Re: [mpop-users] gnulib and DragonFly 1.8.0/i386

[Martin Lambers <marlam@...1...>]

On Wed, 05. Dec 2007, 08:44:35 -0600, reed@...8... wrote:
> Building mpop-1.0.12 worked for me on DragonFly 1.10.1-RELEASE but it was 
> reported to me it failed on DragonFly 1.8.0.
> 
> Here is the error when attempting to build base64.o:
> 
>  In file included from /usr/include/wchar.h:73,
>                   from ./stdint.h:90,
>                   from /usr/include/sys/types.h:50,
>                   from /usr/include/stdlib.h:42,
>                   from ./stdlib.h:30,
>                   from base64.c:50:
>  ./stdio.h:372: error: syntax error before "getdelim"
>  ./stdio.h:395: error: syntax error before "rpl_getline"
>  *** Error code 1
> 
> 
> What is the purpose of all this gnulib? Why not just use the system's own 
> features? Why mix and match of system headers with your own headers 
> that ab^H^Huse the same header names? Any way to disable gnulib?

The purpose of gnulib <http://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/> is to
increase portability. The idea is to write the program for an ideal
bug-free POSIX system, possibly with some GNU extensions if the
programmer wants that, without using #ifdefs and/or similar cludges in
the main source code.

Gnulib uses heavy autoconf magic to provide replacement headers and
functions where it is necessary to fix the deficiencies of the real
system. This introduces a lot of complexity in the gnulib subdirectory,
and sometimes it fires back, like in this case.

Nevertheless, I think all in all it solved more problems than it created
so far. I tried the manual porting approach before, and it was a pain.

Since every real system has some flaw or another, gnulib code is always
involved when building a program that uses gnulib.  Unfortunately,
there's no way to disable the gnulib stuff with a simple configure
switch or something similar.

> The configure logging is at 
> http://www.pkgsrc-box.org/reports/current/DragonFly-1.8/20071201.2048/mpop-1.0.12/configure.log
> 
> And the build logging is at 
> http://www.pkgsrc-box.org/reports/current/DragonFly-1.8/20071201.2048/mpop-1.0.12/build.log

Thanks for the bug report. I'll post it to the bug-gnulib@...13... mailing
list and ask for help.

Martin