[OE-core] [PATCH 2/5] devtool: add configure-help subcommand

[Paul Eggleton]

On Tue, 26 Jan 2016 17:59:53 Paul Eggleton wrote:
> On Mon, 25 Jan 2016 22:27:27 Khem Raj wrote:
> > On Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 10:21 PM, Paul Eggleton
> > 
> > <paul.eggleton at linux.intel.com> wrote:
> > > On Tue, 26 Jan 2016 16:17:39 Paul Eggleton wrote:
> > >> Hi Khem,
> > >> 
> > >> On Mon, 25 Jan 2016 22:14:09 Khem Raj wrote:
> > >> > > On Jan 25, 2016, at 9:53 PM, Paul Eggleton
> > >> > > <paul.eggleton at linux.intel.com>
> > >> > > wrote:
> > >> > > 
> > >> > > When you need to set EXTRA_OECONF for a recipe, you need to know
> > >> > > what
> > >> > > options the configure script actually supports; the configure
> > >> > > script
> > >> > > however is only accessible from within a devshell and (at least in
> > >> > > the
> > >> > > case of autotooled software fetched from an SCM repository) may not
> > >> > > actually exist until do_configure has run. Thus, provide a "devtool
> > >> > > configure-help" subcommand that runs the configure script for a
> > >> > > recipe
> > >> > > with --help and shows you the output through a pager (e.g. less),
> > >> > > prefaced by a header describing the current options being
> > >> > > specified.
> > >> > > 
> > >> > > There is basic support for autotools, cmake and bare configure
> > >> > > scripts.
> > >> > > The cmake support is a little hacky since cmake doesn't really have
> > >> > > a
> > >> > > concise help option that lists user-defined knobs (without actually
> > >> > > running through the configure process), however that being a design
> > >> > > feature of cmake there's not much I can think of to do about that
> > >> > > at
> > >> > > the moment.
> > >> > 
> > >> > this option is autotools specific. We need to convey this precisely.
> > >> > may
> > >> > be
> > >> > involve autotools in the option name or something
> > >> 
> > >> Whilst not all non-autoconf configure scripts provide a --help option,
> > >> some
> > >> do. ffmpeg/libav is one example (and one where you really do need to
> > >> see
> > >> the output since there are a lot of options...)
> > > 
> > > I meant to add, even if configure --help doesn't work (or there is no
> > > configure script at all) the header this subcommand prints will work
> > > with
> > > any recipe provided that do_configure is actually implemented and
> > > contains some actual commands as opposed to calls to some other
> > > function.
> > 
> > my worry is it being associated to do_configure, and we know that only
> > a subset ( although a large one) is only using autotools but not all.
> > So think about avoiding that confusion.
> 
> I'm not terribly convinced there could be much confusion. FWIW, I just
> looked through the other recipes we have in OE-Core that have a call to a
> configure script  that don't use autoconf (man, zlib, x264, v86d, ed,
> libpostproc); the configure scripts for all of these at least produce some
> useful output when called with --help. I then took a look at meta-oe (the
> layer)

Actually this ended up being meta-oe, meta-networking, and meta-multimedia by 
the time I was finished.

> , and checked the following recipes:
> 
> * concurrencykit - works
> * ddrescue - works
> * fio - works
> * libvpx - works
> * lzip - works
> * nodejs - works
> * mg - works (no options, but message is sensible)
> * terminus-font - configure script is supplied without the execute bit set
> but does support --help
> * iscsi-initiator-utils - configure script is in a subdir so isn't found,
> but does support --help
> * netkit-rsh - works
> * netkit-rpc - works
> * netkit-telnet - works
> * netkit-tftp - works
> * netkit-rusers - works
> * netkit-rwho - works
> * netmap - configure script is in a subdir so isn't found, but does support
>   --help
> * ntimed - configure script is dumb and takes no options at all
> * tvheadend - works
> * mozjs - seems to break devtool modify, but configure script does support
>   --help
> 
> So there are some minor bugs to fix, but of those recipes I tested there is
> a grand total of 1 script that doesn't support --help. Honestly I think if
> a configure script exists it's reasonable to assume that
> --help is going to print something useful; even if it doesn't there
> shouldn't be any major harm and you're still going to get a printout of the
> do_configure value in which you'll be able to see what options are
> currently passed.
> 
> Cheers,
> Paul

-- 

Paul Eggleton
Intel Open Source Technology Centre