Build system's use of libxml2 needs cleaning up
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Key: AXIS2C-1130
URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/AXIS2C-1130
Project: Axis2-C
Issue Type: Improvement
Components: build system
Affects Versions: 1.4.0
Environment: CentOS 4.6 (linux), GCC 4.2.3
Reporter: Steve Nairn
Priority: Minor
Now that 1.4.0 is out of the way.... I'm in the process of getting Axis2/C to
build on Solaris, AIX, HP/UX, Tru64 and Windows (with MinGW) so am modifying
the "configure.ac"s and "Makefile.am"s. Rather than try and submit huge patches
that achieve this I thought I'd have more luck getting patches accepted if
they're smaller and more manageable.
One problem I've come across is the way libxml2 is used in the build system (if
"--enable-libxml2" is supplied).
The first problem is that it's difficult to use libxml2 if it is installed in a
non-standard place so extra CFLAGS and LDFLAGS must be supplied for the build.
This should not be the case as the configure script(s) use the
PKG_CHECK_MODULES macro to check for libxml2. This uses pkg-config to find out
if the libxml2 package is installed and if so, what CFLAGS and LDFLAGS are
required to use the package. Unfortunately this information is not then used in
the Makefile(s).
The second problem is the samples and tools configure scripts check whether to
use guththila or libxml2 when they don't need to. The axiom configure script
needs to know so that it can build the correct wrapper library and the top
level configure script needs to know so it can pass the option to the axiom
configure script and so it can configure in guththila (if guththila is
enabled). The samples and tools shouldn't care which parser is being used so
don't need to check (the check just adds unnecessary complexity).
The third problem is that the Makefile in axiom/src/parser/libxml2 builds
libaxis2_libxml2.la as well as libaxis2_parser.la which appears to be a bit
pointless. The libraries are identical and nothing uses libaxis2_libxml2,la.
This can be removed.
The final problem is that lots of Makefiles explicitly mention the libxml2 or
guththila libraries when they don't need to. The build system uses libtool
which maintains the dependency information required to use a library. When
libaxis2_parser (either the guththila or libxml2 version) is built libtool adds
the dependent libraries (either guththila or libxml2) to the libaxis2_parser.la
file. When anything else is linked with libaxis2_parser.la by libtool then
libtool will automatically include the right dependent libraries to the link
(In fact, for the same reason very little needs to explicitly link with
libaxis2_parser.la since if things link to libaxis2_axiom.la libtool makes sure
they get the right libaxis2_parser as it is required to build
libaxis2_axiom.la).
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