Re: groff-1.23.0.rc4 - no ./configure?

[Carlos]

On Tue, Apr 25, 2023 at 08:15:06AM +0200, Oliver Corff wrote:
> Hi Carlos,
> 
> thank you for directing me to the documentation buried in the two
> INSTALL.* files.
> 
> May I suggest that the information along the way of obtaining the
> tarball may be augmented?
> 
> My steps were:
> 
> 1. I went to https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/#downloading
> 
> There the text reads: The development version is available from groff's
> git repository <https://savannah.gnu.org/git/?group=groff>. Read the
> INSTALL.extra and INSTALL.REPO files within for build requirements and
> instructions.
> 
> Which reconfirms your point, but
> 
> 2. I went to the repository: https://savannah.gnu.org/git/?group=groff
> 
> It says: Browse Sources Repository
> 
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git
> 
> 3. I saw a list of tar.gz files, with the lates development version on
> top. So I downloaded that and unpacked it locally.
> 
> 4. Only then I saw the two INSTALL.* files and the instructions, but
> executing ./bootstrap just resulted in
> 
> 5. fatal: not a git repository (or any parent up to mount point /)
> 
> You may consider me being naive --- why do I stumble at things which are
> "taken for granted"?
> 
> Is it possible to insert a phrase somewhere either in
> https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/#downloading or in
> https://savannah.gnu.org/git/?group=groff that these tarballs cannot be
> used as is, but must be treated differently?
> 
> And, is it possible to put the information that these unpacked archives
> cannot be used directly at the top of the INSTALL files?
> 
> Looking at a list of source tarballs and *thinking* they can be
> downloaded, unpacked, configured and compiled is just enough off target.
> It seems I miss the necessary threshold knowledge here.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Oliver.
> 

If I were to do the same thing as you did by downloading the tarball
from the cgit interface this is what happens:

$ tar -xzvf groff-1.23.0.rc4.tar.gz -C <whatever directory you choose>
$ ls . -aF .git*

.:
./             ChangeLog.117  LICENSES      TODO             gendef.sh
../            ChangeLog.118  MANIFEST      acinclude.m4     gnulib/
.gitignore     ChangeLog.119  MORE.STUFF    arch/            m4/
.gitmodules    ChangeLog.120  Makefile.am   autom4te.cache/  makevarescape.sed
ANNOUNCE       ChangeLog.121  NEWS          bootstrap*       man/
AUTHORS        ChangeLog.122  PROBLEMS      bootstrap.conf   mdate.pl*
BUG-REPORT     FDL            PROJECTS      build-aux/       src/
COPYING        FOR-RELEASE    README        configure.ac     test-groff.in
ChangeLog      HACKING        README.MinGW  contrib/         tmac/
ChangeLog.115  INSTALL.REPO   README.git    doc/             
update-copyright.sh*
ChangeLog.116  INSTALL.extra  THANKS        font/

once you change into that directory it will give you the list of files
as shown above 

But what exactly does this do? 

I'll tell you what it does (which you already confirmed it anyway)

./bootstrap: Bootstrapping from checked-out groff sources...
./bootstrap: getting gnulib files...
fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git

But why? 

Because the tarball was badly formatted from the very beginning. That's why. 

So what is the solution? One solution is to what Branden said earlier, request
to shut off completely that tarball from cgit 

So yes Oliver. You're right. It's not supposed to have happened but it
requires some extra steps to format the tarball accordingly. So the
easy way out,  is just that. Shut off and request from who-knows-who
to just shut off off that feature. I wouldn't know all the details
for the latter but it goes something like that. :)


-- 
Real Users never know what they want, but they always know when your program
doesn't deliver it.