Re: [PATCH 5/6] gnu: Enable gnome-doc-utils tests

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

John Darrington <jmd@gnu.org> skribis:

> * gnu/packages/gnome (gnome-doc-utils): Set the XML_CATALOG_FILES variable and
>   enable the tests.

OK to push for now, but:

> +    (arguments
> +     `(#:phases
> +       (alist-cons-before
> +        'check 'pre-check
> +        (lambda* (#:key inputs #:allow-other-keys #:rest args)
> +          ;; This is needed, because without it, xmlint etc tries
> +          ;; to download docbookx.dtd from the net
> +          (setenv "XML_CATALOG_FILES" 
> +                  (string-append (assoc-ref inputs "docbook-xml") 
> +                                 "/xml/dtd/docbook/catalog.xml")))
> +        %standard-phases)))
>      (native-inputs
>       `(("intltool" ,intltool)
> +       ("docbook-xml" ,docbook-xml-4.4)

We can’t copy that around forever.

The problem is that ‘search-path-specification’ is meant for $PATH-like
variables that list directories, not files.

So I see two solutions:

  1. Patch libxml2 so that it honors a new variable, say
     $XML_CATALOG_DIRECTORIES, which would allow us to use
     ‘search-path-specification’.

  2. Augment support for search paths to allow file-based search paths.

(2) may be best in the long run, but it has ramifications in different
places.

Thoughts?

Ludo’.