Hello Everybody
Abstract
-----------
Solaris has differtent system-tools, all the GNU tools are prefixed g-
(ie. gtar). Some tools and dependencies of the build-system have to be
installed from OpenCSW on older solaris. In this mail I discuss how to
integrate these tools in the build-system and a policy to integrate
latest AOO changes (toward GNU) into solaris.
Both topics are too connected to make two mails, but feel free to anwer
only on one topic.
Tools Integration
----------------------
I start a build on a new solaris version. This time I like to ONLY do
mergable changes. The main problem lies in the tools. Many tools (grep,
sed, tar…) are detected in configure. On solaris it will typically
detect (ggrep, gset, gtar…), but most scripts just use the stanard
names anyway.
I don't have a problem with scripts not using the detected tool. I
think we should define GNU-Tools as standard. Otherwise the already
complicated build system gets unnecessary error sources.
I think there are two approaches:
A. Detect all the tools needed in the build system and have every
script use the detected tool.
B. On systems that have prefixes for the GNU tools a pre-step in the
build process creates a GNU Environment. This is how my build system
currently works and it should IMO be integrated into the AOO
build-system-bootstrap.
B "Virtual" GNU Env
(All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of
indirection)
1. If /path/to/build is the build directory, a directory
/path/to/build/bin should be created
2. The directory should be added to PATH="/path/to/build/bin:$PATH"
3. Find the g-prefixed tools and symbol link them into bin without prefix
On a current build system:
oobuild@sunt1000sparc ~/slave/aoo-trunk-solaris-11-sparc/build/bin [8
files, 7.5K] (master)
$> ls -l
total 9
lrwxrwxrwx 1 oobuild staff 18 Oct 10 12:34 find ->
/opt/csw/bin/gfind
lrwxrwxrwx 1 oobuild staff 18 Oct 10 12:34 grep ->
/opt/csw/bin/ggrep
lrwxrwxrwx 1 oobuild staff 19 Oct 10 12:34 patch ->
/opt/csw/bin/gpatch
lrwxrwxrwx 1 oobuild staff 17 Oct 10 12:34 perl ->
/opt/csw/bin/perl *
-rwxr-xr-x 1 oobuild staff 107 Oct 10 12:34 pkg-config *
lrwxrwxrwx 1 oobuild staff 17 Oct 10 12:34 sed -> /opt/csw/bin/gsed
lrwxrwxrwx 1 oobuild staff 17 Oct 10 12:34 tar -> /opt/csw/bin/gtar
* Special Cases:
1. On some old solaris I can't easily install all the perl-modules
needed for the build-system. So I installed perl using the thrid-party
package manager OpenCSW.
2. As you see, since I had OpenCSW anyway I used all the OpenCSW tools
to be consistant, many tools would be in standard solaris too.
3. pkg-config:
$> cat pkg-config
#!/bin/bash
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/usr/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/share/pkgconfig"
/opt/csw/bin/pkg-config "$@"
pkg-configs command line interaface on solaris 10 was outdated. So I
installed pkg-config in OpenCSW, __BUT__ used a PKG_CONFIG_PATH that it
only finds system libraries, NOT libraries from /opt/csw. I also
checked that our build only depends on system libraries (with the
exception of libpoppler for the pdf plugin)
These fixes must be merged into the build-system, so AOO will build
out-of-the-box. Although I see no way around OpenCSW. But what packages
from OpenCSW are needed could be added to the build-instructions.
Policy
---------
I need to find out what direction we should go, in order to make a
decent proposal.
Can we make OpenCSW manatory? (All our clients had no problem with
that, and it seems pretty standard)
Can we make the "virtual" GNU Env (build/bin) as part of
build-system-bootstrap?
Then some policy definition:
1. I think it is quite possible that we have to link against a library
from OpenCSW in future. Will that be ok?*
* libpoppler is an example. On customer uses the pdf plugin that has
libpoppler from OpenCSW linked.
2. I'd vote for the following policy:
- Use everything possible from Standard Solaris
- Use tools when needed from OpenCSW
- Use these OpenCSW tools through the "virtual" GNU env (no adding of
/opt/csw/bin to path)
- Use libraries from OpenCSW only if there is NO other solution
- Only add library in a per module fashion:
export POPPLER_CFLAGS="-I/opt/csw/include -I/opt/csw/include/poppler"
export POPPLER_LIBS="-L/opt/csw/lib -lpoppler"
- Never generally add /opt/csw/lib
Finally, since I like to switch to GNU-Compiler-Toolchain on solaris
too, building this GNU-Environment will accompany this transition well.
Best,
Jean-Louis
--
Adfinis SyGroup AG
Jean-Louis 'Hans' Fuchs, Software Engineer
Keltenstrasse 98 | CH-3018 Bern
Tel.: +41 31 550 31 11
