Re: [bug-gtypist] gtypist fails to build with ncurses[tinfo]

[Felix Natter]

hi Tim,

>> On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 09:55:17PM +0100, Felix Natter wrote:
>>> I coded a very simple solution (PKG_CHECK_MODULES, if that fails use
>>> AC_CHECK_HEADER/LIB), which works both with "ncursesw.pc" and without:
>>
>> But does it work without pkg-config?  I suspect that it will throw an
>> error message complaining that pkg-config is not available.
>
> I _think_ I tried it and PKG_CHECK_MODULES catches that.
>
>> There is another problem as well... If I install my own, local copy of
>> libncursesw in to, say, ~/mylibs/myncursesw and then try to go like
>> this:
>>
>>   $ ./configure "LDFLAGS=-l$HOME/mylibs/myncursesw"
>>
>> it will not work.  pkg-config will use the library that the system
>> knows about instead.  There is an interesting post about it here[1].
>
> Ok, good point.

--> maybe one can use this instead (from ./configure --help, exported by
PKG_CHECK_MODULES):

Some influential environment variables:
  [...]
  PKG_CONFIG  path to pkg-config utility
  PKG_CONFIG_PATH
              directories to add to pkg-config's search path
  PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR
              path overriding pkg-config's built-in search path
  NCURSESW_CFLAGS
              C compiler flags for NCURSESW, overriding pkg-config
  NCURSESW_LIBS
              linker flags for NCURSESW, overriding pkg-config
  EMACS       the Emacs editor command
  EMACSLOADPATH
              the Emacs library search path

---> so ./configure "NCURSESW_LIBS=-l$HOME/mylibs/myncursesw" should
work (in conjuction with [1])?

>> The same post also suggests a way to use PKG_CHECK_MODULES, which we
>> discussed before, that is "correct":
>>
>>   1. invoke AC_CHECK_LIBS *first*, so that the "usual" mechanisms are
>>   given a chance to work.
>>
>>   2. if that fails, invoke PKG_CHECK_MODULES
>>
>>   3. if that succeeds, invoke AC_CHECK_LIBS again, in case pkg-config
>>   returned something invalid.
>>
>> I agree with you, though -- step 3 probably isn't too important.  But
>> would you mind changing your fix to run AC_CHECK_LIBS first, and then
>> PKG_CHECK_MODULES on failure?  I think that would be a better
>> solution.

The problem is that for gentoo
(https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=483778,
https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=457530) we need to (optionally)
add -ltinfo, so we probably could do something like (untested)
(and the build will fail again if another -lfoo is added to ncursesw.pc):

AC_CHECK_HEADER(ncursesw/ncurses.h, HAVE_NCURSESW_H=1)
AC_CHECK_LIB(ncursesw, add_wch, HAVE_LIBNCURSESW=1)
AC_CHECK_LIB(tinfo, cbreak, [LIBS="-ltinfo $LIBS"]) # for gentoo
if test -n "$HAVE_NCURSESW_H" -a -n "$HAVE_LIBNCURSESW";  then
   LIBS="-lncursesw $LIBS"
else
   PKG_CHECK_MODULES(NCURSESW, ncursesw, [
      LIBS="$NCURSESW_LIBS $LIBS"
      CFLAGS="$NCURSESW_CFLAGS $CFLAGS"], [
   echo -e "Error:  both library and header files for the ncursesw library\n"\
    "are required to build this package.  See INSTALL file for"\
    "further information. On Debian/Ubuntu you need to install 
libncursesw5-dev."
   exit 1])
fi

--> but I consider [1] to be cleaner. Am I missing something, what do
you think?

[1] (old solution):
PKG_CHECK_MODULES(NCURSESW, ncursesw, [
   LIBS="$NCURSESW_LIBS $LIBS"
   CFLAGS="$NCURSESW_CFLAGS $CFLAGS"], [
   AC_CHECK_HEADER(ncursesw/ncurses.h, HAVE_NCURSESW_H=1)
   AC_CHECK_LIB(ncursesw, add_wch, HAVE_LIBNCURSESW=1)
   if test -n "$HAVE_NCURSESW_H" -a -n "$HAVE_LIBNCURSESW";  then
      LIBS="-lncursesw $LIBS"
   else
      echo -e "Error:  both library and header files for the ncursesw 
library\n"\
      "are required to build this package.  See INSTALL file for"\
      "further information. On Debian/Ubuntu you need to install 
libncursesw5-dev."
      exit 1;
   fi
])

Best Wishes,
-- 
Felix Natter