Trying to build FriCAS with GCL-2.7.0 (step-by-step)

[Grégory Vanuxem]

Hello,

I am giving a try to build FriCAS with gcl27  2.7.0-18 from debian.org
(amd64 arch). And first, sorry for this long email, I try to be as
precise as possible.

So far, I encountered the following issues:

Here is an offending piece of code:
=============src/lisp/fricas-lisp.lisp=====================
;; GCL may pass strings by value.  'sock_get_string_buf' should fill
;; string with data read from connection, therefore needs address of
;; actual string buffer. We use 'sock_get_string_buf_wrapper' to
;; resolve the problem
(SI::clines "int sock_get_string_buf_wrapper(int i, object x, int j)"
    "{ if (type_of(x)!=t_string) FEwrong_type_argument(sLstring,x);"
    "  if (x->st.st_fillp<j)"
    "    FEerror(\"string too small in sock_get_string_buf_wrapper\",0);"
    "  return sock_get_string_buf(i, x->st.st_self, j); }")
==================================================

Which then produces during the compilation phase:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In file included from /home/greg/Git/jlfricas/src/lisp/fricas-lisp.c:2:
/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/unixport/../h/cmpinclude.h:87: note: macro
"FEerror" defined here
   87 | #define FEerror(a,b,c)
Icall_gen_error_handler_noreturn(((object)&Cnil_body),null_string,sLerror,null_string,4,sKformat_control,make_simple_string(a),sKformat_arguments,list(b,c))
      |
/home/greg/Git/jlfricas/src/lisp/fricas-lisp.c:2159:5: error:
‘FEerror’ undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean
‘sLerror’?
 2159 |     FEerror("string too small in sock_get_string_buf_wrapper",0);
      |     ^~~~~~~
      |     sLerror
/home/greg/Git/jlfricas/src/lisp/fricas-lisp.c:2160:10: warning:
implicit declaration of function ‘sock_get_string_buf’; did you mean
‘sock_get_string_buf_wrapper’? [-Wimplicit-function-declaration]
 2160 |   return sock_get_string_buf(i, x->st.st_self, j); }
      |          ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      |          sock_get_string_buf_wrapper
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you can see here, the 'FEerror' macro requires three arguments but
two previously. Maybe a backward compatible way of handling this is
available? That is, something compatible with GCL 2.6.14 and 2.7.0,
this snippet compiles smoothly with gcl-2.6.14-4 from debian.org.

I commented out these checks to go further.
At a stage a temporary image is build using:
==================================================
>echo '(compiler::link nil "prelisp" ' \
              ' (format nil "(progn (let ((SI::*load-path*' \
                                            ' (cons ~S SI::*load-path*))' \
                                        ' (si::*load-types* ~S))' \
                                       ' (compiler::emit-fn t))' \
                                  ' (when (fboundp (quote si::sgc-on))' \
                                        ' (si::sgc-on nil))' \
                                  ' (setq compiler::*default-system-p* t))' \
                     ' (setq compiler::*default-large-memory-model-p* t))"' \
                      ' si::*system-directory* (quote (list ".lsp")))' \
               '  "/home/greg/Git/jlfricas/src/lib/bsdsignal.o
/home/greg/Git/jlfricas/src/lib/cfuns-c.o
/home/greg/Git/jlfricas/src/lib/sockio-c.o ")' \
            | gcl27
===================================================

And returns
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GCL (GNU Common Lisp)  2.7.0 Thu Oct 26 12:00:01 PM EDT 2023  ANSI
git: Version_2_7_0pre21
Source License: LGPL(gcl,gmp), GPL(unexec,bfd,xgcl)
Binary License:  GPL due to GPL'ed components: (XGCL UNEXEC)
Modifications of this banner must retain notice of a compatible license
Dedicated to the memory of W. Schelter

Use (help) to get some basic information on how to use GCL.
Temporary directory for compiler files set to /tmp/

>GCL (GNU Common Lisp)  April 1994  4198612 pages
Building symbol table for /home/greg/Git/jlfricas/src/lisp/raw_prelisp ..
loading /usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/unixport/../lsp/gcl_export.lsp
loading /usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/unixport/../lsp/gcl_defmacro.lsp
loading /usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/unixport/../lsp/gcl_evalmacros.lsp
loading /usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/unixport/../lsp/gcl_top.lsp
loading /usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/unixport/../lsp/gcl_autoload.lsp

>
NIL

>
MAKE-PACKAGE

-- [SNIP] --

SYSTEM>
(:RAW-IMAGE
 :ANSI-CL :COMMON-LISP :LARGE-MEMORY-MODEL :DYNAMIC-EXTENT :INTDIV
 :64BIT :C99 :GNU-LD :XGCL :UNEXEC :NATIVE-RELOC :EDITLINE
 :TRUNCATE_USE_C :CLX-LITTLE-ENDIAN :BSD :GNU :LINUX :X86_64 :SGC
 :IEEE-FLOATING-POINT :UNIX :GMP :GCL :AKCL :COMMON :KCL)

