Re: pt_chown build failure

[Bruno Haible]

Hi Eric,

> Also, I got a build failure when trying to use the grantpt module in 
> libvirt:
> 
>    CCLD   libgnu.la
>    CC     pt_chown.o
> make[4]: *** No rule to make target `libgnu.a', needed by `pt_chown'.  Stop.
> 
> Looks like the gnulib-tool output is not considering the possibility of 
> libtool mixing with the creation of pt_chown.

I get the same build failure in testdirs that contain 'grantpt'.

The easiest fix is probably to adjust modules/pt_chown locally for
libvirt (via --local-dir and a modules/pt_chown.diff file). Also
you need to find a way to install the pt_chown program as setuid root.
This too is outside the scope of gnulib.

I'm not sure it's worth modifying gnulib-tool for this single case.

> For that matter, does 
> pt_chown even need to be built on Linux, or can we rework things to only 
> build it on platforms where the grantpt() replacement is compiled?

The dependency from 'grantpt' to 'pt_chown' has already the right
condition attached. I think you only need to activate the
--conditional-dependencies option. (But note that it does not yet
work with --with-tests.)

Bruno
-- 
In memoriam Jerzy Popiełuszko <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Popiełuszko>