Opened 9 years ago
Closed 9 years ago
#6027 closed enhancement (fixed)
Poppler instructions
| Reported by: | Chris Staub | Owned by: | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Priority: | normal | Milestone: | 7.7 |
| Component: | BOOK | Version: | SVN |
| Severity: | normal | Keywords: | |
| Cc: |
Description
The book's instructions for Poppler could use some refinement, but I wanted to check first to verify if my assumptions are correct.
Mainly, I don't understand why the instructions for "qt4 or qt5 at /usr, or without qt or with qt4 in /opt" are separate from "qt5 in /opt" instructions. Why would qt5 in /opt, specifically, need to be singled out with its own set of instructions? It would be much simpler just to say something like "If you have only 1 Qt version installed, just skip to configure and Poppler will automatically find Qt. If you have both Qt versions, run source setqt4 before configure to build with qt4 support, or source setqt5 for qt5 support." Then follow this up with the configure/make/install commands, which won't need to be repeated.
Attachments (1)
Change History (10)
comment:1 by , 9 years ago
| Owner: | changed from to |
|---|---|
| Status: | new → assigned |
comment:2 by , 9 years ago
OK, I'm writing a patch to fix them. Also, I don't understand the comment about Zlib. There's nothing else about Zlib or whether Poppler will/should link to it anywhere else on the page - is that just outdated?
comment:3 by , 9 years ago
The sentence "The book's instructions for Poppler could use some refinement" is not necessary, but displays judgment the author is making about somebody else.
When the modifications were introduced, http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/ticket/5600#comment:2, the ticket was left open:
Leaving open until tomorrow, waiting for eventual feedback. Possibly fixed at r14412.
There was no feedback, until now.
The revision was provoked by criticism to the instructions, which had in words, what is now in tests. It was written that the instructions were very confusing.
The logic during the revision was how to build a script that would work for any user with both qt or only one, in which case this only one could be at /opt or /usr.
Qt5 is separate, due to the form of the fist set of tests for Qt4. It could be reversed, first consider the cases using Qt5, then separate Qt4.
The sentence:
"If you have both Qt versions, run source setqt4 before configure to build with qt4 support, or source setqt5 for qt5 support"
does not contemplate the case where you want to build with qt4 and then with qt5.
It took about a day figuring out which set of tests would give the right results for all cases:
user has only qt4 in /user only qt4 in /opt only qt5 in /user only qt5 in /opt both qt4 and qt5
versus
installing poppler with only qt4 only qt5 with qt4 and qt5
The instructions now solves the problem about what to do in any case (it's hoped) so the user would not commit an error.
comment:4 by , 9 years ago
As for the zlib comment, that was my doing.
Back when I was still editing, I believe Ragnar (or maybe Igor, dunno) added the switch to link to zlib by default. However, the configure would print the warning you see in the xml comment, so I removed the switch and added the xml comment.
I don't know if this is still the case, that was more than year ago (closer to two than a year).
comment:5 by , 9 years ago
I forgot to write:
The asymmetry is probably due to Qt: only one version can be installed, if in /user. Two, if in /opt.
comment:6 by , 9 years ago
Thanks, Armin.
Apart from the invalid zlib comment, this ticket is a duplicate of #5600.
comment:7 by , 9 years ago
No, I did not see the other ticket, but it doesn't really help either. I don't see anything here or in the previous ticket that explains *why* the Qt install location matters in the instructions. As far as I can tell, it does boil down to "to build with Qt4 support, run setqt4, to build with Qt 5 support, run setqt4, to build with both, run both", regardless of whether either is in /opt - isn't the point of the "setqt*" scripts to adjust the PATH to wherever that Qt version is installed?
comment:8 by , 9 years ago
I am sorry for my reaction, reasons of which explained here and in the dev list.
If Bruce wishes, I can apply Chris patch (didn't read it yet, but if it is decided that it should be applied, it doesn't matter that I read it).
comment:9 by , 9 years ago
| Resolution: | → fixed |
|---|---|
| Status: | assigned → closed |
Thanks for the patch Chris. Applied with minor modifications at revision 15347.
Fixed.
Yes, those instructions need some rework.