Re: maint.mk v. gzip 1.2.4

[Simon Josefsson]

address@hidden (Steven M. Schweda) writes:

>    Greetings:
>
>    While trying to build a recent edition of wget on a Tru64 system, I
> ran into a problem, apparently involving gnulib's maint.mk
> ("build-aux/maint.mk"?)
>
>    On a system with an old gzip, say version 1.2.4 (which is supplied
> with Tru64), the victim gets much spewage from an unhappy gzip test. 
> For example:
>
> urtx# gmake
> gzip 1.2.4 (18 Aug 93)
> usage: gzip [-cdfhlLnNrtvV19] [-S suffix] [file ...]
>  -c --stdout      write on standard output, keep original files unchanged
>  -d --decompress  decompress
>  -f --force       force overwrite of output file and compress links
>  -h --help        give this help
>  -l --list        list compressed file contents
>  -L --license     display software license
>  -n --no-name     do not save or restore the original name and time stamp
>  -N --name        save or restore the original name and time stamp
>  -q --quiet       suppress all warnings
>  -r --recursive   operate recursively on directories
>  -S .suf  --suffix .suf     use suffix .suf on compressed files
>  -t --test        test compressed file integrity
>  -v --verbose     verbose mode
>  -V --version     display version number
>  -1 --fast        compress faster
>  -9 --best        compress better
>  file...          files to (de)compress. If none given, use standard input.
> Making all in lib
> [...]
>
>    The cause of this clutter appears to be this part of maint.mk:
>
>       # Do not save the original name or timestamp in the .tar.gz file.
>       # Use --rsyncable if available.
>       gzip_rsyncable := \
>         $(shell gzip --help|grep rsyncable >/dev/null && echo --rsyncable)
>       GZIP_ENV = '--no-name --best $(gzip_rsyncable)'
>
> Sadly, old versions of gzip send the help/usage report to stderr, not
> stdout, so ">/dev/null" alone does not discard it.  (And grep wouldn't
> see an "rsyncable", even if it were there.)  Folding stderr into stdout
> looks harmless to me (not quite a proof of correctness, I realize), and
> seems to solve the spewage problem:
>
>       gzip_rsyncable := \
>         $(shell gzip --help 2>&1 |grep rsyncable >/dev/null && echo 
> --rsyncable)
>
>
>    For the record, that's on Tru64 V5.1B-4 (Patch Kit 6), but I'd expect
> that anyone with a sufficiently obsolete gzip would see it, too.

Fixed in gnulib's maint.mk, thanks!

/Simon