is merged, the boostrap binaries -- which our lang/dotnet port is using -- will eventually appear.

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[am11]

I think nobody would have any objection for a new platform port, my experience is they are always welcome. You could try adding freebsd-x86 and freebsd-riscv64 next to linux- variants. Feel free to send PRs. 👍

Generally, I don't think, explicitly prohibiting build on a platform is wise. If it fails -- it fails,

This opt-in setup is to ensure someone has tried to build on the platform, maintainers and other community members have reviewed the changes and there is a list of tasks somewhere to track progress. .NET ports are not simple and getting things working end-to-end takes some time. Also, diagnostics is an important part; PlatformNotSupportedException and the likes are there to communicate with user which APIs are not available.

cc @arrowd, @Thefrank, @sec

[UnitedMarsupials]

This opt-in setup is to ensure someone has tried to build on the platform

Then, maybe, detecting a new platform should yield a warning -- but it should not be an error...

[Thefrank]

From the FreeBSD side, there is still signaling that i386 will no longer be supported starting with FreeBSD 15 but the document is more than a year old (https://www.freebsd.org/platforms/). MIPS and PPC 32bit have already been removed from support on FreeBSD.

New platforms for dotnet are always nice! Tests on the other hand, are the harder part. It is up to you to make sure everything is functioning correct and AFAIK source-build does not build/run tests but @arrowd or @sec might have a better idea as they use source-build more than I do.

[sec]

@UnitedMarsupials you're welcome to open PR with those changes, if those unblock build on i386.
but also as @Thefrank already said, i386 support is phased out - may I ask are you still using some i386 hardware and/or dotnet software on it? :)

[UnitedMarsupials]

@UnitedMarsupials you're welcome to open PR with those changes

Do you really need a formal merge-request for such a trivial patch?

already said, i386 support is phased out - may I ask are you still using some i386 hardware and/or dotnet software on it? :)

I don't think, that's been settled -- I sure hope, not. 32-bit MIPS and PPC may not be valuable, but i386 is FreeBSD's (and Linux', for that matter) very first and original hardware platform and remains useful for smaller VMs, where 4Gb of addressable memory is quite sufficient and there is no need to waste RAM on wide pointers...

I submitted this patch to the maintainers of FreeBSD port, but they want bootstrap binaries to become available for FreeBSD before merging it...

[Thefrank]

I submitted this patch to the maintainers of FreeBSD port, but they want bootstrap binaries to become available for FreeBSD before merging it...

The bootstrap is something that you will have to build. For now, FreeBSD is a community supported platform for dotnet so you will not get official binaries from Microsoft.