bug#45165: binutils-mesboot0 fails at configure, cannot find lex

[Carl Dong]

Hi all,

I think I have a new lead!

Here’s what I did:
1. cd /tmp/guix-build-binutils-mesboot0-2.14.drv-0/binutils-2.14
2. env -i bash --rcfile environment-variables
3. Ran the configure command from the log, just to check:
        ./configure --disable-nls --disable-shared --disable-werror 
--build=i386-unknown-linux --host=i386-unknown-linux 
--target=i386-unknown-linux --with-sysroot=/ 
--prefix=/gnu/store/jfa9b78rdniyw7qilsmw3bh02x8x68ly-binutils-mesboot0-2.14

Indeed it did still output "not updating unwritable cache ./config.cache”

However, when I tried `test -w config.cache`, there was no status code…

This led me to look at ./configure’s shebang, which is:
        /gnu/store/m89p469fxwn4hj7an9givd1ry9vk7j2l-bash-mesboot0-2.05b/bin/sh

Then I did:
        /gnu/store/m89p469fxwn4hj7an9givd1ry9vk7j2l-bash-mesboot0-2.05b/bin/sh 
-c "test -w config.cache”

Which _did_ exit with status=1 !

So I believe that this is a problem with the “test” builtin in 
/gnu/store/m89p469fxwn4hj7an9givd1ry9vk7j2l-bash-mesboot0-2.05b

So I ran:
        env -i bash --rcfile environment-variables -c 'strace -v -e trace=file 
/gnu/store/m89p469fxwn4hj7an9givd1ry 9vk7j2l-bash-mesboot0-2.05b/bin/sh -c 
"test -w config.cache”'

And the output:
execve("/gnu/store/m89p469fxwn4hj7an9givd1ry9vk7j2l-bash-mesboot0-2.05b/bin/sh",
 ["/gnu/store/m89p469fxwn4hj7an9giv"..., "-c", "test -w config.cache"], 
["PWD=/tmp/guix-build-binutils-mes"..., "SHLVL=0", "_=/usr/bin/strace"]) = 0
[ Process PID=2049037 runs in 32 bit mode. ]
open("/dev/tty", O_RDWR)                = 3
stat("/tmp/guix-build-binutils-mesboot0-2.14.drv-0", {st_dev=makedev(0, 0x2f), 
st_ino=2546749, st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_nlink=3, st_uid=1000, st_gid=1000, 
st_blksize=4096, st_blocks=0, st_size=80, st_atime=1608079054 /* 
2020-12-15T19:37:34.095396729-0500 */, st_atime_nsec=95396729, 
st_mtime=1607635957 /* 2020-12-10T16:32:37.842047431-0500 */, 
st_mtime_nsec=842047431, st_ctime=1607636165 /* 
2020-12-10T16:36:05.793930344-0500 */, st_ctime_nsec=793930344}) = 0
stat(".", {st_dev=makedev(0, 0x2f), st_ino=2546749, st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, 
st_nlink=3, st_uid=1000, st_gid=1000, st_blksize=4096, st_blocks=0, st_size=80, 
st_atime=1608079054 /* 2020-12-15T19:37:34.095396729-0500 */, 
st_atime_nsec=95396729, st_mtime=1607635957 /* 
2020-12-10T16:32:37.842047431-0500 */, st_mtime_nsec=842047431, 
st_ctime=1607636165 /* 2020-12-10T16:36:05.793930344-0500 */, 
st_ctime_nsec=793930344}) = 0
stat("config.cache", 0xfff9affc)        = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
+++ exited with 1 +++

I had a hunch that the mode is most likely the problem. So I tried the 
following:

chmod 664 config.cache -> status is still 1
chmod 646 config.cache -> status is now 0!!

So somehow the “test” builtin for my bash-mesboot0 doesn’t think that it has 
owner or group permissions to write to a file that itself created?

Let me know what you guys think could be the case!

Cheers,
Carl Dong