220544 - make -f client.mk build chokes when path contains spaces

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(SeaMonkey :: Build Config, defect)

Description

[Jerry Baker]

When a directory that the configure script wants to check contains a space, the
configure script is too dumb to figure out what is happening.

For example, I have Perl 5.008 installed in C:\Program Files\Perl. Running "make
-f client.mk build" bails out when it checks for Perl. The error given is along
the lines of "c/program" not found.

EXPECTED:
The configure script needs to understand that when it comes across a space in a
path, that it either needs to escape it, or deal with it however is appropriate.

Comment 1

[David G King]

Are you using MS Visual C or GNU C to build?

Also, what version of make are you using?

Comment 2

[Jerry Baker]

MSVC 6 SP5, Make is version 3.80

Comment 3

[David G King]

Hmmm, that looks OK. Can you post the exact text of the error message you are
getting?

Also, are you using Cygwin PERL or ActiveState PERL?

Comment 4

[Jerry Baker]

ActiveState Perl.

Error (with PATH=C:\Program Files\Perl\)
----------
checking for perl... /cygdrive/c/Program Files/Perl/bin//perl
checking for minimum required perl version >= 5.004... /cygdrive/c/Program: not
found

configure: error: Perl 5.004 or higher is required.
*** Fix above errors and then restart with "make -f client.mk build"
make: *** [/cygdrive/d/Mozilla/mozilla/Makefile] Error 1
----------

Comment 5

[David G King]

OK, I did a very brief test by putting a space in the path to my GNU Cygwin
utils and it broke things really badly. I use Cygwin PERL, although I don't
think that makes a differance.

However, this is a problem that I don't have the expertise to fix. Adding cls as
he might know how to fix this, or at least where it should go.

What you could try doing, is to uninstall Perl, and reinstall it in a directory
without any spaces and see what that does.

Comment 6

[Jerry Baker]

I was able to work around the problem by changing the path to C:\Progra~1\Perl\,
but it's still a bug.

Comment 7

[David G King]

OK, that is another method to remove spaces.

And yes, that is a workaround, not a fix for the bug. The issue is when
configure/configure.in checks for the existance of PERL, it doesn't like spaces
in the path to perl.exe.

This problem is way outside my abilities, so I'm handing over to someone with
more experience with this sort of stuff.

Comment 8

[cls]

From http://www.mozilla.org/build/win32.html :

Mozilla may not build if some tools are installed at a path that contains spaces
or other breaking characters such as pluses, quotation marks, or meta
characters. This does not apply to Visual C++ tools.

Comment 9

[David G King]

Far out, and I read that several times in regard to this bug. And to think, it
says the same thing 3 times, and I missed all 3 of them.....I knew I was out of
my depth. Good thing I'm going to see my Optician tomorrow ;-)

Comment 10

[Jerry Baker]

Ah, it's under "Software Installation" and not "Troubleshooting".

Still, is the bug with the Mozilla configure script, or is it with brain-dead
cygwin tools?