Dear mentor-readers,

    Recently, I ran into the following problem, which I'm unable to solve
unless a powerpc (PPC) user is willing/able to assist by either performing
some tests in collaboration with me, or by (temporarily) offering me an
account.

    Here's the problem:

On packages.debian.org [1], the PPC package of stealth 1.45-1 appears to
be empty. It's the only platform showing this peculiarity, and since I
currently have no access to a PPC, it's very hard to find out what caused
this. The buildd log [2] shows a strange series of three `rm -rf' logs,
instead of the proper installation.

    The following would be helpful:

    1. install `icmake', and obtain the stealth source package [1].

    2. Untar the stealth archive, and from the top-level directory
(stealth-1.45) run the following commands:

        ./build install /tmp

    This command will fail, since nothing has been built yet, but it shouldn't
do the `rm -rf' things that show up in the buildd logs.

    If this works well and if stealth's other build-requirements are installed
to, (libbobcat1-dev (>= 1.9.0), yodl (>= 2.01.03), g++ (>= 4.0.0), tetex-bin,
tetex-extra, and gs | gs-gpl a full manual build might be performed:

        ./build distclean
        ./build manual
        ./build man
        ./build program
    and then:
        ./build install /tmp

    Saving all output of the build process and making it available to me would
of course be greatly appreciated.

    2. Another test would be to reorder the flow-control in the build script
and see what happens next. Looking at the build-script you'll see the
following code-section:

        option = element(1, argv);
    
        if (option == "clean")
            clean(0);

        if (option == "distclean")
            clean(1);
    
        if (option == "install")
            install(element(2, argv));
    
        if (option == "man")
            manpage();
    
        if (option == "manual")
            manual();
    
        if (option == "program")
            program();

        One of the things that might be worth investigating is what happens
when these alternatives are reordered. E.g., by placing the clean-alternatives
at the end:

        option = element(1, argv);
    
        if (option == "install")
            install(element(2, argv));
    
        if (option == "man")
            manpage();
    
        if (option == "manual")
            manual();
    
        if (option == "program")
            program();

        if (option == "clean")
            clean(0);

        if (option == "distclean")
            clean(1);
    
    followed by rebuilding the package.


        3. Finally, I would be interested in inspecting the compiled build
script. To obtain the compiled script, the following would be required:

            mv build build.im
            icmake -c build.im
            mv build.im build

        This produces a file build.bim which is the byte-compiled script. The
command `icmun build.bim' should produce (after some initial tables) a long
list of assembler-like instructions on the standard output stream. It would be
nice to know if icmun runs fine on the build.bim file, and I would very much
like to have that .bim file.

    
    It's a lot of things to ask, but I would greatly appreciate your help by
performing as many of the above tests as possible. If you run a test, could
you save the produced output on file, and send me the output? With test 3 the
output is not useful. Instead, receiving the binary .bim file would be
appreciated.


    As an alternative, if somebody could offer me a (temporary) account on
his/her PPC, I could perform the tests myself, which would of course reduce
the need to request and communicate the results of possibly many tests.

[1] http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/stealth
[2] 
http://buildd.debian.org/fetch.php?&pkg=stealth&ver=1.45-1&arch=powerpc&stamp=1157481042&file=log&as=raw

If you're able to help, its probably best to contact me on my
[EMAIL PROTECTED] address.

Thanks in advance for any offered assistance,

[Cc: George Danchev, Francesco Paolo Lovergine]

-- 
    Frank B. Brokken
    Computing Center, University of Groningen
    (+31) 50 363 9281
    Public PGP key: http://pgp.surfnet.nl:11371/
    Key Fingerprint: 8E36 9FC4 1DAA FCDF 1A0D  B19F DAC4 BE50 38C6 6170

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