545037 - Review Gentoo Linux's NSS package files

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(NSS :: Build, defect)

Description

[Wan-Teh Chang]

I'd like to review how Gentoo Linux builds and installs its NSS package.
I do this review as a voluntary service.

Gentoo Linux's NSS package files can be found at
http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/gentoo-x86/dev-libs/nss/

Comment 1

[Jory A. Pratt [:anarchy]]

Wan-Teh, I should have mentioned the only ebuilds that will take changes are the latest. I will not backport the changes to older builds for gentoo due to our stable keywords. Everything has to go threw testing before we move to stable.

Comment 2

[Wan-Teh Chang]

Comments on nss-3.12.5.ebuild, rev. 1.9:

1. In src_compile(), it should not be necessary to specify
  export USE_SYSTEM_ZLIB=1
  export ZLIB_LIBS=-lz
because those two variables are already set in
mozilla/security/coreconf/Linux.mk.

2. In src_install(), do NOT install the *.a files.
The only exception might be libcrmf.a, which is needed by
Mozilla.  NSS (and NSPR too) is distributed as shared libraries.

3. In src_install(), do NOT install private/nss/*.h.  Those
are NSS private headers.

4. I recommend that you install NSS shared libraries in /usr/lib
instead of /usr/lib/nss, unless this is a Gentoo Linux policy.

5. In src_install(), do NOT install all the NSS command-line
utilities.  You should only install the following tools:
* The tools that have a manual page at
  http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/tools/
* The tools that Sun ships in its NSS package:
  http://mxr.mozilla.org/security/source/security/nss/pkg/solaris/SUNWtlsu/prototype_com

6. See the NSPR bug 545036 comment 1 regarding the SONAME issue.
That's a controversial issue, so I'd like to address the other
issues first.

Comment 3

[Jory A. Pratt [:anarchy]]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Comments on nss-3.12.5.ebuild, rev. 1.9:
> 
> 1. In src_compile(), it should not be necessary to specify
>   export USE_SYSTEM_ZLIB=1
>   export ZLIB_LIBS=-lz
> because those two variables are already set in
> mozilla/security/coreconf/Linux.mk.
> 
> 2. In src_install(), do NOT install the *.a files.
> The only exception might be libcrmf.a, which is needed by
> Mozilla.  NSS (and NSPR too) is distributed as shared libraries.
> 
> 3. In src_install(), do NOT install private/nss/*.h.  Those
> are NSS private headers.
> 
> 4. I recommend that you install NSS shared libraries in /usr/lib
> instead of /usr/lib/nss, unless this is a Gentoo Linux policy.
> 
> 5. In src_install(), do NOT install all the NSS command-line
> utilities.  You should only install the following tools:
> * The tools that have a manual page at
>   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/pki/nss/tools/
> * The tools that Sun ships in its NSS package:
>  
> http://mxr.mozilla.org/security/source/security/nss/pkg/solaris/SUNWtlsu/prototype_com
> 
> 6. See the NSPR bug 545036 comment 1 regarding the SONAME issue.
> That's a controversial issue, so I'd like to address the other
> issues first.

All issues have been address with the exception to the SONAME. I still believe this should be officially fixed upstream so distros do not continue to have to forward port a patch for each release, you can find the updated build for gentoo in about an hour at same link.

Comment 4

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The bug assignee is inactive on Bugzilla, so the assignee is being reset.