a2ps - emerge failure.

whitep · n00b Joined: 28 May 2009 Posts: 3

Hi all.

I'm having problems trying to install a2ps. Now, as this is such a basic package, does the failure indicate a problem with my system, or is it a problem with the package itself? If it is likely to be my system, then how can I trace and fix it?
revdep-rebuild doesn't suggest anything. emerge --sync is up to date...

Log below:

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21678

What is the output of emerge --info ; emerge --pretend --verbose app-text/a2ps?

geburns · n00b Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 65 Location: st paul, mn

i'm having the same issue (v4.13 and v4.14)

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21678

This is app-text/a2ps will not compile (./obstack.h:176: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before ‘ptrdiff_t’). At a glance, I would suspect that the newer glibc includes fewer headers, and a2ps needs to include explicitly a header that was previously included implicitly.

omegablue · n00b Joined: 02 Jun 2009 Posts: 1

I have the same problem here. I tried to compile the original source code and the result was exactly the same.

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21678

tel · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 112

What's the usual time to get the ebuilds fixed? Looks like I can't emerge xfce4, as it depends on a2ps.

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21678

Technically, this is a bug in the upstream package, not in the ebuild. Technicalities aside, the time to fix varies depending on the complexity of the problem and the available time of the developer who fixes it. This is a relatively simple problem, so the main requirement is that somebody proposes a correct fix and that a developer in the affected area commits it. As an ugly hack, you could work around it by modifying your CFLAGS to -include required-extra-header. This would drag it into every compiled file, but should work around the specific failure you are seeing.

Raistlfiren · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 02 Oct 2005 Posts: 100

tel - Just keep on emerging xfce4 until you get to the end and use the --nodeps flag whenever you get down to one or two mroe packages. It is a bad way to go about things, but it gave me xfce4! =)

geburns · n00b Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 65 Location: st paul, mn

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21678

Portage lists the homepage for app-text/a2ps as http://www.inf.enst.fr/~demaille/a2ps/. Strangely, that homepage says the latest version is 4.13, but everyone reporting problems is reporting with version 4.14. After some searching around on the homepage, it appears that they only accept bug reports via e-mail. As such, it is not possible to tell whether anyone has reported this build failure to them. If you decide to contact the maintainer, please also post here so that the maintainer is not inundated with duplicate reports about the same issue.

[Edit: fixed bad use of board code.]

sling · n00b Joined: 28 Nov 2004 Posts: 18 Location: Singapore

A working solution (at least for me) is offered here

Raistlfiren · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 02 Oct 2005 Posts: 100

Finally a solution. For anyone running into this problem and is a moron like me who doesn't want to look up how to patch the ebuild or is clueless on going about doing it, follow this.

This is assuming /usr/local/portage is the directory you put 3rd party ebuilds in

cd /usr/local/portage
mkdir -p app-text/a2ps
cd app-text/a2ps
cp -rf /usr/portage/app-text/a2ps/files .
Download modified ebuild - https://bugs.gentoo.org/attachment.cgi?id=194620
Copy ebuild to /usr/local/portage/app-text/a2ps/ and rename to a2ps-4.14.ebuild
Download patch from https://bugs.gentoo.org/attachment.cgi?id=194099
Copy patch /usr/local/portage/app-text/a2ps/files and rename to a2ps-4.14-fix-obstack.h.patch

Bleh you can use the patch without the ebuild also, but whatever.

The LT · Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:13 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the quick heads-up Raistlfiren, the solution worked like a charm.

Tolstoi · l33t Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 678

Thank you, thank you, thank you, that worked fine.

tylerwylie · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:58 am Post subject:

I just added a2ps to /etc/portage/profile/package.provided and went on with my life.

micro_mx · n00b Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Posts: 29

thanx Raistlfiren, that worked

jwlt · n00b Joined: 11 May 2010 Posts: 1

thanks Raistlfiren worked for me also, but first had to edit the emerge to point to app-text/ghostscript-gpl instead of virtual/ghostscript