Re: CVS commit: src

[Taylor R Campbell <riastradh%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

> Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2024 09:46:10 -0500
> From: Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost>
> 
> "Taylor R Campbell" <riastradh%netbsd.org@localhost> writes:
> 
> > build.sh: Use X11_TYPE=modular for build.sh pkg=... by default.
> >
> > You can override it in your MAKECONF if you want to debug issues in
> > pkgsrc with cross-building X11_TYPE=native, but let's try to make
> > things work out of the box here if you don't go out of your way.
> 
> I can sort of see where you are coming from, but this seems contrary to
> doctrine, which as I understand it, is that the standard approach is to
> use -x in build.sh if one wants X.
> 
> Are you having problems with a build.sh without -x, when requesting
> packages that need X?  Or some other problem?

The problem is that none of the pkgsrc build infrastructure for
X11_TYPE=native works for cross-builds, so before my change, if you
tried to build any packages using X, it would simply barf up a spew of
confusing build errors and/or unusably broken packages.  (I had only
tested the new build.sh command with non-graphical packages before.)

I could invest a lot of effort into making X11_TYPE=native work in
cross-builds -- I started a few patches which are waiting on the
branch since they touch mk/ infrastructure, but there's a lot more to
do for nontrivial things like splitting up X11BASE for the host and
target systems.

And that work is probably not worth doing anyway because the primary
reason xsrc and X11_TYPE=native continue exist at all is to support
cross-building X for ancient/tiny platforms too weak to do pkgsrc
builds.

In contrast, pkgsrc cross-builds of X packages do already generally
work with X11_TYPE=modular -- that's what I put all my effort into in
the past.


Bear in mind that `build.sh pkg=...' is still an early-stage draft
experiment.  Absolutely nothing that matters relies on it, and I might
rip it out and do something else instead (like maybe teach it to do
pbulk with a limited_list instead or something, for better scripting).
Feel free to try it out and tweak it as you need to make it work!  If
you want to make X11_TYPE=native cross-builds work and teach it to set
X11_TYPE=native/modular depending on -x/MKX11=yes or not, go for it;
it won't break anything important.