Re: [Xen-devel] Please document new build requirement for 'patch'

[Jared Rhine <jared@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > The unstable branch just got a new build dependency: patch.
> 
> The build system also depends on gcc, ld, as, sed, cat, mv, ...

Sure, and those are documented at the bottom of the README.  My
suggestion is to add 'patch' to that list.

> I think patch is a core tool in any sane Linux setup.

As I mentioned, of course it's reasonable.  It's not in Debian
'required', however, and the requirement wasn't there before, so since
the team went through the effort to document the build requirements, I
assumed that notices of changes to that list would be appreciated.

> > I previously mentioned that the addition of ioemu added a slew of new
> > build dependencies (g++, X11, etc), and that those dependencies should
> > also be documented.
> 
> If you send us a patch to automatically look for g++ and the X11
> libraries, and print a warning and bail if they are missing, then
> we'll be happy to check it in. This will depend on a text editor and
> on 'diff'. :-)

The Xen build system "bails" automatically as it's written now.  You get
a fatal error if g++, X11, or others are not present :)

My feedback here is the same as well.  As long as the build requirements
are documented in the README, I'm a little bewildered if the team
doesn't want to keep that document up to date.  Adding g++/X11 seemed a
fairly large leap over the lean build requirements previously needed.

I'm autobuilding Xen for the XenCD work.  That building is automated and
done within a controlled environment (Debian debootstrap "required"
built every time).  So I'm catching changes to the build requirements
that others are perhaps not.  (BTW, I had to move this direction because
I was building a debootstrap dom0, and if I built Xen outside my dom0, I
would get libc link errors of 2.3.3 vs 2.3.4, for example).

If you'd prefer that I skip notifying the team when I notice changes
needed to that environment, that's the way I'll proceed.  Otherwise, I
presume you'd like to at least hear of needed documentation changes,
even if no action is taken.  Of course, you'd prefer patches instead of
whining and sometimes I do send patches along with suggestions.  But
right now I'm just focused on working around any such issues in order to
get to a XenCD prerelease.

> I have in mind something like the docs/check_pgs script which is
> called from the 'docs' target in the root Makefile and will bail from
> building the docs if the script fails.

That would of course be reasonable.  Since I'm not providing that patch
at this time, this can either stay as merely an issue for the mail
archives, or can get put onto some wishlist roadmap the team maintains.

-- 
Jared Rhine <jared@xxxxxxxxxxx>



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