From: vallor@cultnix.org
On Tue, 8 Jul 2025 22:38:33 -0400, Paul wrote in
<104kknd$fod$1@dont-email.me>:
> On Tue, 7/8/2025 5:40 PM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>> On Tue, 8 Jul 2025 02:05:06 -0400, Paul wrote:
>>
>>> Todays dev, is a careless son of a bitch.
>>
>> This is why build scripts have dependency checks in them. All the good
>> build systems (Autotools, CMake etc) offer elaborate mechanisms for
>> performing these checks.
>>
>
> I could tell you about one project I attempted to build.
> It was a project that used some NVidia SDK libraries
> for the build. The build got half way along, and an error
> message said "Version mismatch". That's it. That's the context.
> You don't report "Version Mismatch, executable ABC wants version 10
> of SDK, SDK provided is version 9". No contextual helpful hint at
> all, as to what the things are where the versions don't match.
>
./configure (or cmake or whatever) should have caught that
dependency before you started compiling -- and told you what
you needed. Shame on them.
> By giving the builder no hint at all, what the two word error message
> means, am I supposed to systematically download one 2GB kit after
> another and "try them and see if the problem goes away". Well,
> fuck you and the chuck wagon you rode in on.
>
> A person in the old days, would realize an error message was
> required, and they would say to themselves "if *I* was building
> the package, what information would I appreciate getting
> to resolve the issue". And the error message content is
> tuned for the context of the situation.
I've had ./configure barf on some dependency either not existing
or not being a new enough version, but it's always been obvious
what needs to happen to fix it. Sorry you ran into such a cryptic
error.
Regarding the NVIDIA SDK, seems like if you had the latest version,
the developer(s) fell down on the job of keeping up.
BTW, the current NVIDIA "new feature" branch is 575.64.03 (at least,
for Linux; I'm not sure what it is for Windows).
BTW, if an older version of the package is supported by your distribution,
then "apt-get build-dep" can be very helpful in getting all the
dependencies installed in one fell swoop.
> I've built plenty of stuff over the years. We had to at work, because
> we were on Unix boxes and no software was provided. (Yes, we had
> expensive CAD software, but there were no creature comforts at all.)
> For example, there was no web browser at the time. That's why,
> on one occasion, I spent 40 hours building NCSA Mosaic... when I had
> no build tree and I had to start from scratch. That was a domino
> build, where I had to make myself a libjpeg, a libtiff, I had to
> invent the oxygen I was breathing. And that is why it took all week.
> It worked. But, the IT department was watching me (they watched
> everybody, with regard to downloads), and I got a phone call to
> "delete that browser -- license violation" that did not allow
> NCSA Mosaic to be used in a commercial setting.
>
> So I and my crew, went back to using Lynx, like always.
> Can you imagine trying to do electrical engineering design,
> using Lynx to look up datasheets for electronic parts ? It's
> an experience
>
> And this is why we build.
>
> Because we have nothing.
>
> Paul
Back in the days of yore (say, 90's and part of the 00's) we didn't
trust distribution-supplied packages for heavy-duty use. (Nor
did we trust the kernels.) sendmail, apache, the kernel, and so forth;
were all build from source.
Thankfully, there's a little bit better QC involved with distributions
nowadays. (Example: I remember back in the day we had trouble keeping ypbind
bound to the NIS master -- and truly, I'm not sure anybody could use
it in production. We developed an elaborate system for our
distributed system user database. Elaborate...but reliable.)
--
-v System76 Thelio Mega v1.1 x86_64 NVIDIA RTX 3090Ti 24G
OS: Linux 6.15.5 D: Mint 22.1 DE: Xfce 4.18 Mem: 258G
"The only thing shorter than a weekend is a vacation."
--- SoupGate-DOS v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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