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On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 7:53 AM, Luca Barbato <lu_zero@g.o> wrote: |
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>> |
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>> A whole bunch of science packages have upstreams that say "If you're |
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>> building from source, run 'make check' and if it fails don't carry on". |
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> |
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> Their rationale behind that is that their code is severely broken, using |
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> experimental features from their language of choice or, simply, that they |
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> are paranoid and couldn't think better ways to annoy people? |
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> |
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It's not as simple as that. A package may fail tests because compiler |
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bugs, build environment misconfiguration, problems in a library which |
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is being used, a setup problem or, of course, a bug in the package |
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which shows up in rare cases and haven't been spoted by upstream yet. |
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|
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When the package can be critical for the system, upgrading to a buggy |
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version will eat people's dogs. I feel a bit safer when I run the test |
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phase for my package manager, and I wouldn't install it if it's |
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failing any test. I don't think that's too paranoid. |
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Also let's put a real example: gmplib. From www.gmplib.org on the front page: |
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" IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ALL GMP USERS: |
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|
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GMP is very often miscompiled! We are seeing ever increasing problems |
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with miscompilations of the GMP code. It has now come to the point |
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where a compiler should be assumed to miscompile GMP. Please never use |
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your newly compiled libgmp.a or libgmp.so without first running make |
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check. If it doesn't complete without errors, don't trust the library. |
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Please try another compiler release, or change optimization flags |
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until it works. If you have the skill to isolate the problem, please |
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report it to us if it is a GMP bug; else to the compiler vendor. (The |
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compilers that cause problems are HP's unbundled compilers and GCC, in |
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particular Apple's GCC releases.) " |
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Upstream clearly states that a gmp build which tests have failed |
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shouldn't be used. I bet they deny support for users who fail to |
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follow that indication ;-) |
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Regards, |
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-- |
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Santiago M. Mola |
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Jabber ID: cooldwind@×××××.com |
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-- |
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