[Libguestfs] Makefile probably incorrect

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Mon, Jul 06, 2020 at 07:52:42PM -0300, Ezequiel Santos wrote:
> Actually, I was trying to compile it from the AUR repository (
> https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/libguestfs-git/) when I came across this
> problem.
> Now, answering your question:
> *1. Are there any files under common/ ?*
> Yes. There are several files there in, including Makefile.am,
> guestfs_protocol.x, but not guestfs_protocol.c or guestfs_protocol.h
> 
> However, I was talking to the package maintainer and he's stated that
> 
> > rpcgen is used to create the files that are missed in your builds:
> >
> > $ grep -n rpcgen makepkg.out
> > 3426:checking for rpcgen... rpcgen
> > 4712:checking for rpcgen... rpcgen
> > 5409:rpcgen -c -o guestfs_protocol.c-t guestfs_protocol.x
> > 5410:rpcgen -h -o guestfs_protocol.h-t guestfs_protocol.x
> > 5749:rpcgen -h -o rc_protocol.h-t rc_protocol.x
> > 5750:rpcgen -c -o rc_protocol.c-t rc_protocol.x
> >
> > So I think the solution would be to add *rpcsvc-proto* (provider of
> > rpcgen) to makedepends. On feedback that it works I'll make this update.
> >
> 
>  I installed *rpcsvc-proto *and indeed it created the missing files
> (including the .c and .h file mentioned above) and it eliminated that
> compiler error (just now I got a different one, which I'll try solving
> later),
> 
> However, it is of my concern that, as the maintainer of that package
> mentioned:
> 
> > This is a bit messy:
> >
> >    1. error should have been triggered at configure stage when rpcgen was
> >    not found, rather than at compile stage.
> >    2. http://libguestfs.org/guestfs-building.1.html does mention in
> >    section *Full list of requirements* that *The rpcgen tool is optional,
> >    except if you want to compile from git*. However, there is section *BUILDING
> >    FROM GIT* which also lists specific dependencies, but not rpcgen; so
> >    if you are directly looking for git build instructions, *you'll miss
> >    it. *
> >
> > I personally tried agree with him, because I tried to find info on how to
> properly compile this and although I didn't try manually fetching the code
> from git, I could find enough information to solve this problem and thus I
> think *there is *something to be fixed upstream, even if it's just
> documentation.

Why is the package being built from git?  The tarballs contain all the
files needed, and rpcgen isn't needed when building from the tarball.

Rich.

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