build fails when sandbox path contains whitespace

[duncand]

Parrot's build configuration that generates the Makefile has a bug in it regarding handling of situations where the path of the Parrot source code or build directories have whitespace in directory names. The generated Makefile doesn't have properly escaped file paths, such as in these variable declarations: BUILD_DIR, LDFLAGS, ALL_PARROT_LIBS, etc.

An example Makefile line:

BUILD_DIR := /Volumes/Documents/Documents/Muldis floss projects/git_working_dirs/rakudo/parrot

This causes 'make' to fail citing nonexistent directories and files.

What needs to happen is that the whitespace in the paths needs to be escaped, perhaps as \<space> or with quoting the path. AFAIK, Perl's make process does this correctly.

To reproduce, simply have your Parrot checkout in some directory where a parent directory contains whitespace and then run Configure.pl, and then run 'make'. This problem seems platform agnostic. My own test is Mac OS X, but from a brief #parrot chat, the bug was confirmed by mikehh, on some other Unix-like OS.

This bug is a very common edge case in programming, which is neglecting to remember escaping of filenames that might have whitespace.

[duncand]

Actually, the bug was in trunk, but 1.4.0 is probably afflicted also.

[duncand]

Alternately, if the actual problem can't be fixed in time for 1.5.0, then at least the Configure.pl should be updated to emit a warning that it doesn't currently work right if the source/build dir contains whitespace, so users know what they should change to workaround it.

[mikehh]

Just to confirm that this is a problem.

I copied a checkout of trunk into a directory 'test parrot' with a single space.

I then did the following:

svn update (to revision 40604)
perl Configure.pl
make

make failed when trying to build miniparrot:

...
...
/usr/local/bin/perl tools/build/parrot_config_c.pl --mini > \
    src/null_config.c
src/null_config.c
cc -o miniparrot src/main.o src/null_config.o \
        -Wl,-rpath=/home/mhh/test parrot/blib/lib -L/home/mhh/test parrot/blib/lib -lparrot -lm -L/usr/lib  -licuuc -licudata -lm -lnsl -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lpthread -lgmp -lreadline  -fstack-protector -L/usr/local/lib -Wl,-E
cc: parrot/blib/lib: No such file or directory
cc: parrot/blib/lib: No such file or directory
make: *** [miniparrot] Error 1

Note that the space in 'test parrot' is not escaped and it needs to be either escaped or quoted.

I will have a look at the problem and see if I can come up with any ideas.

[dukeleto]

chromatic's diff for fixing the "spaces in the build dir" issue

[dukeleto]

Chromatic's diff works for me when I have a build_dir which contains a space on OS X.

[duncand]

I have now confirmed for myself that nofreakychars.diff seems to fix the problem.

Examination of the Makefile now shows all the whitespace in my path escaped, and 'make' now completes without error.

I recommend that this diff be committed to trunk so that 1.5.0 and any further testing includes it.

[mikehh]

Problems with patch on Ubuntu 9.04 amd64.

I applied the patch to the version of parrot in 'test parrot' and it did indeed build - there is however a problem.

make test FAILs two tests - both of which I think are related to the space in the directory name:

Test Summary Report
-------------------
t/compilers/pct/complete_workflow.t       (Wstat: 512 Tests: 0 Failed: 0)
  Non-zero exit status: 2
  Parse errors: Bad plan.  You planned 54 tests but ran 0.
t/tools/dump_pbc.t                        (Wstat: 256 Tests: 1 Failed: 1)
  Failed test:  1
  Non-zero exit status: 1
Files=329, Tests=10015, 84 wallclock secs ( 3.90 usr  0.88 sys + 107.82 cusr 39.33 csys = 151.93 CPU)
Result: FAIL
make: *** [test_core] Error 1

mhh@mhh-desktop:~/test parrot$ prove -v t/compilers/pct/complete_workflow.t
t/compilers/pct/complete_workflow.t ..
1..54
Error in tempfile() using /home/mhh/test\ parrot/t/compilers/pct/XXXXXXXXXX.pg: Parent directory (/home/mhh/test\ parrot/t/compilers/pct/) does not exist at lib/Parrot/Test/Util.pm line 52
# Looks like your test exited with 2 before it could output anything.
Dubious, test returned 2 (wstat 512, 0x200)
Failed 54/54 subtests

Test Summary Report
-------------------
t/compilers/pct/complete_workflow.t (Wstat: 512 Tests: 0 Failed: 0)
  Non-zero exit status: 2
  Parse errors: Bad plan.  You planned 54 tests but ran 0.
Files=1, Tests=0,  0 wallclock secs ( 0.03 usr  0.01 sys +  0.08 cusr  0.01 csys =  0.13 CPU)
Result: FAIL

mhh@mhh-desktop:~/test parrot$ prove -v t/tools/dump_pbc.t
t/tools/dump_pbc.t ..
1..1
Can't find disassembler '/home/mhh/test\ parrot/pbc_disassemble';did you remember to make parrot first?
not ok 1 - 01_temp_var.pir

#   Failed test '01_temp_var.pir'
#   at t/tools/dump_pbc.t line 40.
#                   ''
#     doesn't match '(?-xism:\=head1\ Simple\ Variables)'
# Looks like you failed 1 test of 1.
Dubious, test returned 1 (wstat 256, 0x100)
Failed 1/1 subtests

Test Summary Report
-------------------
t/tools/dump_pbc.t (Wstat: 256 Tests: 1 Failed: 1)
  Failed test:  1
  Non-zero exit status: 1
Files=1, Tests=1,  0 wallclock secs ( 0.01 usr  0.00 sys +  0.09 cusr  0.03 csys =  0.13 CPU)
Result: FAIL

I think further investigation is needed.

[coke]

This is impacting rakudo developers.

[jkeenan]

What is probably the same issue has been reported more recently as TT #1716.

TT #1717, where the issue is non-ascii characters in paths rather than whitespace, may also be related.

kid51

[jkeenan]

Replying to coke: Coke:

Were the issues in this ticket resolved when we closed TT #1716 and TT #1717?

Thanks.

kid51

[coke]

Replying to jkeenan:

Replying to coke: Coke: Were the issues in this ticket resolved when we closed TT #1716 and TT #1717? Thanks. kid51

Looks like. Closing ticket.