Subject: bug#10091: [GNU Libtool 2.4.2] testsuite: 47 115 123 failed on Cygwin 1.7.9 on WinXP

From: Peter Rosin <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:11:54 +0100

Stefano Lattarini skrev 2011-11-21 09:26:
> On Monday 21 November 2011, Peter Rosin wrote:
>> Hi Stefano!
>>
> Hi Peter.
> 
>> Stefano Lattarini skrev 2011-11-20 23:07:
>>> Attached are testsuite.log and config.log (compressed).
>>
>> Just a quick sanity check, have you
>>
> (Aside: this system is not installed nor administered by me).
> 
>> installed the 'file' utility?
>>
> No, it's not installed.

I believe the design decision is that Libtool on Cygwin requires 'file' to
be installed. That seems unfriendly to me, as the casual user trying to
build some random libtooled package (or libtool itself) doesn't know and
probably doesn't expect that 'file' is required. The fact that 'file' is
a dependency on the libtool package in Cygwin is of little help as the
casual user generally does not need to install libtool in order to build
that random libtooled package (or libtool itself).

I am aware that sometime in the past users were sort of required to
relibtoolize any package using libtool in order for it to have a any chance
of actually working on Cygwin (and in the process 'file' would be installed),
but that is not the case anymore as upstream libtool is very close to (if not
identical to?) libtool as delivered by Cygwin.

Maybe what's needed is some check at configure-time that bails on Cygwin in
case 'file' is not found? Silent breakage is bad...

Cheers,
Peter