[GRASS-dev] winGRASS compilation: perl not found (needed for MAN)

[Markus Neteler]

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 7:20 AM, Glynn Clements
<glynn at gclements.plus.com> wrote:
>
> Markus Neteler wrote:
>
>> we try to compile winGRASS on a colleague's computer (XP),
>> following
>> https://trac.osgeo.org/grass/wiki/CompileOnWindows
>>
>> ./mswindows/osgeo4w/package.sh
>> ...
>> checking for perl... no
>> ...
>>
>> At this point, MAN is not created, leading to a tar packaging error later.
>>
>> But:
>> $ perl -v
>> This is perl., v5.10.1 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
>> ...
>>
>> I am suprised that perl isn't detected by configure. Nothing
>> dramatic of course.
>
> No idea why; it's just an AC_PATH_PROG() check; nothing unusual about
> it.
>
>> Did any other winGRASS builder observe this problem?
>
> I've never noticed it, because man/Makefile silently skips building
> the manpages if Perl isn't present (I don't have it on Windows).

That's right but "tar" complains (read: warns) about the missing man
stuff later. Perhaps it has to be conditionalized upon perl presence
as well.

> Maybe we should use the Python version from 7.0? Many users will want
> Python anyhow, whereas Perl is only used for g.html2man.

Sounds good, we would get rid of a dependency.

> OTOH, how many Windows users will want nroff manpages?

Likely 0.001%. It was more for a potential breakage of the packaging
process.

Markus