Meson build with export-dynamic flag fails

[gnunn1]

Myself and some others are looking at replacing autotools in Tilix with meson for the various Linux distros to use when building and packaging the binary. However we are running into an issue with meson around the use of the -L--export-dynamic flag.

When compiling with meson using LDC and that flag the following errors are generated:

[66/66] Linking target tilix.
FAILED: tilix
ldc  -of tilix 'tilix@exe/source_secretc_secrettypes.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_secretc_secret.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_app.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_x11_X.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_x11_Xlib.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_secret_SchemaAttribute.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_secret_Item.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_secret_Schema.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_secret_Service.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_secret_Prompt.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_secret_Collection.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_secret_Secret.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_secret_Value.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_util_array.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_util_path.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_util_string.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_gtk_cairo.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_gtk_clipboard.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_gtk_x11.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_gtk_resource.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_gtk_vte.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_gtk_actions.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_gtk_threads.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_gtk_dialog.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_gtk_settings.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_gtk_util.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_gtk_color.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_appwindow.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_advpaste.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_search.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_regex.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_actions.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_activeprocess.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_terminal.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_layout.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_password.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_util.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_exvte.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_monitor.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_sidebar.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_customtitle.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_prefeditor_bookmarkeditor.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_prefeditor_profileeditor.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_prefeditor_common.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_prefeditor_prefdialog.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_prefeditor_titleeditor.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_prefeditor_advdialog.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_preferences.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_application.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_shortcuts.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_colorschemes.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_session.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_constants.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_common.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_cmdparams.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_encoding.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_closedialog.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_bookmark_manager.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_bookmark_bmchooser.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_bookmark_bmeditor.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_bookmark_bmtreeview.d.o' 'tilix@exe/source_gx_i18n_l10n.d.o' -L-L/usr/lib// -L-lgtkd-3 -L-ldl -L-lvted-3 -L-L/usr/lib// -L-lgtkd-3 -L-ldl -L-lX11
/usr/bin/ld: tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_appwindow.d.o: in function `_D2gx5tilix6common__T12GenericEventTCQBjQBj7session7SessionZQBn11__xopEqualsFKxSQDaQDaQCx__TQCtTQCiZQDbKxQBaZb':
/tmp/tilix/build/../source/gx/tilix/common.d:28: undefined reference to `_D6object__T8__equalsTxDFC2gx5tilix7session7SessionZvTxQBgZQBvFNaNbNiNfAxQByQfZb'
/usr/bin/ld: tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_terminal.d.o: in function `_D2gx5tilix6common__T12GenericEventTEQBjQBjQBg10ActionTypeTCQCgQCgQCd__T16CumulativeResultTbZQvZQCx11__xopEqualsFKxSQEkQEkQEh__TQEdTQDsTQCzZQEpKxQBeZb':
/tmp/tilix/build/../source/gx/tilix/common.d:28: undefined reference to `_D6object__T8__equalsTxDFE2gx5tilix6common10ActionTypeCQBdQBdQBa__T16CumulativeResultTbZQvZvTxQCtZQDiFNaNbNiNfAxQDlQfZb'
/usr/bin/ld: tilix@exe/source_gx_tilix_terminal_terminal.d.o: in function `_D2gx5tilix6common__T12GenericEventTAyaTQeTQhTQkZQBc11__xopEqualsFKxSQCpQCpQCm__TQCiTQBxTQCbTQCfTQCjZQDcKxQBmZb':
/tmp/tilix/build/../source/gx/tilix/common.d:28: undefined reference to `_D6object__T8__equalsTxDFAyaQdQfQhZvTxQpZQBdFNaNbNiNfAxQBgQfZb'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
Error: /usr/bin/gcc failed with status: 1
ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.

Taking out the export-dynamic flag it all works fine. Unfortunately this flag is the default for the DMD compiler (which apparently exhibits the same behavior) as well as LDC (which is what I care about for Meson support) on some distros like Arch. That flag looks pretty innocuous so I'm not sure why it is causing an issue. A full discussion of the issue can be viewed here:

gnunn1/tilix#1502

For anyone that wants to try to reproduce it, you can clone this repo and switch to the meson branch:

https://github.com/bilelmoussaoui/tilix

[kinke]

I replied there; short summary for here as well: I guess it's another instance of the frontend's template-culling algorithm failing to emit some functions, apparently only uncovered due to -L--export-dynamic keeping some functions referencing the missing ones.

The template culling issue is a long-standing frontend one (i.e., in DMD).
The Arch distro LDC package using -L--export-dynamic by default is Arch-specific.

So thx for the report, but there's nothing we can do directly for LDC here.

[gnunn1]

Thanks, I appreciate the insight and I will close the issue

[ximion]

It potentially makes sense to report this issue against DMD instead...