ERL-241: erts/start_scripts sometimes fails compile with: mv: cannot stat 'RELEASES': No such file or directory

[OTP-Maintainer]

Original reporter: kentnl
Affected versions: OTP-18.3, OTP-17.4, OTP-19.0
Fixed in version: OTP-19.1
Component: erts
Migrated from: https://bugs.erlang.org/browse/ERL-241

---

Forwarded bug from https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=537206 

Primary analysis suggests that something transpires that invokes the target

{quote}{{erts/start_scripts/RELEASES.src}}{quote}

Prior to the building of 

{quote}{{erts/start_scripts/start_sasl.rel}}{quote}

https://github.com/erlang/otp/blob/maint/erts/start_scripts/Makefile#L193-L196
{quote}{code:Make}
RELEASES.src:
    $(gen_verbose)$(INSTALL_DIR) $(SS_TMP)
    $(V_at)( cd $(SS_TMP) && \
    $(ERL) -noinput +B -eval 'release_handler:create_RELEASES("%ERL_ROOT%", "$(SS_ROOT)", "$(SS_ROOT)/start_sasl.rel", []), halt()')
    $(V_at)mv RELEASES RELEASES.src
{code}{quote}

This appears to have the {{create_RELEASES}} invocation silently fail,and then the subsequent {{mv}} fails.

Reproducing the problem at a global context is not straight forward, but it is mostly straight
forward to demonstrate that directly invoking the {{RELEASES.src}} target on a clean directory fails due to failure to ensure dependencies build.

Suggested fixes are either 

{quote}{code:diff}
-RELEASES.src:
+RELEASES.src: $(SS_ROOT)/start_sasl.rel
{code}{quote}

or

{quote}{code:diff}
-RELEASES.src:
+RELEASES.src: $(REL_SCRIPTS)
{code}{quote}

I however don't know which is the right approach because I don't fully understand what side effects may exist, if any, from the respective choices.

I have however tested the first of these two, and it resolves the problem for me to the best of my understanding.

[OTP-Maintainer]

egil said:

Your suggestion looks good. I'll add a fix for it to 19.1. Thanks!