Re: getdate fails to build

[Bruno Haible]

Sam,

> why is getdate built at all on the latest ubuntu?
> isn't glibc enough there?!

Take a look at the module description (modules/getdate):

  1) It says

       Include:
       "getdate.h"

     Does glibc have a getdate.h include file?

  2) It says

       Makefile.am:
       lib_SOURCES += getdate.y

     which means that getdate.y is compiled unconditionally.
     Whereas platform-dependent compilations are usually triggered
     through AC_LIBOBJ.

> /bin/bash /home/sds/src/clisp/current/build-g//build-aux/ylwrap 
> /home/sds/src/clisp/current/modules/syscalls/gllib/getdate.y \
>                                        y.tab.c getdate.c \
>                                        y.tab.h getdate.h \
>                                        y.output getdate.output \
>                                        -- byacc   && \
>          mv getdate.c getdate.c-t && \
>          mv getdate.c-t 
> /home/sds/src/clisp/current/modules/syscalls/gllib/getdate.c
> byacc: e - line 277 of 
> "/home/sds/src/clisp/current/modules/syscalls/gllib/getdate.y", syntax error
> %pure-parser
> ^
> make[2]: *** [getdate.c] Error 1

The getdate module comes with an autoconf macro gl_GETDATE, which requires
gl_BISON, found in m4/bison.m4. This macro has a comment
"# getdate.y works with bison only.", and sets the default value of YACC
to 'bison -y'. Probably you had YACC set by another macro, and it ended
up being 'byacc'. Since your package now includes getdate.y, it relies
on bison. So you can ditch your other macro that determined YACC in a
more relaxed way, and use bison.m4 instead.

Bruno