Re: Found a libtool issue

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Cc: aschorr@telemetry-investments.com, arnold@skeeve.com, bug-gawk@gnu.org
> From: Manuel Collado <mcollado2011@gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 19 May 2022 20:38:38 +0200
> 
> it is a known problem with libtool on windows, on unix libtool uses file
> magic to get dependencies but this does not quite work on windows even
> though the tool can be build with mingw* it uses windows paths which
> confuses libtool so it is not normally included. The above is a
> workaround for cases like that, if you prefer to newer see this warning
> you can simply yank it into /mingw*/etc/config.site.

I don't understand what this talks about, unless it's outdated.  The
'file' utility does work on Windows.  This excerpt from the configure
script's output, which I see in almost every build I ever did, says
so:

   checking how to recognize dependent libraries... file_magic ^x86 archive 
import|^x86 DLL

And the test for it:

  mingw* | pw32*)
    # Base MSYS/MinGW do not provide the 'file' command needed by
    # func_win32_libid shell function, so use a weaker test based on 'objdump',
    # unless we find 'file', for example because we are cross-compiling.
    if ( file / ) >/dev/null 2>&1; then
      lt_cv_deplibs_check_method='file_magic ^x86 archive import|^x86 DLL'
      lt_cv_file_magic_cmd='func_win32_libid'
    else
      # Keep this pattern in sync with the one in func_win32_libid.
      lt_cv_deplibs_check_method='file_magic file format 
(pei*-i386(.*architecture: i386)?|pe-arm-wince|pe-x86-64)'
      lt_cv_file_magic_cmd='$OBJDUMP -f'
    fi
    ;;

> But if it is a known libtool issue, I still wonder why you don't have 
> any problem building gawk-mpfr out-of-the-box.

I know of no such libtool issue, and linking against shared libraries
always worked for me like it does in the gawk-mpfr case.

I can only suggest to instrument with printouts the shell function in
libtool which produces the warning about libgawkextlib.dll.a, and
figure out why libtool doesn't like that import library on your
system.

> mcollado@PC6 /c/Temp/gawextlib-mingw/gawk-mpfr-1.1.0
> $ which file
> /bin/file.exe
> 
> mcollado@PC6 /c/Temp/gawextlib-mingw/gawk-mpfr-1.1.0
> $ file --version
> file-5.04
> magic file from /etc/magic:/usr/share/misc/magic
> 
> mcollado@PC6 /c/Temp/gawextlib-mingw/gawk-mpfr-1.1.0
> $ file /c/gnu/lib/*
> /c/gnu/lib/gawk:                directory
> /c/gnu/lib/libgawkextlib.dll.a: current ar archive
> 
> mcollado@PC6 /c/Temp/gawextlib-mingw/gawk-mpfr-1.1.0
> $ ./libtool --version
> libtool (GNU libtool) 2.4.6
> Written by Gordon Matzigkeit, 1996
> 
> 
> Are there differences w.r.t. what you see on your environment?

No, they are identical.

So I have no more clever ideas, and suggest to printf-debug that
libtool function (AFAIU, it's func_win32_libid) and figure out why it
fails in your case.