[cmake-developers] Incomplete gfortran library link command sometimes mysteriously occurs with MinGW/MSYS on Wine-1.5.15 platform

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2012-10-25 17:05-0400 Brad King wrote:

> On 10/25/2012 04:51 PM, Alan W. Irwin wrote:
>> bash.exe-3.1$ /z/home/wine/newstart/bootstrap_cmake/install_4.7.0/bin/cmake.exe -P info.cmake
>> -- [INFO:compiler[GNU]]
>> -- [INFO:compiler_version[00000004.00000005.00000002]]
>> -- [INFO:platform[MinGW]]
>> -- [INFO:arch[]]
>> bash.exe-3.1$ /z/home/wine/newstart/cmake-2.8.9-win32-x86/bin/cmake.exe -P info.cmake
>> -- [INFO:compiler[GNU]]
>> -- [INFO:compiler_version[00000004.00000005.00000002]]
>> -- [INFO:platform[MinGW]]
>> -- [INFO:arch[]]
>
> This shows that file(STRINGS) does work *sometimes* with the
> pre-built binary.  You have a few ".exe" files for which it
> does not work and a ".o" for which it does work.  The log
> indicates it also failed for Fortran's ".o" file so it does
> not depend just on ".exe" versus ".o".
>
> Since this all works on native Windows it is likely a problem
> with the way Wine is running the MSVC-built binary and not with
> CMake itself.  You have a work-around.

It is true that I do have a workaround which appears to give excellent
results in the many tests I have tried for a variety of MinGW/MSYS
versions.  But those good results serve as motivation to figure out
what the Wine problem is for the downloaded CMake so Wine will become
a trustworthy platform in all respects for CMake.  Note also this
issue has been introduced relatively recently.  I built ephcom (which
includes a Fortran library) a year ago on Wine with a downloaded
version of CMake with no issues.  That was a pretty extensive test
leading up to the ephcom-2.0.2 release on 2011-09-14.

What is the current compiler version used to build downloaded CMake
versus the compiler version used in September 2011 for the same task
when I successfully tested ephcom on Wine before? (The working
hypothesis behind this question is it is that changed compiler version
that is the source of the downloaded CMake trouble on Wine now.)

To take a further step leading toward the goal of a Wine bug report
that will help to solve this issue, I think we need a simpler test
case which consists of a small C++ programme that copies only the
relevant parts of the CMake code that are used to search files for
strings.  (My knowledge of C++ and the CMake code base are not
sufficient to dig out those relevant bits myself.) But assuming that
test code was implemented in the same way that CMake searches for
strings in files, it should also show good string searching results on
the Wine platform for a version of that executable built with MinGW,
but not with the compiler that is currently being used to generate the
downloadable version of CMake.

I don't expect the Kitware developers to carry this load further
beyond answering the question above identifying what compiler is used
now versus in September 2011 for the downloaded version. The Wine
issue with (perhaps just one of) the Windows instructions generated by
the current compiler is obviously and rightly not a first priority for
them. However, if someone else with the required C++ and CMake
internal code knowledge (Clint?) is willing to take this further, I
think implementing a simple example that uses the relevant bits of the
CMake code base to search for strings in files is the next step in the
process leading to a Wine bug report, and I would be happy to help in
any way I can with moving that process along.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time
Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting
software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project
(unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net);
and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
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