Hi Greg,

Hello Bjoern,


On Nov 5, 2013, at 12:13 PM, Bjoern Gruening <bjoern.gruening@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Greg,
> 
> I'm right now in implementing a setup_perl_environment and stumbled about a tricky problem (that is not only related to perl but also for ruby, python and R).
> 
> The Problem:
> Lets assume a perl package (A) requires a xml parser written in C/C++ (Z).
> (Z) is a dependency that I can import but as far as I can see there is no way to call set_environment_for_install before setup_perl_environment, because setup_perl_environment defines an installation type.


The above is fairly difficult to understand - can you provide an actual xml recipe that provides some context?

Attached, please see a detailed explanation at the bottom.


> 
> I would like to discuss that issue to get a few ideas. I can think about these solutions:
> 
> - hackish solution:
> I can call install_environment.add_env_shell_file_paths( action_dict[ 'env_shell_file_paths' ] ) inside of the setup_*_environment path and remove it from action type afterwards

Again, it's difficult to provide good feedback on the above approach without an example recipe.  However, your "hackish solution" term probably means it is not ideal.  ;)

> 
> - import all env.sh variables from every (package) definition. Regardless if set_environment_for_install is set or not. 


I don't think the above approach would be ideal.  It seems that it could fairly easily create conflicting environment variables within a single installation, 
so the latest value for an environment variable may not be what is expected.

What means conflicting ENV vars, I only can imagine multiple set_to that overwrite each other. append_to and prepend_to should be save or?


> I must admit, I do not understand why set_environment_for_install is actually needed. I think we can assume that if I specify a 
> 
>     <package name="R_3_0_1" version="3.0.1">
>         <repository name="package_r_3_0_1" owner="iuc" prior_installation_required="True" />
>     </package>
> 
> I want the ENV vars sourced. 

Hmmm…so you are saying that you want the be able to define the above <package> tag set inside of an <actions> tag set and have everything work?

Oh no, I mean just have it as package like it is but source the env.sh file for every other <package> set automatically. So you do not need <set_environment_for_install>.

In the attached example:
    <package name="expat" version="2.1.0">
        <repository changeset_revision="8fc96166cddd" name="package_expat_2_1" owner="iuc" prior_installation_required="True" toolshed="http://testtoolshed.g2.bx.psu.edu" />
    </package>

Is not imported with <set_environment_for_install> so its actually useless (now). But the env.sh needs to be sourced during the "setup_perl_environment" part.

I think this may cause problems because  I believe the <set_environment_for_install> tag set restricts activity to only the time when a dependent 
repository will be using the defined environment from the required repository in order to compile one or more of it's dependencies.  
Eliminating this restriction may cause problems after compilation.  ALthough I cannot state this as a definite fact.

> Furthermore, that can solve an other issue: Namely, the need of ENV vars from a package definition in the same file. Lets imagine package P has dependency D and you want to download compile both in one tool_dependencies.xml file.
> You can either do it in one <package> definition or you need to split them up in 2 tool_dependencies.xml files, rigth?
> Maybe we can just assume a strict order in a tool_dependencies.xml file, where every ENV vars are sourced for the following one? Does that make sense?

It may make sense, but without an example it's diffiecult to answer this for sure.  Can you provide some xml recipes that use your different proposals?

Sure, attached.
Its quite complicated.

- TPP needs libgd to compile C-Code (no problem).
- TPP needs some perl libs and perl -> "setup_perl_environment" (at runtime)
   - no problem until one of these perl packages (here XML-Parser) needs a C library (expat)
- I don't see how to source expat during "setup_perl_environment"
- TPP needs perl (at compile time) ... It would be more readable or logical to separate this recipe into two parts: TPP and Perl libraries

Something like that:
    <package name="trans_proteomic_pipeline_perl_libs" version="4.6.3">
        .....
        set PERL5LIBS
   </package>
    <package name="trans_proteomic_pipeline" version="4.6.3">
        ....
        Here I need the PERL5LIBS
    </package>

- I don't see any way to get the PERL5LIBS from the perl libraries into a separate <package> section which tries to compile TPP.

> Any other ideas?

Not yet, but possibly after your next response.  ;)

:) Here we go!
Thanks Greg!
Bjoern


> Thanks,
> Bjoern

Thanks!

Greg Von Kuster