Re: packages tests

[Bruno Haible]

Hi Collin,

> I think now the correct step is for me to build various GNU packages
> from user.txt. With luck I won't run into issues, but who knows. I'll
> keep notes of which ones I tried and update after a bit.

I also tried a few packages. Depending on the package, I use
  - $ gnulib-tool --update
    if the package has a gnulib-cache.m4 under version control,
  - $ ./autogen.sh
    if such a file exists
  - $ ./bootstrap --no-git --gnulib-srcdir=$GNULIB_SRCDIR
    if a 'bootstrap' script exists.

I already found these problems:

* Package 'barcode': The package wants the 'free' module, but it is nowadays
  called 'free-posix'. While the shell implementation prints a warning,
  the Python implementation prints a stack trace and aborts.

  I think that neither of these behaviours are desirable. The best behaviour
  would be that it prints an error message (not warning message) and continues,
  and the exit code at the end is 1.

  An error message is desirable for modes other than 'import', 'add-import',
  'remove-import', 'update', because these gnulib-tool invocations typically
  occur in scripts and are followed by autoconf and automake invocations.
  A warning message is desirable in the other modes.

* Package 'freedink':

  configure.ac has: AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR(autotools)

  $ diff -r -q /packages/freedink /packages/glpydg5mPM
  Only in /packages/freedink: autotools
  Only in /packages/glpydg5mPM: build-aux
  Files /packages/freedink/gnulib/lib/Makefile.am and 
/packages/glpydg5mPM/gnulib/lib/Makefile.am differ
  Files /packages/freedink/gnulib/m4/gnulib-cache.m4 and 
/packages/glpydg5mPM/gnulib/m4/gnulib-cache.m4 differ
  Files /packages/freedink/gnulib/po/LINGUAS and 
/packages/glpydg5mPM/gnulib/po/LINGUAS differ

  $ diff -u /packages/freedink/gnulib/m4/gnulib-cache.m4 
/packages/glpydg5mPM/gnulib/m4/gnulib-cache.m4
  --- /packages/freedink/gnulib/m4/gnulib-cache.m4   2024-04-01 
18:44:14.061114983 +0200
  +++ /packages/glpydg5mPM/gnulib/m4/gnulib-cache.m4 2024-04-01 
18:44:08.253067390 +0200
  @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
   #  --po-base=gnulib/po \
   #  --doc-base=doc \
   #  --tests-base=tests \
  -#  --aux-dir=autotools \
  +#  --aux-dir=build-aux \
   #  --no-conditional-dependencies \
   #  --no-libtool \
   #  --macro-prefix=gl \

  The problem happens here:

            # Update configuration dictionary.
            self.config.update(self.cache)     # HERE the value is set to 
'autotools'
            for key in config.keys():
                value = config[key]
                if not config.isdefault(key, value):    # HERE 'build-aux' is 
not considered to be the default
                    self.config.update_key(config, key) # HERE 'autotools' gets 
overwritten with 'build-aux'

  Here I would revisit the entire 'auxdir' handling.

Bruno