Mingw pkg-config not working

Mingw pkg-config not working

[Carlo B.]

Hello,
I discovered that the mingw cross compilers for i686 and x86-64 have a
problem with support of pkg-config. From what I have seen, the mingw
included into CYGWIN is not using the usual pkg-config, but it uses
pkgconf instead, which is a good thing at first sight, since it does
not depend to GLib. Unfortunately, this introduces a problem: the
traditional i686-w64-mingw32-pkg-config and
x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config are emulated with a shell script, for
example the one for i686 is:

#!/bin/sh
exec pkgconf --personality=i686-w64-mingw32 $@

But while this solution mostly works when you exec it from the command
line, it makes impossible to detect the presence of the tool from
meson and cmake build systems.
If you try to do this on the bash prompt, you get:

$ i686-w64-mingw32-pkg-config --version
pkgconf: --version specified with other options or module names,
assuming --modversion.
Please specify at least one package name on the command line.

and this is exactly what happens with those build systems (and perhaps
others, I don't know): it tries to call pkg-config with "--version"
and it executes the above script that calls pkgconf. But sadly, the
presence of the "--personality" option makes the process to fail,
because the "--version" is currently allowed only when no other
options are added.
And, for this reason, meson and cmake fail the detection of the tool.

I have also filed an issue here for pkgconf:
https://todo.sr.ht/~kaniini/pkgconf/10
because the solution is actually to ignore the presence of the
"--personality" option when the "--version" is written, but
unfortunately I have not received any feedback.

So, I'm also writing here, with the hope that you could find a solution.
This behavior is easy to verify, just write that command at the prompt
of the shell, or try to build something that uses the detection of the
tool: in my case, I found it when I tried to build the audacious media
player from sources.

Thank you very much for your time and your support.
Sincerely.

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Re: Mingw pkg-config not working

[Jon Turney]

On 20/02/2020 11:06, Carlo B. wrote:
[...]
> x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config are emulated with a shell script, for
> example the one for i686 is:
> 
> #!/bin/sh
> exec pkgconf --personality=i686-w64-mingw32 $@
> 
> But while this solution mostly works when you exec it from the command
> line, it makes impossible to detect the presence of the tool from
> meson and cmake build systems.
> If you try to do this on the bash prompt, you get:
> 
> $ i686-w64-mingw32-pkg-config --version
> pkgconf: --version specified with other options or module names,
> assuming --modversion.
> Please specify at least one package name on the command line.
> 
> and this is exactly what happens with those build systems (and perhaps
> others, I don't know): it tries to call pkg-config with "--version"
> and it executes the above script that calls pkgconf. But sadly, the
> presence of the "--personality" option makes the process to fail,
> because the "--version" is currently allowed only when no other
> options are added.
> And, for this reason, meson and cmake fail the detection of the tool.
> 
> I have also filed an issue here for pkgconf:
> https://todo.sr.ht/~kaniini/pkgconf/10
> because the solution is actually to ignore the presence of the
> "--personality" option when the "--version" is written, but
> unfortunately I have not received any feedback.
> 
> So, I'm also writing here, with the hope that you could find a solution.
[...]

Thanks for reporting this issue.

I guess the alternative to fixing pkgconf would be to modify those 
wrapper scripts to detect when the parameters are just '--version' (or 
equivalent) and not use --personality in that case?

These wrapper scripts are specific to cygwin (generated by the cygport, 
see [1])

It's possible other distros have more sophisticated wrapper scripts, 
which avoid this problem?

If you do write or discover some improved wrapper scripts, a patch to 
[1] to update them would be appreciated.

[1] 
https://cygwin.com/git-cygwin-packages/?p=git/cygwin-packages/pkgconf.git;a=blob;f=pkgconf.cygport#l84

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Re: Mingw pkg-config not working

[Carlo B.]

Hello,
I wanted to say that I modified the script in this way and it seems
that it has resolved all issues:

#!/bin/sh
if [ "$#" -eq 1 ] && [ "$1" == "--version" ]; then
exec pkgconf --version
else
exec pkgconf --personality=i686-w64-mingw32 $@
fi

Fixing x64_64 is easy, I have just replaced i686-w64-mingw32 with
x86_64-w64-mingw32 in the personality.
I hope you will find this fix useful and, if you think it is good, the
maintainer of the package could rewrite those scripts in the same way.

