436806 - binary format check during build is broken in FreeBSD 7

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox Build System :: General, defect)

Description

[Marco Perez [:mpk]]

Attachment: unbreak binary format check on freebsd7 and newer

Several configuration files in our tree include a check for the file object
format on FreeBSD, which relies on a utility called objformat. Traditionally
the format was aout for FreeBSD 1-3. On FreeBSD 4 and later it is elf.

The objformat command appeared in FreeBSD 3, was deprecated in FreeBSD 4 and
reduced to a compatibility stub in FreeBSD 5. Starting with FreeBSD 7 it is
no longer included. For more information, please see the online manpages at:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=objformat&manpath=FreeBSD+6.3-stable

With objformat no longer available, on current versions of FreeBSD the checks
assume that we want to build for aout. That just doesn't make sense anymore.
The attached patch unbreaks the build for FreeBSD 7 (and probably even 8)
while still remaining compatible with older versions (theoretically back to
version 3.0).

Even though this bug is slightly related to bug 434989, the patch takes a
different approach. It doesn't fix anything besides the objformat problem,
but it does so in all files where it's causing problems.

Ted, I hope you're the right person to ask for review. I got your contact
from the module owner page. Feel free to forward the request if appropriate.

Comment 1

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

Comment on attachment 323310 [details] [diff] [review]
unbreak binary format check on freebsd7 and newer

r=me on the mozilla/configure.in changes, but you'll need separate review for the NSPR changes, the directory/c-sdk changes, and the NSS changes.

Comment 2

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

Comment on attachment 323310 [details] [diff] [review]
unbreak binary format check on freebsd7 and newer

r? mcs for the LDAP bits

Comment 3

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

wtc should be able to review the NSPR/NSS bits.

Comment 4

[Wan-Teh Chang]

Comment on attachment 323310 [details] [diff] [review]
unbreak binary format check on freebsd7 and newer

Marco, thanks for the patch.  At first glance, this patch doesn't
make sense, so I want to make sure I understand your explanation:
- FreeBSD 1-2 and 7+ don't have objformat.
- The issue is what we should assume is the binary format if
  objformat doesn't exist.
- If we drop support for FreeBSD 1-2, we can assume ELF because
  FreeBSD 7+ supports ELF only.

Do we still need to support the a.out format?  We can further
simplify if we only need to support ELF.

Comment 5

[Mark Smith [:mcs]]

Comment on attachment 323310 [details] [diff] [review]
unbreak binary format check on freebsd7 and newer

r=me for the LDAP changes.  I would summarize these changes as "On FreeBSD, assume elf instead of a.out if the objformat utility is not available."

Comment 6

[Marco Perez [:mpk]]

(In reply to comment #4)
> 
> Do we still need to support the a.out format?  We can further
> simplify if we only need to support ELF.
> 

Honestly, I don't know. Even though we probably don't, I initially
didn't want to introduce far-reaching changes with this patch.

We may want to tackle that in a separate bug. For now it may be best
for our third party contributors if we just fix the build bustage.

Comment 7

[Marco Perez [:mpk]]

BTW, it seems that with FreeBSD 5 support for a.out was indeed dropped
from the base system (even though it can be added by adding an option
to a customized kernel).

Comment 8

[Wan-Teh Chang]

Comment on attachment 323310 [details] [diff] [review]
unbreak binary format check on freebsd7 and newer

Thanks.  r=wtc.

Comment 9

[Reed Loden [:reed]]

Non-NSS/NSPR/directory changes pushed in 15859:2f0c4a457d28.

Comment 10

[Reed Loden [:reed]]

directory/c-sdk changes:

Checking in directory/c-sdk/configure;
/cvsroot/mozilla/directory/c-sdk/configure,v  <--  configure
new revision: 5.69; previous revision: 5.68
done
Checking in directory/c-sdk/configure.in;
/cvsroot/mozilla/directory/c-sdk/configure.in,v  <--  configure.in
new revision: 5.63; previous revision: 5.62
done
Checking in directory/c-sdk/config/FreeBSD.mk;
/cvsroot/mozilla/directory/c-sdk/config/FreeBSD.mk,v  <--  FreeBSD.mk
new revision: 5.2; previous revision: 5.1
done

Comment 11

[Wan-Teh Chang]

I checked in the patch on the NSPR trunk for NSPR 4.7.2.

Checking in configure.in;
/cvsroot/mozilla/nsprpub/configure.in,v  <--  configure.in
new revision: 1.238; previous revision: 1.237
done
Checking in configure;
/cvsroot/mozilla/nsprpub/configure,v  <--  configure
new revision: 1.234; previous revision: 1.233
done

I checked in the patch on the NSS trunk for NSS 3.12.1.

Checking in FreeBSD.mk;
/cvsroot/mozilla/security/coreconf/FreeBSD.mk,v  <--  FreeBSD.mk
new revision: 1.11; previous revision: 1.10
done

The NSPR and NSS changes will propagate to mozilla-central
the next time we update the snapshots.