make avail: check for presence of binaries before creating symbolic links

[Compyx]

To avoid creating broken symlinks, first check if the binaries exists in bin/ and exit when they don't, with a message to first run make.

[mrdudz]

The idea is good - but i am not sure i like it is using the shell (our Makefiles don't use the shell).

@oliverschmidt any idea how this can be done just using make? I'd have to look it up and play around (but its probably possible... i guess)

[oliverschmidt]

I.e. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5553352/how-do-i-check-if-file-exists-in-makefile-so-i-can-delete-it

BTW: A consistent name for AVAIL_check_prog would be PROG_CHECK_recipe.

[Compyx]

I tried the ifeq approach first, but the problem with that is that's is evaluated at parse time and we're trying to do the checks inside a rule. But i'll give it another shot.

[rofl0r]

you could just foreach( wildcard ../bin ... instead foreach($PROGS)

[Compyx]

I'm not sure what you mean.

Are you talking about the foreach loop that installs the symlinks? I assume the PROGS list is there to make sure it installs only symlinks to those programs, not everything that happens to be in ../bin/. And the current PR doesn't contain a foreach after the last commit.

[rofl0r]

Are you talking about the foreach loop that installs the symlinks?

right.

if you think that there may be stuff in ../bin that's not in $PROGS (though, why should it?) you can maybe use a filter.

[Compyx]

If we use a glob to install the symlinks, then if the user didn't run make before running make avail there will be no warning and no symlinks installed. The point of this PR is to warn the user about running make first, not to silently do nothing.

[rofl0r]

The point of this PR is to warn the user about running make first, not to silently do nothing.

in that case you can just add $(PROGS) to prerequisites of the avail target, so make avail will build the progs first if they dont exist.

avail: $(PROGS)

[Compyx]

I know.

The disadvantage of that is that make avail requires root privileges, so when we add $(PROGS) as prerequisite for make avail, the binaries and all intermediate objects will be built as root, which means the user cannot run make or make clean again without first changing the ownership all of build objects back to theirs with sudo or su.

Which is why I didn't simply add $(PROGS) as dependency of avail.

[Compyx]

Any movement on this? It's not exactly brain surgery I'm performing in this PR ;)

[mrdudz]

forgot :)

[Compyx]

Thanks! =)

[inexorabletash]

FYI, broke my workflow:

https://github.com/a2stuff/build-install-ca65-action/blob/016c3208a7ebfaa7b6b98f7b090dc481bca12239/action.yml#L8

which only does:

sudo make -C /tmp/cc65 ca65 ld65 avail

ETA: I updated my workflow to "manually" link ca65 and ld65 targets. Just a heads-up that others may have taken similar shortcuts.

[mrdudz]

FYI, broke my workflow:

https://github.com/a2stuff/build-install-ca65-action/blob/016c3208a7ebfaa7b6b98f7b090dc481bca12239/action.yml#L8

which only does:

sudo make -C /tmp/cc65 ca65 ld65 avail

ETA: I updated my workflow to "manually" link ca65 and ld65 targets. Just a heads-up that others may have taken similar shortcuts.

To be honest - i am thinking about removing this "avail" target altogether, because it is very non-unix and "install" is the right thing to do anyway.

[Compyx]

I agree removing make avail and having a proper make install (including not having to manually provide PREFIX, but defaulting to /usr/local/) would definitely remove some of the unpleasant surprises of trying to install cc65. It would also simplify distributing cc65 since make avail depends on the source tree remaining present, which is a very peculiar requirement, to put it mildly.

[spiro-trikaliotis]

It would also simplify distributing cc65 since make avail depends on the source tree remaining present, which is a very peculiar requirement, to put it mildly.

But distributing cc65 is no problem (provide a PREFIX and use make install).
Please, if the install target is changed, please make sure to do it in a way that the packetizer can react on it in a timely manner. Having a default /usr/local is not a problem, but removing make targets or changing their behaviour might be.

[mrdudz]

Having a default /usr/local is not a problem, but removing make targets or changing their behaviour might be.

I don't think any packager uses "make avail" :)

[spiro-trikaliotis]

I don't think any packager uses "make avail" :)

Me neither. But: It was mentioned that removing make avail (and adding a default PREFIX) would simplify distribution. I don't think so: Providing a PREFIX should be very familiar for any packetizer, and avail is nothing one would do. So, I do not see how this would simplify distributions.

However, changing behaviour of install beyond providing a default PREFIX might be problematic, depending upon what it is exactly.

As I am packetizing cc65 myself, I only wanted to raise my voice to be careful when doing changes here.

[Compyx]

Last time I used make install the assembler couldn't find the .mac files it required, they were installed in $PREFIX/share/cc65, but the assembler failed with a message about longjump. So I'd like to fix make install to the point you actually get a usable installation of cc65 that doesn't rely on the source tree being present.

Perhaps @mrdudz can move this into a discussion topic?

[mrdudz]

Perhaps @mrdudz can move this into a discussion topic?

Interestingly.... i cant do that here, for some reason (perhaps because it is merged?) - so better open a new discussion topic :)