Sincerely.

Il giorno sab 22 feb 2020 alle ore 18:47 Jon Turney
<jon.turney@dronecode.org.uk> ha scritto:
>
> On 20/02/2020 11:06, Carlo B. wrote:
> [...]
> > x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config are emulated with a shell script, for
> > example the one for i686 is:
> >
> > #!/bin/sh
> > exec pkgconf --personality=i686-w64-mingw32 $@
> >
> > But while this solution mostly works when you exec it from the command
> > line, it makes impossible to detect the presence of the tool from
> > meson and cmake build systems.
> > If you try to do this on the bash prompt, you get:
> >
> > $ i686-w64-mingw32-pkg-config --version
> > pkgconf: --version specified with other options or module names,
> > assuming --modversion.
> > Please specify at least one package name on the command line.
> >
> > and this is exactly what happens with those build systems (and perhaps
> > others, I don't know): it tries to call pkg-config with "--version"
> > and it executes the above script that calls pkgconf. But sadly, the
> > presence of the "--personality" option makes the process to fail,
> > because the "--version" is currently allowed only when no other
> > options are added.
> > And, for this reason, meson and cmake fail the detection of the tool.
> >
> > I have also filed an issue here for pkgconf:
> > https://todo.sr.ht/~kaniini/pkgconf/10
> > because the solution is actually to ignore the presence of the
> > "--personality" option when the "--version" is written, but
> > unfortunately I have not received any feedback.
> >
> > So, I'm also writing here, with the hope that you could find a solution.
> [...]
>
> Thanks for reporting this issue.
>
> I guess the alternative to fixing pkgconf would be to modify those
> wrapper scripts to detect when the parameters are just '--version' (or
> equivalent) and not use --personality in that case?
>
> These wrapper scripts are specific to cygwin (generated by the cygport,
> see [1])
>
> It's possible other distros have more sophisticated wrapper scripts,
> which avoid this problem?
>
> If you do write or discover some improved wrapper scripts, a patch to
> [1] to update them would be appreciated.
>
> [1]
> https://cygwin.com/git-cygwin-packages/?p=git/cygwin-packages/pkgconf.git;a=blob;f=pkgconf.cygport#l84

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Re: Mingw pkg-config not working

[Carlo B.]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2616 bytes --]

Hello,
I implemented the solution to this problem as a patch to
pkgconf.cygport as requested.
I attached small patch to this email, which resolved the troubles with
CMake and Meson.
I hope that you will find it useful and  some developers will gently
apply the correction to fix the issue.

Thank you very much for your time and your support.
Sincerely,

Carlo Bramini.

Il giorno sab 22 feb 2020 alle ore 18:47 Jon Turney
<jon.turney@dronecode.org.uk> ha scritto:
>
> On 20/02/2020 11:06, Carlo B. wrote:
> [...]
> > x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config are emulated with a shell script, for
> > example the one for i686 is:
> >
> > #!/bin/sh
> > exec pkgconf --personality=i686-w64-mingw32 $@
> >
> > But while this solution mostly works when you exec it from the command
> > line, it makes impossible to detect the presence of the tool from
> > meson and cmake build systems.
> > If you try to do this on the bash prompt, you get:
> >
> > $ i686-w64-mingw32-pkg-config --version
> > pkgconf: --version specified with other options or module names,
> > assuming --modversion.
> > Please specify at least one package name on the command line.
> >
> > and this is exactly what happens with those build systems (and perhaps
> > others, I don't know): it tries to call pkg-config with "--version"
> > and it executes the above script that calls pkgconf. But sadly, the
> > presence of the "--personality" option makes the process to fail,
> > because the "--version" is currently allowed only when no other
> > options are added.
> > And, for this reason, meson and cmake fail the detection of the tool.
> >
> > I have also filed an issue here for pkgconf:
> > https://todo.sr.ht/~kaniini/pkgconf/10
> > because the solution is actually to ignore the presence of the
> > "--personality" option when the "--version" is written, but
> > unfortunately I have not received any feedback.
> >
> > So, I'm also writing here, with the hope that you could find a solution.
> [...]
>
> Thanks for reporting this issue.
>
> I guess the alternative to fixing pkgconf would be to modify those
> wrapper scripts to detect when the parameters are just '--version' (or
> equivalent) and not use --personality in that case?
>
> These wrapper scripts are specific to cygwin (generated by the cygport,
> see [1])
>
> It's possible other distros have more sophisticated wrapper scripts,
> which avoid this problem?
>
> If you do write or discover some improved wrapper scripts, a patch to
> [1] to update them would be appreciated.
>
> [1]
> https://cygwin.com/git-cygwin-packages/?p=git/cygwin-packages/pkgconf.git;a=blob;f=pkgconf.cygport#l84

