OasisLMF
Find robust way to test for pre-requisites
Issue Description
Following the addition of pkg-config as a pre-requisite, users have experienced unhelpful error messages when trying to build ktools from source if this package is missing. It is unclear from these error messages that the reason for failure is the missing pre-requisite. It would be useful to test for these pre-requisites before or during building. Additionally, the system should be robust enough to adapt to future changes in dependencies.
Version / Environment information
pkg-config introduced as a dependency from ktools v3.8.0. However, this issue is relevant to all releases.
Example data / logs
Example of unhelpful error message from autotools if pkg-config not installed:
./configure: line 5858: syntax error near unexpected token `PARQUET,'
./configure: line 5858: ` PKG_CHECK_MODULES_STATIC(PARQUET, arrow parquet,'
The error messages could erroneously be interpreted as a problem with the parquet libraries rather than the lack of a pre-requisite.
./configure: line 5879: syntax error near unexpected token `PARQUET,'
./configure: line 5879: ` PKG_CHECK_MODULES_STATIC(PARQUET, arrow parquet,'
We're getting this on RHEL 7 with pkg-config installed so this is not the only source:
[ccspapp@login12 build_scripts]$ pkg-config --help
Usage:
pkg-config [OPTION?]
Help Options:
-h, --help Show help options
Application Options:
--version output version of pkg-config
--modversion output version for package
--atleast-pkgconfig-version=VERSION require given version of pkg-config
--libs output all linker flags
--static output linker flags for static linking
--short-errors print short errors
--libs-only-l output -l flags
--libs-only-other output other libs (e.g. -pthread)
--libs-only-L output -L flags
--cflags output all pre-processor and compiler flags
--cflags-only-I output -I flags
--cflags-only-other output cflags not covered by the cflags-only-I option
--variable=NAME get the value of variable named NAME
--define-variable=NAME=VALUE set variable NAME to VALUE
--exists return 0 if the module(s) exist
--print-variables output list of variables defined by the module
--uninstalled return 0 if the uninstalled version of one or more module(s) or their dependencies will be used
--atleast-version=VERSION return 0 if the module is at least version VERSION
--exact-version=VERSION return 0 if the module is at exactly version VERSION
--max-version=VERSION return 0 if the module is at no newer than version VERSION
--list-all list all known packages
--debug show verbose debug information
--print-errors show verbose information about missing or conflicting packages,default if --cflags or --libs given on the command line
--silence-errors be silent about errors (default unless --cflags or --libsgiven on the command line)
--errors-to-stdout print errors from --print-errors to stdout not stderr
--print-provides print which packages the package provides
--print-requires print which packages the package requires
--print-requires-private print which packages the package requires for static linking
[ccspapp@login12 build_scripts]$ which pkg-config
/usr/bin/pkg-config
Oh, also
[ccspapp@login12 build_scripts]$ pkg-config --version
0.27.1
[ccspapp@login12 build_scripts]$
After discussion with @hchagani-oasislmf via email, it looks like this is caused in our case by the version of pkg-config on RHEL 7 being too old - updating to the latest (0.29.2) has resolved this issue.
