[PATCH] build: GuixSD doesn't have /bin/bash.

[Mathieu Lirzin]

* Makefile (SHELL): Search 'bash' in the PATH environment variable.
---
Makefile | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index aa5bf01c1..6c3a22851 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
# that you have tools like git, makeinfo and cppi installed.

# Required for the use of <(...) below.
-SHELL=/bin/bash
+SHELL=bash

# Produce some files that are not stored in the repository.
all:

[Paul Eggert]

Post by Mathieu Lirzin
-SHELL=/bin/bash
+SHELL=bash

Historically $(SHELL) needed to be absolute, so that it could be put
into the #! lines at the start of script. Does this ever happen with
Gnulib? If so, we need a better solution than that.

[Mathieu Lirzin]

Post by Paul Eggert

Post by Mathieu Lirzin
-SHELL=/bin/bash
+SHELL=bash

Historically $(SHELL) needed to be absolute, so that it could be put
into the #! lines at the start of script. Does this ever happen with
Gnulib?

I don't think, since ‘grep -r '^#! *\$'’ doesn't bring any results.

Post by Paul Eggert
If so, we need a better solution than that.

Considering the requirements of having an absolute filename and not
being able to reliably guess that filename, it seems that we should
either use ‘which’ or add a configure phase to generate the Makefile
with the correct SHELL variable.

Using ‘which’ would have the drawback of adding another dependency to
the build process. OTOH Having a configure script allows other
prerequisites such as GNU Make, ‘git’, ‘makeinfo’ and ‘cppi’ to be
checked explicitly which would be an improvement. Maybe there is a good
reason I am overlooking that explains why Gnulib doesn't already have a
configure script.

[Bruno Haible]

Post by Mathieu Lirzin
OTOH Having a configure script allows other
prerequisites such as GNU Make, ‘git’, ‘makeinfo’ and ‘cppi’ to be
checked explicitly which would be an improvement. Maybe there is a good
reason I am overlooking that explains why Gnulib doesn't already have a
configure script.

We don't need another layer of 'configure' for gnulib's main Makefile
and gnulib-tool. Both are meant to be used by developers on their development
machines. It is *not* meant to be used in poor runtime environments.

I am in favour of applying your patch.

Bruno

[Paul Eggert]

Post by Mathieu Lirzin
I don't think, since ‘grep -r '^#! *\$'’ doesn't bring any results.

OK, thanks for checking. I installed it into gnulib master after creating a
ChangeLog entry for it and tweaking the punctuation in the commit message

Post by Mathieu Lirzin
Considering the requirements of having an absolute filename and not
being able to reliably guess that filename, it seems that we should
either use ‘which’ or add a configure phase to generate the Makefile
with the correct SHELL variable.

Probably overkill, as Bruno wrote. And 'which' has its own portability problems.

[Mathieu Lirzin]

Post by Paul Eggert

Post by Mathieu Lirzin
I don't think, since ‘grep -r '^#! *\$'’ doesn't bring any results.

OK, thanks for checking. I installed it into gnulib master after
creating a ChangeLog entry for it and tweaking the punctuation in the
commit message

Thanks for applying it. Sorry for the extra work.