[-- Attachment #2: pkgconf.cygport.patch --]
[-- Type: application/octet-stream, Size: 395 bytes --]

diff --git a/pkgconf.cygport b/pkgconf.cygport
index 994ad2a..2d81dbc 100644
--- a/pkgconf.cygport
+++ b/pkgconf.cygport
@@ -83,7 +83,11 @@ SystemLibraryPaths: /usr/${mgw}/sys-root/mingw/lib
 _EOF
 		cat > ${D}/usr/bin/${mgw}-pkg-config <<_EOF
 #!/bin/sh
+if [ "$#" -eq 1 ] && [ "$1" == "--version" ]; then
+exec pkgconf --version
+else
 exec pkgconf --personality=${mgw} \$@
+fi
 _EOF
 	done
 

Re: Mingw pkg-config not working

[Carlo B.]

Hello,
I wanted to report that I received a reply on the issue that I had opened here:

https://todo.sr.ht/~kaniini/pkgconf/10#comment-7894

The report has been closed and I got this reply:

"You should use a symlink instead of a wrapper script when using the
personality feature."

I hope that somebody has understood what he means (posix is not
exactly my primary platform) and it could be useful for fixing the
issue.

Thank you very much for your time.
Sincerely,

Carlo Bramini.

Il giorno gio 26 mar 2020 alle ore 14:07 Carlo B.
<carlo.bramini@gmail.com> ha scritto:
>
> Hello,
> I implemented the solution to this problem as a patch to
> pkgconf.cygport as requested.
> I attached small patch to this email, which resolved the troubles with
> CMake and Meson.
> I hope that you will find it useful and  some developers will gently
> apply the correction to fix the issue.
>
> Thank you very much for your time and your support.
> Sincerely,
>
> Carlo Bramini.
>
> Il giorno sab 22 feb 2020 alle ore 18:47 Jon Turney
> <jon.turney@dronecode.org.uk> ha scritto:
> >
> > On 20/02/2020 11:06, Carlo B. wrote:
> > [...]
> > > x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config are emulated with a shell script, for
> > > example the one for i686 is:
> > >
> > > #!/bin/sh
> > > exec pkgconf --personality=i686-w64-mingw32 $@
> > >
> > > But while this solution mostly works when you exec it from the command
> > > line, it makes impossible to detect the presence of the tool from
> > > meson and cmake build systems.
> > > If you try to do this on the bash prompt, you get:
> > >
> > > $ i686-w64-mingw32-pkg-config --version
> > > pkgconf: --version specified with other options or module names,
> > > assuming --modversion.
> > > Please specify at least one package name on the command line.
> > >
> > > and this is exactly what happens with those build systems (and perhaps
> > > others, I don't know): it tries to call pkg-config with "--version"
> > > and it executes the above script that calls pkgconf. But sadly, the
> > > presence of the "--personality" option makes the process to fail,
> > > because the "--version" is currently allowed only when no other
> > > options are added.
> > > And, for this reason, meson and cmake fail the detection of the tool.
> > >
> > > I have also filed an issue here for pkgconf:
> > > https://todo.sr.ht/~kaniini/pkgconf/10
> > > because the solution is actually to ignore the presence of the
> > > "--personality" option when the "--version" is written, but
> > > unfortunately I have not received any feedback.
> > >
> > > So, I'm also writing here, with the hope that you could find a solution.
> > [...]
> >
> > Thanks for reporting this issue.
> >
> > I guess the alternative to fixing pkgconf would be to modify those
> > wrapper scripts to detect when the parameters are just '--version' (or
> > equivalent) and not use --personality in that case?
> >
> > These wrapper scripts are specific to cygwin (generated by the cygport,
> > see [1])
> >
> > It's possible other distros have more sophisticated wrapper scripts,
> > which avoid this problem?
> >
> > If you do write or discover some improved wrapper scripts, a patch to
> > [1] to update them would be appreciated.
> >
> > [1]
> > https://cygwin.com/git-cygwin-packages/?p=git/cygwin-packages/pkgconf.git;a=blob;f=pkgconf.cygport#l84

