[SyncEvolution] Compiling syncevolution on Debian jessie

[Patrick Ohly]

On Sun, 2014-01-19 at 16:56 +0000, Graham Cobb wrote:
> One small problem: the syncevolution build finishes by creating the
> README, which requires executing the version of syncevolution that has
> just been built.  In my case, that doesn't work.
> 
> I built libsynthesis, installed it in /usr/local and then told
> syncevolution configure to look there (using
> PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/:/usr/lib/pkgconfig/).  I did
> NOT put /usr/local into LD_LIBRARY_PATH.  That is mainly because my
> syncevoution testing involves using a script which sets up several
> important environment variables, including LD_LIBRARY_PATH (and, in
> fact, I do my testing on a different machine).  Anyway, the compilation
> all worked but the syncevolution that is built cannot be run.  Which is
> fine by me, but not fine for this final stage of the build.
> 
> It would be nice if one of several things was possible:
> 
> 1) The README building script worked out how to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH
> (pkg-config worked out where the library was, after all).

I disagree here slightly. I think pkg-config is meant to find installed,
usable versions of the libraries. When installing a lib into a
non-standard local (non-standard = not search by default) then whoever
installs it there needs to ensure that it works. This means setting
PKG_CONFIG_PATH and, if the .pc file doesn't contain an rpath setting
for the lib, also LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

Having to second-guess how the lib was installed IMHO makes using it too
complex and shouldn't be in the user of the lib.

> 2) I could tell configure to statically link libsynthesis.

If libsynthesis was configured with "--disable-dynamic --enable-static",
SyncEvolution will use the static library. However, because it gets
linked into a dynamic library, one also has to use "-DPIC -fpic" as
CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS when configuring libsynthesis.

> 3) I could tell configure that the built image won't run and the README
> step was dropped.
>
> 4) The perl script which creates the README handled syncevolution not
> running and put some default text in instead.

The building of the README is already more tolerant if doing
cross-compilation. In that case, the compiled executable might not work
on the build machine. It is tried to run it, but when it fails, a
fallback text about sync and source properties gets inserted into the
README.

I did not want that tolerant behavior as default because then it would
be very easy to not notice the incomplete doc when building a release
and something broke (like not having LD_LIBRARY_PATH set).

I'm fine with adding a configure option. Should the more tolerant
behavior be the default or the stricter, current approach?

-- 
Best Regards, Patrick Ohly

The content of this message is my personal opinion only and although
I am an employee of Intel, the statements I make here in no way
represent Intel's position on the issue, nor am I authorized to speak
on behalf of Intel on this matter.