bug#21974: can't build guix without 'makeinfo'

bug#21974: can't build guix without 'makeinfo'

[Jan Synáček]

The build fails with an error if the 'makeinfo' binary is missing on
the system. The configure script should check for 'makeinfo' and fail
if not found (or maybe warn that the docs won't be built?).

-- 
Jan Synáček

bug#21974: can't build guix without 'makeinfo'

[Ludovic Courtès]

Jan Synáček <jan.synacek@gmail.com> skribis:

> The build fails with an error if the 'makeinfo' binary is missing on
> the system. The configure script should check for 'makeinfo' and fail
> if not found (or maybe warn that the docs won't be built?).

‘makeinfo’ is necessary when building from a checkout or otherwise
modifying the manual, but it’s not necessary when building from a
tarball.  See
<https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Building-from-Git.html>.

Can you confirm you were building from a checkout?

Thanks,
Ludo’.

bug#21974: can't build guix without 'makeinfo'

[Jan Synáček]

On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 9:40 PM, Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:
> Jan Synáček <jan.synacek@gmail.com> skribis:
>
>> The build fails with an error if the 'makeinfo' binary is missing on
>> the system. The configure script should check for 'makeinfo' and fail
>> if not found (or maybe warn that the docs won't be built?).
>
> ‘makeinfo’ is necessary when building from a checkout or otherwise
> modifying the manual, but it’s not necessary when building from a
> tarball.  See
> <https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Building-from-Git.html>.
>
> Can you confirm you were building from a checkout?

Yes, I was building from a checkout. Maybe it would make sense to make
it optional,
as 'help2man' is? I was only trying to test the latest version of guix
and wasn't really
interested in the documentation changes.

-- 
Jan Synáček

bug#21974: can't build guix without 'makeinfo'

[Ludovic Courtès]

Jan Synáček <jan.synacek@gmail.com> skribis:

> On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 9:40 PM, Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:
>> Jan Synáček <jan.synacek@gmail.com> skribis:
>>
>>> The build fails with an error if the 'makeinfo' binary is missing on
>>> the system. The configure script should check for 'makeinfo' and fail
>>> if not found (or maybe warn that the docs won't be built?).
>>
>> ‘makeinfo’ is necessary when building from a checkout or otherwise
>> modifying the manual, but it’s not necessary when building from a
>> tarball.  See
>> <https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Building-from-Git.html>.
>>
>> Can you confirm you were building from a checkout?
>
> Yes, I was building from a checkout.

OK.

> Maybe it would make sense to make it optional, as 'help2man' is? I was
> only trying to test the latest version of guix and wasn't really
> interested in the documentation changes.

I think it cannot be made more optional than it currently is.
‘MAKEINFO’ is currently defined as:

  MAKEINFO = ${SHELL} …/build-aux/missing makeinfo

meaning that you get a warning when ‘makeinfo’ is missing.

Regardless, I would recommend the following to set up a development
environment for Guix:

  guix environment guix

I realize this wasn’t documented, so I’ve added it to “Building from
Git.”

Thanks,
Ludo’.