Re: Mingw pkg-config not working

[Yaakov Selkowitz]

On Sun, 2020-04-05 at 15:51 +0200, Carlo B. via Cygwin wrote:
> I wanted to report that I received a reply on the issue that I had opened here:
> 
> https://todo.sr.ht/~kaniini/pkgconf/10#comment-7894

Thanks for following up.

> The report has been closed and I got this reply:
> 
> "You should use a symlink instead of a wrapper script when using the
> personality feature."
> 
> I hope that somebody has understood what he means (posix is not
> exactly my primary platform) and it could be useful for fixing the
> issue.

Yes, that gave me the information I needed.  There is actually code
within pkgconf to automatically load $PREFIX.personality when called as
$PREFIX-pkg-config.  This requires a packaging change on our end, which
I'm incorporating into the latest release.

> Il giorno gio 26 mar 2020 alle ore 14:07 Carlo B.
> <carlo.bramini@gmail.com> ha scritto:
> > Hello,
> > I implemented the solution to this problem as a patch to
> > pkgconf.cygport as requested.
> > I attached small patch to this email, which resolved the troubles with
> > CMake and Meson.
> > I hope that you will find it useful and  some developers will gently
> > apply the correction to fix the issue.
> > 
> > Thank you very much for your time and your support.
> > Sincerely,
> > 
> > Carlo Bramini.
> > 
> > Il giorno sab 22 feb 2020 alle ore 18:47 Jon Turney
> > <jon.turney@dronecode.org.uk> ha scritto:
> > > On 20/02/2020 11:06, Carlo B. wrote:
> > > [...]
> > > > x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config are emulated with a shell script, for
> > > > example the one for i686 is:
> > > > 
> > > > #!/bin/sh
> > > > exec pkgconf --personality=i686-w64-mingw32 $@
> > > > 
> > > > But while this solution mostly works when you exec it from the command
> > > > line, it makes impossible to detect the presence of the tool from
> > > > meson and cmake build systems.
> > > > If you try to do this on the bash prompt, you get:
> > > > 
> > > > $ i686-w64-mingw32-pkg-config --version
> > > > pkgconf: --version specified with other options or module names,
> > > > assuming --modversion.
> > > > Please specify at least one package name on the command line.
> > > > 
> > > > and this is exactly what happens with those build systems (and perhaps
> > > > others, I don't know): it tries to call pkg-config with "--version"
> > > > and it executes the above script that calls pkgconf. But sadly, the
> > > > presence of the "--personality" option makes the process to fail,
> > > > because the "--version" is currently allowed only when no other
> > > > options are added.
> > > > And, for this reason, meson and cmake fail the detection of the tool.
> > > > 
> > > > I have also filed an issue here for pkgconf:
> > > > https://todo.sr.ht/~kaniini/pkgconf/10
> > > > because the solution is actually to ignore the presence of the
> > > > "--personality" option when the "--version" is written, but
> > > > unfortunately I have not received any feedback.
> > > > 
> > > > So, I'm also writing here, with the hope that you could find a solution.
> > > [...]
> > > 
> > > Thanks for reporting this issue.
> > > 
> > > I guess the alternative to fixing pkgconf would be to modify those
> > > wrapper scripts to detect when the parameters are just '--version' (or
> > > equivalent) and not use --personality in that case?
> > > 
> > > These wrapper scripts are specific to cygwin (generated by the cygport,
> > > see [1])
> > > 
> > > It's possible other distros have more sophisticated wrapper scripts,
> > > which avoid this problem?
> > > 
> > > If you do write or discover some improved wrapper scripts, a patch to
> > > [1] to update them would be appreciated.
> > > 
> > > [1]
> > > https://cygwin.com/git-cygwin-packages/?p=git/cygwin-packages/pkgconf.git;a=blob;f=pkgconf.cygport#l84

--
Yaakov

Re: Mingw pkg-config not working

[Carlo B.]

