Accidentally installed libtool wrapper scripts instead of binaries

[Richard W.M. Jones]

Just a note more than anything, since I don't see this problem
discussed anywhere in the packaging guidelines ...

If a package uses libtool, then sometimes libtool generates bash
scripts instead of executables.  These libtool wrapper scripts can be
run from the build directory and run the real executable which is
hidden away in a subdirectory like '.libs'.  They are (another)
misfeature of libtool IMO.

I accidentally packaged some libtool wrapper scripts by doing:

  %install
  ...
  install -m 0755 utils/boot-analysis/boot-analysis
$RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_bindir}/libguestfs-boot-analysis

Nothing in our toolchain highlighted this mistake.  Can we make RPM
complain?

To fix it you have to use the following command instead:

  libtool --mode=install install -m 0755 utils/boot-analysis/boot-analysis
$RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_bindir}/libguestfs-boot-analysis

(Note the libtool documentation is incorrect - it doesn't consistently
mention that you need to specify the 'install' command.)

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
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[Igor Gnatenko]

Good point, but how do we know if file is libtool wrapper and not real
shell-script?

On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 3:27 PM, Richard W.M. Jones <rjones(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:
>  Just a note more than anything, since I don't see this problem
>  discussed anywhere in the packaging guidelines ...
>
>  If a package uses libtool, then sometimes libtool generates bash
>  scripts instead of executables.  These libtool wrapper scripts can be
>  run from the build directory and run the real executable which is
>  hidden away in a subdirectory like '.libs'.  They are (another)
>  misfeature of libtool IMO.
>
>  I accidentally packaged some libtool wrapper scripts by doing:
>
>    %install
>    ...
>    install -m 0755 utils/boot-analysis/boot-analysis
> $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_bindir}/libguestfs-boot-analysis
>
>  Nothing in our toolchain highlighted this mistake.  Can we make RPM
>  complain?
>
>  To fix it you have to use the following command instead:
>
>    libtool --mode=install install -m 0755 utils/boot-analysis/boot-analysis
> $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_bindir}/libguestfs-boot-analysis
>
>  (Note the libtool documentation is incorrect - it doesn't consistently
>  mention that you need to specify the 'install' command.)
>
>  Rich.
>
>  --
>  Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
>  Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
>  virt-p2v converts physical machines to virtual machines.  Boot with a
>  live CD or over the network (PXE) and turn machines into KVM guests.
>  http://libguestfs.org/virt-v2v
>  --
>  devel mailing list
>  devel(a)lists.fedoraproject.org
>  https://lists.fedoraproject.org/admin/lists/[e-mail] 


-- 
-Igor Gnatenko

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Thu, Jul 14, 2016 at 09:52:20AM +0200, Igor Gnatenko wrote:
>  Good point, but how do we know if file is libtool wrapper and not
> real
>  shell-script? 
If you're happy with a heuristic, then they should be easy to identify
from the comments at the very beginning of the file, which look like
below.  Anything with "libtool" and "temporary wrapper script" and
"should never be moved out of the build directory" in the first few
lines is a candidate for flagging up IMHO.

#! /bin/sh

# boot-benchmark - temporary wrapper script for .libs/boot-benchmark
# Generated by libtool (GNU libtool) 2.4.6
#
# The boot-benchmark program cannot be directly executed until all the libtool
# libraries that it depends on are installed.
#
# This wrapper script should never be moved out of the build directory.
# If it is, it will not operate correctly.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
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[Pavel Raiskup]

On Wednesday, July 13, 2016 2:27:11 PM CEST Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
>  Just a note more than anything, since I don't see this problem
>  discussed anywhere in the packaging guidelines ...
>  [...]
>  I accidentally packaged some libtool wrapper scripts by doing: 
It probably rarely happens as the 'make install' should do the right thing.

>    %install
>    ...
>    install -m 0755 utils/boot-analysis/boot-analysis
> $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_bindir}/libguestfs-boot-analysis
>  
>  Nothing in our toolchain highlighted this mistake.  Can we make RPM
>  complain? 
I'm not sure whether it is worth to spent much time with heuristics ...
On the other hand -- quick grep through installed 'POSIX shell script' files (by
/bin/file) installed in %_bindir wouldn't hurt the performance too much,
nor manpower.

Is anybody able to grep through many (all?) packages whether this ever
happened accidentally before?

I doubt installed wrapper script worked for you;  but yes - it might be too
late as not everything is manually tested (if not detected by toolchain).

>  To fix it you have to use the following command instead:
>  
>    libtool --mode=install install -m 0755 utils/boot-analysis/boot-analysis
> $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_bindir}/libguestfs-boot-analysis
>  
>  (Note the libtool documentation is incorrect - it doesn't consistently
>  mention that you need to specify the 'install' command.) 
Thanks for pointing that, I'll try to have a look.  Sounds like very old typo
in libtool.texi.

Pavel

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Thu, Jul 14, 2016 at 05:20:41PM +0200, Pavel Raiskup wrote:
>  I doubt installed wrapper script worked for you;  but yes - it might
> be too
>  late as not everything is manually tested (if not detected by toolchain). 
It fails quite dramatically ...

$ libguestfs-boot-benchmark
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/bin/.libs’: Permission denied
/usr/bin/libguestfs-boot-benchmark: line 202: cd:
/builddir/build/BUILD/libguestfs-1.33.42/utils/boot-benchmark: No such file or directory
gcc: error: boot_benchmark-boot-benchmark.o: No such file or directory
gcc: error: ../boot-analysis/boot_benchmark-boot-analysis-utils.o: No such file or
directory
gcc: error: ../../src/.libs/libutils.a: No such file or directory
gcc: error: ../../src/.libs/libguestfs.so: No such file or directory
gcc: error: ../../gnulib/lib/.libs/libgnu.a: No such file or directory

Luckily I didn't run it as root.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
Read my programming and virtualization blog: http://rwmj.wordpress.com
libguestfs lets you edit virtual machines.  Supports shell scripting,
bindings from many languages.  http://libguestfs.org