[OE-core] [PATCH 0/4] Add dummy tools to help identify needed dependencies

[Patrick Ohly]

On Tue, 2017-02-28 at 14:35 +0100, Peter Kjellerstedt wrote:
> After the introduction of RSS, I still found it hard to get
> dependencies on some common tools that are typically installed on the
> build host correct. Using the wrong version of tools like pkg-config,
> gdbus-codegen and dbus-binding-tool can cause build failures.

This is indeed still a problem.

I had also discussed this briefly with Richard. We both had the same
idea: manipulate the PATH so that instead of the initial paths it only
contains a directory with symlinks to tools which are okay to inherit
from the build host. In other words, the basic approach would be to
whitelist acceptable tools.

> To circumvent this, I created dummy versions of the tools that always
> fail and placed them in the scripts directory. Thus, if the real tool
> has not been installed in the RSS, the dummy version is used and the
> build fails. For good measures I even output a message that says what
> needs to be corrected in the recipe.

This is the other approach: blacklisting tools which are known to be
problematic.

I suspect the blacklisting approach is going a long way towards solving
the problem, but it'll remain uncertain how complete it is. As it is
fairly simple, it's probably worth merging until someone has the time to
investigate the whitelisting approach further.

Richard had some code for it in some of his experimental branches.

-- 
Best Regards, Patrick Ohly

The content of this message is my personal opinion only and although
I am an employee of Intel, the statements I make here in no way
represent Intel's position on the issue, nor am I authorized to speak
on behalf of Intel on this matter.