[Bug gdb/20417] New: 'make install' fails when documentation tools are not available

[noloader at gmail dot com]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20417

Bug ID: 20417
Summary: 'make install' fails when documentation tools are not
available
Product: gdb
Version: 7.11.1
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: normal
Priority: P2
Component: gdb
Assignee: unassigned at sourceware dot org
Reporter: noloader at gmail dot com
Target Milestone: ---

I often have to build GDB from sources because of IoT gadgets and other lesser
used platforms. 'make install' often fails because the tools to build the
documentation is missing (and its not available in a repo).

Emacs and other packages often provide a configuration option to skip the
documentation step:

emacs-24.5$ ./configure --help | grep -i info
-V, --version display version information and exit
--infodir=DIR info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
--without-makeinfo don't require makeinfo for building manuals
don't compress some files (.el, .info, etc.) when

Rewinding a bit, Configure is supposed to configure for the platform. Its not
clear to me why GDB and Emacs is configuring to build the documentation when
the tools are not available. it does not make a lot of sense.

I'm guessing one of a few things needs to happen:

(1) GDB should not configure to build documentation when the tools are not
available
- GDB can issue a warning in this case, but things should not fail
(2) GDB should provide an option to disable building the documentation

One of the folks on the mailing list suggested to set MAKEINFO=/bin/true during
configuration. If that's the case, then Configure should do it because that is
the tool's job - to configure the build for the platform.

[noloader at gmail dot com]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20417

Jeffrey Walton <noloader at gmail dot com> changed:

What |Removed |Added
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CC| |noloader at gmail dot com

[dimpase at gmail dot com]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20417

Dima Pasechnik <dimpase at gmail dot com> changed:

What |Removed |Added
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CC| |dimpase at gmail dot com

--- Comment #1 from Dima Pasechnik <dimpase at gmail dot com> ---
I can confirm that this still is the case with gdb 8.2 (on Debian stable).

[dimpase at gmail dot com]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20417

--- Comment #2 from Dima Pasechnik <dimpase at gmail dot com> ---
(In reply to Dima Pasechnik from comment #1)

Post by dimpase at gmail dot com
I can confirm that this still is the case with gdb 8.2 (on Debian stable).

(on a bog-standard x86_64 host, of all things).