Greetings:
While trying to build a recent edition of wget on a Tru64 system, I
ran into a problem, apparently involving gnulib's maint.mk
("build-aux/maint.mk"?)
On a system with an old gzip, say version 1.2.4 (which is supplied
with Tru64), the victim gets much spewage from an unhappy gzip test.
For example:
urtx# gmake
gzip 1.2.4 (18 Aug 93)
usage: gzip [-cdfhlLnNrtvV19] [-S suffix] [file ...]
-c --stdout write on standard output, keep original files unchanged
-d --decompress decompress
-f --force force overwrite of output file and compress links
-h --help give this help
-l --list list compressed file contents
-L --license display software license
-n --no-name do not save or restore the original name and time stamp
-N --name save or restore the original name and time stamp
-q --quiet suppress all warnings
-r --recursive operate recursively on directories
-S .suf --suffix .suf use suffix .suf on compressed files
-t --test test compressed file integrity
-v --verbose verbose mode
-V --version display version number
-1 --fast compress faster
-9 --best compress better
file... files to (de)compress. If none given, use standard input.
Making all in lib
[...]
The cause of this clutter appears to be this part of maint.mk:
# Do not save the original name or timestamp in the .tar.gz file.
# Use --rsyncable if available.
gzip_rsyncable := \
$(shell gzip --help|grep rsyncable >/dev/null && echo --rsyncable)
GZIP_ENV = '--no-name --best $(gzip_rsyncable)'
Sadly, old versions of gzip send the help/usage report to stderr, not
stdout, so ">/dev/null" alone does not discard it. (And grep wouldn't
see an "rsyncable", even if it were there.) Folding stderr into stdout
looks harmless to me (not quite a proof of correctness, I realize), and
seems to solve the spewage problem:
gzip_rsyncable := \
$(shell gzip --help 2>&1 |grep rsyncable >/dev/null && echo --rsyncable)
For the record, that's on Tru64 V5.1B-4 (Patch Kit 6), but I'd expect
that anyone with a sufficiently obsolete gzip would see it, too.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven M. Schweda [EMAIL PROTECTED]
382 South Warwick Street (+1) 651-699-9818
Saint Paul MN 55105-2547
