GNU bug report logs - #19614
make dist exits succesfully even when tar exits with error

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Message #16 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bogdan <bogdro_rep <at> gmx.us>
To: automake-patches <at> gnu.org
Subject: [bug#19614] Split packaging invocation to catch errors
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2022 14:15:13 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hello again.

This time a patch that splits 'tar ... | gzip/bzip2/whatever' into 2 
commands.

Yes, this introduces a requirement for a "temporary" .tar file (and 
i-node allocation, and filesystem free space/performance, and ...), 
but gives gains (I hope they're gains):

1) when 'tar' exits with an error, 'make' handles it and stops the 
packaging instead of letting the second packer in the chain possibly 
create an incomplete package,

2) when 'tar' fails but does NOT exit with an error, I check the 
standard error output for any messages. If present, I assume an error 
and let 'make' handle it like in case 1).

GNU tar behaves nicely: when a problem is encountered, it stops with 
an error exit code. The unfortunate default on my system, BSD tar, 
doesn't. In case of a problem, just a warning is emitted, the exit 
code is success even though files are missing from the resulting .tar 
file. And there is no way to turn those warnings into errors. No idea 
who thought of that. Hence manual checking stderr.

Feel free to modify the test if needed. I assumed all dist types are 
available, but that may not always be the case - maybe some 
conditionals are needed.

Regards,
Bogdan Drozdowski

-- 
Regards - Bogdan ('bogdro') D.                 (GNU/Linux & FreeDOS)
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