UUID support configure is a mess (drop libuuid support?)

[rla]

With libuuid installed:

checking for uuid_create in -lossp-uuid... no
checking for uuid_create in -luuid... no
WARNING:  Cannot find libossp-uuid or libuuid -- dropping uuid.pl

OSSP-uuid installed, libuuid not:

checking for uuid_create in -lossp-uuid... no
checking for uuid_create in -luuid... yes

as OSSP-uuid installs uuid.h:

./shtool install -c -m 644 uuid.h /usr/local/include/

There is no uuid_create function in libuuid. On Debian, SWI depends on libossp-uuid. libuuid "support" could be dropped maybe or at least get rid of "checking for uuid_create in -luuid" from configure output as it is confusing as hell. As https://github.com/SWI-Prolog/packages-clib/blob/master/uuid.c uses uuid_create, I have no idea how it has ever worked with libuuid.

For reference:

• libuuid is from http://sourceforge.net/projects/libuuid/
• OSSP-uuid is from http://www.ossp.org/pkg/lib/uuid/

As OSSP ftp and cvs seem to be badly broken at the moment, the library has to be actually sourced from somewhere else.

[JanWielemaker]

It only works with OSSP-uuid. All UUID libraries I checked have different APIs :( This works fine AFAIK in Debian based systems, SuSE, Redhat and derivates, MacOS and even MinGW for Windows. So in what setting is this going wrong? Of course, if you want to make the system recognise more UUID libraries, I'm happy to apply the patches.

[rla]

So in what setting is this going wrong?

Users spend lots of time installing libuuid and expecting it to work with SWI build before looking at the actual source and seeing that libuuid cannot be used at all (and when you install OSSP-uuid, then it is recognized as libuuid).

The configure output clearly says:

Cannot find libossp-uuid or libuuid

Which hints that actual libuuid might work here, not only OSSP-uuid-recognized-as-libuuid. I'm looking at the autoconf and config.* files if the configure output message can be improved.

[JanWielemaker]

On 07/05/15 10:40, Raivo Laanemets wrote:

Which hints that actual libuuid might work here, not only
OSSP-uuid-recognized-as-libuuid. I'm looking at the autoconf and
config.* files if the configure output message can be improved.

I'm always in favour of better errors!

Cheers --- Jan