[gentoo-dev] rash of elibtoolize failures and you

[Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>]

as some may have noticed, a lot of packages have suddenly started aborting 
with messages such as:
* Patching ${S}/ltmain.sh ...
 * Portage patch failed to apply (ltmain.sh version 1.3.4)!
!!! ERROR: category/package failed.
!!! Function elibtoolize, Line 240, Exitcode 0
!!! Portage patch failed to apply!

( http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92377 )
( http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92426 )

now, before you cry fowl [1] and start blaming base-system (keepers of 
libtool.eclass) for all your troubles, take a minute to ask yourself "do i 
actually know wtf elibtoolize does ?  or did i just add it because everyone 
else was doing it and i'm merely a tool in the toolbox of life ?"

the best way to verify whether your package should join in the lemming flow is 
like this:
# sed -i -e '/die.*Portage/d' /usr/portage/eclass/libtool.eclass
# emerge <your package>

review the output.  does libtool show *any* patches being applied 
successfully ?  *did* you remember to turn off your oven last nite ?

so if the emerge of your package displayed this:
 * Patching ${S}/ltmain.sh ...
 * Portage patch failed to apply (ltmain.sh version 1.3.5)!
 *   Could not apply relink.patch!
 * Applying uClibc/libtool patches ...
 *  Fixing ${S}/ltconfig ...                                       [ ok ]

then chances are *very* good you shouldnt be using the libtool eclass

if you have any questions, or you think your package is special (everyone 
does), feel free to pipe up now and ask for a 2.5rd party review ... i dont 
mind telling you you're wrong, really, it's ok ... on the flip side, maybe 
libtool.eclass is wrongly aborting and in that case, i'd like to know so i 
can fix base-system's broken crap
-mike

[1] http://www.timsayers.com/silly/edited/00000004.jpg
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