Hello,
I would like to report that I updated to the latest release, I tried
to do some tests and it really seems that it has resolved the issue on
my side.
Thank you very much for your support.

Sincerely,

Carlo Bramini.

Il giorno lun 6 apr 2020 alle ore 18:44 Yaakov Selkowitz
<yselkowitz@cygwin.com> ha scritto:
>
> On Sun, 2020-04-05 at 15:51 +0200, Carlo B. via Cygwin wrote:
> > I wanted to report that I received a reply on the issue that I had opened here:
> >
> > https://todo.sr.ht/~kaniini/pkgconf/10#comment-7894
>
> Thanks for following up.
>
> > The report has been closed and I got this reply:
> >
> > "You should use a symlink instead of a wrapper script when using the
> > personality feature."
> >
> > I hope that somebody has understood what he means (posix is not
> > exactly my primary platform) and it could be useful for fixing the
> > issue.
>
> Yes, that gave me the information I needed.  There is actually code
> within pkgconf to automatically load $PREFIX.personality when called as
> $PREFIX-pkg-config.  This requires a packaging change on our end, which
> I'm incorporating into the latest release.
>
> > Il giorno gio 26 mar 2020 alle ore 14:07 Carlo B.
> > <carlo.bramini@gmail.com> ha scritto:
> > > Hello,
> > > I implemented the solution to this problem as a patch to
> > > pkgconf.cygport as requested.
> > > I attached small patch to this email, which resolved the troubles with
> > > CMake and Meson.
> > > I hope that you will find it useful and  some developers will gently
> > > apply the correction to fix the issue.
> > >
> > > Thank you very much for your time and your support.
> > > Sincerely,
> > >
> > > Carlo Bramini.
> > >
> > > Il giorno sab 22 feb 2020 alle ore 18:47 Jon Turney
> > > <jon.turney@dronecode.org.uk> ha scritto:
> > > > On 20/02/2020 11:06, Carlo B. wrote:
> > > > [...]
> > > > > x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config are emulated with a shell script, for
> > > > > example the one for i686 is:
> > > > >
> > > > > #!/bin/sh
> > > > > exec pkgconf --personality=i686-w64-mingw32 $@
> > > > >
> > > > > But while this solution mostly works when you exec it from the command
> > > > > line, it makes impossible to detect the presence of the tool from
> > > > > meson and cmake build systems.
> > > > > If you try to do this on the bash prompt, you get:
> > > > >
> > > > > $ i686-w64-mingw32-pkg-config --version
> > > > > pkgconf: --version specified with other options or module names,
> > > > > assuming --modversion.
> > > > > Please specify at least one package name on the command line.
> > > > >
> > > > > and this is exactly what happens with those build systems (and perhaps
> > > > > others, I don't know): it tries to call pkg-config with "--version"
> > > > > and it executes the above script that calls pkgconf. But sadly, the
> > > > > presence of the "--personality" option makes the process to fail,
> > > > > because the "--version" is currently allowed only when no other
> > > > > options are added.
> > > > > And, for this reason, meson and cmake fail the detection of the tool.
> > > > >
> > > > > I have also filed an issue here for pkgconf:
> > > > > https://todo.sr.ht/~kaniini/pkgconf/10
> > > > > because the solution is actually to ignore the presence of the
> > > > > "--personality" option when the "--version" is written, but
> > > > > unfortunately I have not received any feedback.
> > > > >
> > > > > So, I'm also writing here, with the hope that you could find a solution.
> > > > [...]
> > > >
> > > > Thanks for reporting this issue.
> > > >
> > > > I guess the alternative to fixing pkgconf would be to modify those
> > > > wrapper scripts to detect when the parameters are just '--version' (or
> > > > equivalent) and not use --personality in that case?
> > > >
> > > > These wrapper scripts are specific to cygwin (generated by the cygport,
> > > > see [1])
> > > >
> > > > It's possible other distros have more sophisticated wrapper scripts,
> > > > which avoid this problem?
> > > >
> > > > If you do write or discover some improved wrapper scripts, a patch to
> > > > [1] to update them would be appreciated.
> > > >
> > > > [1]
> > > > https://cygwin.com/git-cygwin-packages/?p=git/cygwin-packages/pkgconf.git;a=blob;f=pkgconf.cygport#l84
>
> --
> Yaakov
>
>
> --
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