[Pkg-ace-devel] [ace-users] autotools

[Douglas C. Schmidt]

Hi Pau,

   We appreciate your help on this.  Please let us know what fixes we
need to add to ACE+TAO to get them building on Debian more smoothly!
   
   Thanks,
   
        Doug

> On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 7:24 PM, Thomas Girard <thomas.g.girard at free.fr> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > Johnny Willemsen wrote:
> >>
> >> Just not use autoconf as way to build a packaged tree. Use the
> >> config.h/platform_macros.GNU approach to compile ACE. Than supply patches
> >> for the debianbuild back to the mailing list so that things can be
> >> integrated into ACE. That is the only way how things can be maintained,
> >> putting packaging files outside of the core distribution is a maintenance
> >> nightmare.
> >
> > Here's my point of view:
> >  * it's easier to track packaging outside of the trunk, and synch
> >   packaging when needed. Debian and ACE+TAO have different contraints
> >   and schedule. It's harder to track a moving target rather than a
> >   chosen one. Dependencies are evolving as well (g++, QT, autotools),
> >   so focusing on the trunk version of ACE+TAO is something that
> >   requires a lot of spare time.
> >
> >   Pease remember that once a version is available through Debian stable
> >   it has to be supported by the Debian maintainer.
> 
> Fully agreed. In fact, I'd prefer if the 'debianbuild' contents would
> be removed and it just contained a README.Debian telling people to go
> to http://packages.debian.org/libace-dev for the source/binary
> packages, and pkg-ace-devel if they want to help with packaging.
> 
> 
> >   Anyway, now that Pau has stepped in to help on the maintenance the
> >   Debian packages will be updated from 5.6.3+1.6.3 to the latest
> >   release.
> >
> >  * autoconf support will *not* be dropped from the packages. This effort
> >   has already improved ACE+TAO autoconf support. Debian runs on many
> >   different architectures and OS (GNU/kFreeBSD, GNU/Hurd); so having
> >   autoconf working out of the box is something that will benefit
> >   both Debian and ACE+TAO.
> >
> >   But we can prepare an alternative package build mechanism that will
> >   rely on the traditional method, and have this mechanism be the
> >   default package building mode for Linux platforms.
> >
> > Pau wrote:
> >>>
> >>> It does not work on Debian Unstable, for instance  ("Debian" meaning
> >>> "any Debian-derivative, including Ubuntu"). The generated 'configure'
> >>> does not work. I'm trying to bring ACE 5.7.4 to Debian using the ACE
> >>> 5.6.3 packaging as the starting point. The generated 'configure' file
> >>> does not work.
> >
> > (...)
> >
> > I eventually found the culprits on the 5.6.3+1.6.3 version. Using the latest
> > autotools, we have two errors:
> >  1. there's and 'else fi' generated in configure, and the shell can't
> >    grok it when there's nothing in between. It seems easy to fix this.
> 
> Yes, I had already located and worked this around.
> 
> >  2. there's an 'fidone' instead of 'fi done'. This can be, at least,
> >    worked-around.
> 
> Thanks! This was the main stopper I was suffering now. I had not
> noticed the 'fidone's (there are several of them). I have now manually
> fixed them and ACE 5.7.4 is building. This makes ACE 5.7.4 be "almost"
> in Debian :-)
> 
> > I think packages for 5.6.3+1.6.3, even if outdated, should compile again
> > on Debian/unstable with those fixes.
> 
> It'd require a few patches from pkg-ace/trunk/debian/patches still
> (93-96 but I'm speaking from memory).
> 
> I'll have some news on the Debian packaging for 5.7.4 this Tuesday night.
> 
> -- 
> Pau Garcia i Quiles
> http://www.elpauer.org
> (Due to my workload, I may need 10 days to answer)