#532: libraries and include checks can be highly misleading ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Reporter: guest | Owner: kmcallister Type: defect | Status: closed Priority: normal | Milestone: Cabal-1.8 Component: Cabal library | Version: 1.6.0.2 Severity: normal | Resolution: fixed Keywords: | Difficulty: easy (<4 hours) Ghcversion: | Platform: ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Changes (by duncan): * status: assigned => closed * resolution: => fixed Comment: Thanks! I've applied this and extended it so that we also check compiling headers. For example for a header with wrong C syntax we get: {{{ Configuring foo-1.0... setup: Bad header file: error.h The header file contains a compile error. You can re-run configure with the verbosity flag -v3 to see the error messages from the C compiler. }}} Where as if the header has a pre-processing error (eg `#include "missing.h"`) then we get: {{{ Configuring foo-1.0... setup: Missing dependency on a foreign library: * Missing (or bad) header file: error.h This problem can usually be solved by installing the system package that provides this library (you may need the "-dev" version). If the library is already installed but in a non-standard location then you can use the flags --extra-include-dirs= and --extra-lib-dirs= to specify where it is. If the header file does exist, it may contain errors that are caught by the C compiler at the preprocessing stage. In this case you can re-run configure with the verbosity flag -v3 to see the error messages. }}} Patches applied: {{{ Fri Apr 9 03:25:43 BST 2010 mcallister.keegan@gmail.com * better error messages for erroneous local C headers Addresses the issue in tickets #532, #648. When the all-together test of C libraries and headers fails, use only the preprocessor to probe the headers individually. If they all check out, give a more equivocal error message and suggest -v3. Thu Apr 15 07:24:01 BST 2010 Duncan Coutts * Also check compiling C headers at configure-time So we now both check if the headers can be pre-processed and separately if they can be compiled. If it fails the pre-processing check then it is usually (but not always) a missing header. If it fails to compile then it is definately borked, not missing. Error messages reflect this. }}} -- Ticket URL: http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/532#comment:7 Hackage http://haskell.org/cabal/ Hackage: Cabal and related projects