SYSTEM>Initializing gcl_s.o
Initializing gcl_sf.o
Initializing gcl_rm.o
Initializing gcl_dl.o
Initializing gcl_fle.o
Initializing gcl_defmacro.o
Initializing gcl_hash.o
Initializing gcl_evalmacros.o
Initializing gcl_module.o
Initializing gcl_predlib.o
Initializing gcl_deftype.o

-- [SNIP] --

CONDITIONS>
(:PCL-STRUCTURES
 :PORTABLE-COMMONLOOPS :PCL :DEFPACKAGE :SDEBUG :SETF :ANSI-CL
 :COMMON-LISP :LARGE-MEMORY-MODEL :DYNAMIC-EXTENT :INTDIV :64BIT :C99
 :GNU-LD :XGCL :UNEXEC :NATIVE-RELOC :EDITLINE :TRUNCATE_USE_C
 :CLX-LITTLE-ENDIAN :BSD :GNU :LINUX :X86_64 :SGC :IEEE-FLOATING-POINT
 :UNIX :GMP :GCL :AKCL :COMMON :KCL)

CONDITIONS>
#<"SYSTEM" package>

SYSTEM>
T

SYSTEM>
#<function 000000000231d310>

SYSTEM>
NIL

SYSTEM>
""

SYSTEM>
NIL

SYSTEM>;; Loading #P"/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/lsp/sys-proclaim.lisp"
;; Finished loading #P"/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/lsp/sys-proclaim.lisp"
;; Loading #P"/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/cmpnew/sys-proclaim.lisp"
;; Finished loading #P"/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/cmpnew/sys-proclaim.lisp"
;; Loading #P"/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/xgcl-2/sys-proclaim.lisp"
;; Finished loading #P"/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/xgcl-2/sys-proclaim.lisp"
;; Loading #P"/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/pcl/sys-proclaim.lisp"
;; Finished loading #P"/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/pcl/sys-proclaim.lisp"
;; Loading #P"/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/clcs/sys-proclaim.lisp"
;; Finished loading #P"/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/clcs/sys-proclaim.lisp"
;; Loading #P"/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/gcl-tk/tk-package.lsp"

Error:
Fast links are on: do (si::use-fast-links nil) for debugging
Signalled by LOAD.
Condition in LOAD [or a callee]: INTERNAL-SIMPLE-FILE-ERROR: File
error on #P"/usr/lib/gcl-2.7.0/gcl-tk/tk-package.lsp": File does not
exist.

Broken at LOAD.  Type :H for Help.
    1  Return to top level.
===============================================

So here "tk-package.lsp" is required by GCL even if it is not used by
FriCAS as far as I know. So, what about adding gcl27-tk as a
"Suggests" in the Debian package, or maybe better as "Recommended"? Or
even better, is "tk-package.lsp" really required here? Wouldn't it be
possible to get rid of this to build a GCL image?

So, I installed gcl27-tk, and the build process went further, more
precisely to the core of FriCAS, algebra files. There it shocks on
something I did not understand I can not find the piece of code that
generates the following error:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
doing stamp-db
cp: './boo_db.input' et './boo_db.input' identify the same file

Correctable error:
Fast links are on: do (si::use-fast-links nil) for debugging
Signalled by SETQ.
If continued: Do (setq si::*path* "pathname") for path to use then :r
to continue
SIMPLE-ERROR: Environment variable FRICAS is not valid!

Broken at SYSTEM::GCL-TOP-LEVEL.
    1 (abort) Return to debug level 3.
    2  Return to debug level 2.
    3  Return to debug level 1.
    4 (continue) Do (setq si::*path* "pathname") for path to use then
:r to continue
    5  Return to top level.
BOOT>>>>>>
Correctable error:
Fast links are on: do (si::use-fast-links nil) for debugging
Signalled by BLOCK.
If continued: Do (setq si::*path* "pathname") for path to use then :r
to continue
Condition in BLOCK [or a callee]: INTERNAL-SIMPLE-READER-ERROR: Stream
error on stream #<synonym stream to *TERMINAL-IO*>: Right paren found
with no left.

Broken at SYSTEM::GCL-TOP-LEVEL.
    1 (abort) Return to debug level 4.
    2  Return to debug level 3.
    3  Return to debug level 2.
    4  Return to debug level 1.
    5 (continue) Do (setq si::*path* "pathname") for path to use then
:r to continue
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
etc.

It does not seem related to FriCAS, but it was late this night, I
stopped here, and will look deeper into this last issue later. I guess
solving the two previous issues, and this one will allow to _build_
FriCAS.

Regards,

- Greg