Re: [OE-core] [PATCH v3 05/13] tcf-agent: Fix ranlib call when using llvm-ranlib

[Khem Raj <raj.khem@gmail.com>]

On 5/29/25 2:20 AM, Richard Purdie wrote:
> On Thu, 2025-05-22 at 20:52 -0700, Khem Raj via lists.openembedded.org wrote:
>> This ensures that binutils-ranlib or llvm-ranlib
>> behaves same as gcc-ranlib
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Khem Raj <raj.khem@gmail.com>
>> ---
>>   meta/recipes-devtools/tcf-agent/tcf-agent_git.bb | 5 +++++
>>   1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/meta/recipes-devtools/tcf-agent/tcf-agent_git.bb b/meta/recipes-devtools/tcf-agent/tcf-agent_git.bb
>> index 235936288ba792c86af4dd1899b2f6585328141f..41706f4b60f1f25233ff91c8f112b8122a5c6c30 100644
>> --- a/meta/recipes-devtools/tcf-agent/tcf-agent_git.bb
>> +++ b/meta/recipes-devtools/tcf-agent/tcf-agent_git.bb
>> @@ -51,6 +51,11 @@ CFLAGS:append:riscv64 = " ${LCL_STOP_SERVICES}"
>>   CFLAGS:append:riscv32 = " ${LCL_STOP_SERVICES}"
>>   CFLAGS:append:loongarch64 = " ${LCL_STOP_SERVICES}"
>>   
>> +# This works with gcc-ranlib wrapper only which expands $@ shell array,
>> +# but it will fail if RANLIB was set to <cross>-ranlib or
>> +# <cross>-llvm-ranlib has same behaviour
>> +RANLIB:append:toolchain-clang = " $@"
>> +
>>   do_install() {
>>   	oe_runmake install INSTALLROOT=${D}
>>   	install -d ${D}${sysconfdir}/init.d/
>>
> 
> The people on the patch review calls are struggling to understand the
> issue here. Could you explain this a bit more in the comment so we can
> understand it?
> 
> Does this imply there is a missing piece on the commandline in the
> makefiles (or whatever) of tcf-agent which should really be fixed
> instead?

I can explain it a bit more. tcf-agent calls RANLIB after calling AR to 
create the archive [1], when RANLIB is set to gcc-ranlib this goes 
unnoticed, since calling gcc-ranlib without any arguments it silenlty 
does nothing and exits with return code 0, however, calling ranlib or 
llvm-ranlib does demand library name as commandline option and since it 
is not there it exits with code 1

aarch64-poky-linux-musl-llvm-ranlib
OVERVIEW: LLVM ranlib

Generate an index for archives

USAGE: aarch64-poky-linux-musl-llvm-ranlib archive...

OPTIONS:
   -h --help             - Display available options
   -V --version          - Display the version of this program
   -D                    - Use zero for timestamps and uids/gids (default)
   -U                    - Use actual timestamps and uids/gids
   -X{32|64|32_64|any}   - Specify which archive symbol tables should be 
generated if they do not already exist (AIX OS only)
aarch64-poky-linux-musl-llvm-ranlib: error: an archive name must be 
specified
make: *** [Makefile:53: obj/GNU/Linux/a64/Debug/libtcf.a] Error 1


When we add $@, to RANLIB then it becomes the make variable,
$@ - An automatic Makefile variable that expands to the target name (the 
file being built)


so the makefile target now rightly adds the .a filename to RANLIB call.

tcf-agent seems to add $@ for solaris and osx, I guess someone saw the 
problem on default ranlib on these platforms but not on linux where 
gcc-ar is used commonly.

[1] 
https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipse/tcf/tcf.agent/-/blob/master/agent/Makefile?ref_type=heads#L53

> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Richard