Sb-check and libz

[Chris Johns]

On 2/11/2014 9:11 am, Joel Sherrill wrote:
>
> I know we have discussed this before but even if GCC were fixed to detect the missing library, you still get a long way into the build before it dies.
>
> I checked the source and didn't see any examples of checking for libraries.
>
> What can or should we do to improve.the user experience?
>

It would be nice. Lowering the bar is an important part of the process.

There are a couple of possible paths. One is to extend the per host 
support to check for a standard set of packages that host operating 
system needs installed. The other is to attempt to detect the library.

The RSB currently supports detecting pkgconfig details for libraries. 
The qemu build in bare shows how this is done. The issue here is having 
this work in a uniform way across all hosts, ie a base install libz may 
not have a pkgconfig file. I just do not know. The other way is to add 
general support to check for libraries or headers with a compile test. 
You could include the waf code into the RSB and then use it to run the 
tests. I am not sure this is something we run each build. It depends on 
the time it takes.

Adding per host os package detection is Python code and needs a user for 
each packaging system to provide patches. There should be a class per 
packaging system and then instances in the host specific host detection 
code. The list of packages needs to a configuration file as the possible 
list can change and expand as new things are added to the RSB and it may 
need to be keyed on the version of the OS. The advantage of this method 
is the user is given a list of packages needing to be installed. The 
disadvantage is users needing to install all required packages some of 
which they do not need.

Chris