OBS Arch build seems to use different defaults for $PATH than Arch

[e9925248]

Arch installs some perl programs instead of /usr/bin to /usr/bin/vendor_perl (eg. see https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/any/po4a/ )
The Arch perl packages ships a helper script in /etc/profile.d, which adds /usr/bin/vendor_perl to the path.

Other PKGBUILD files can find programs in /usr/bin/vendor_perl just via $PATH (see https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/any/man-pages-de/ for an example).

So the build process must somehow include /etc/profile - otherwise /usr/bin/vendor_perl would have never been part of the path.

On OBS this build fails: https://build.opensuse.org/package/live_build_log/home:e9925248/test1/Arch_Extra/i586

I created a small test build, which prints the $PATH (with the perl package present)
https://build.opensuse.org/package/live_build_log/home:e9925248/test/Arch_Extra/i586

[hennevogel]

Why don't you call that helper during your build?

[mlschroe]

The build script uses 'su -lc "makepkg ..."' to do the build, shouldn't that call the helper script in /etc/profile.d that adds /usr/bin/vendor_perl to the PATH?

[e9925248]

@hennevogel: The reason for filling this bug is not, that the build failed [a workaround in PKGBUILD is trivial], but that the Arch build environment on OBS seems to be different than the build enviroment used by the Arch people.

I did further investigations. The following commands in PKGBUILD
bash -lc 'echo $PATH'
bash -c 'echo $PATH'
produce the following output:
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/bin/core_perl
/usr/bin

This means, that the build is started with "/usr/bin" as PATH, while /etc/profile would produce an extended path (including /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/sbin/..).

obs-build spawns "su -lc cd /usr/src/packages/SOURCES && makepkg --config ../makepkg.conf -ef abuild", which spawns "-bash -c cd /usr/src/packages/SOURCES && makepkg --config ../makepkg.conf -ef" as shell.
I have not found any trace in makepkg, that it would reset $PATH.
/etc/profile overwrites the path and this works with "bash -l".
su is spawning a login shell, because it calls "-bash".

My only hint is from shell.c from the bash sources:
/* A shell begun with the --login (or -l) flag that is not in posix mode
runs the login shell startup files, no matter whether or not it is
interactive. If NON_INTERACTIVE_LOGIN_SHELLS is defined, run the
startup files if argv[0][0] == '-' as well. */

So maybe "su -l" does not execute /etc/profile, because it spawn "-bash"

https://build.opensuse.org/build/home:e9925248/Arch_Extra/i586/test/_log

[e9925248]

openSuSE enables NON_INTERACTIVE_LOGIN_SHELLS:
https://build.opensuse.org/package/view_file/openSUSE:Factory/bash/bash-4.2.dif?expand=1

Arch does not patch bash, so it does not enable NON_INTERACTIVE_LOGIN_SHELLS:
https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/tree/trunk?h=packages/bash

So "su -l" might be not enough on Arch.

[mlschroe]

Ok, that explains it. What were the bash guys smoking? Sourcing /etc/profile for login shells is the standard unix behavior. (Seems like Debian/Fedora/SUSE all define NON_INTERACTIVE_LOGIN_SHELLS to fix this.)

[mlschroe]

I merged your obs-build pull request, closing this issue... Thanks for investigating this!