static_lib dependency generates bad paths in the .a

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I've prepared a git repo that showcases the bug:

    https://github.com/bnoordhuis/gyp-bug

The salient parts:

    $ cat a/build.gyp 
    {
      'targets': [
        {
          'target_name': 'a',
          'type': 'static_library',
          'sources': ['a.c'],
        }
      ]
    }

    $ cat b/build.gyp 
    {
      'targets': [
        {
          'target_name': 'b',
          'type': 'executable',
          'sources': ['b.c'],
          'dependencies': ['../a/build.gyp:a'],
        }
      ]
    }

In other words, b depends on static library a.

    $ (cd b/ && gyp --depth=. build.gyp && make V=1)
      cc      -MMD -MF out/Default/.deps/out/Default/obj.target/a/../a/a.o.d.raw  -c -o out/Default/obj.target/a/../a/a.o ../a/a.c
      rm -f out/Default/obj.target/../a/liba.a && ar crsT out/Default/obj.target/../a/liba.a out/Default/obj.target/a/../a/a.o
      cc      -MMD -MF out/Default/.deps/out/Default/obj.target/b/b.o.d.raw  -c -o out/Default/obj.target/b/b.o b.c
      flock out/Default/linker.lock g++   -o out/Default/b -Wl,--start-group out/Default/obj.target/b/b.o out/Default/obj.target/../a/liba.a -Wl,--end-group 
    out/Default/obj.target/../a/liba.a: could not read symbols: No such file or directory
    collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
    make: *** [out/Default/b] Error 1

Building the project from within b/ fails because the .a contains bogus paths:

    $ strace -e open,stat nm b/out/Default/a/liba.a
    open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY)      = 3
    open("/usr/lib/libbfd-2.20.1-system.20100303.so", O_RDONLY) = 3
    open("/lib/libdl.so.2", O_RDONLY)       = 3
    open("/lib/libz.so.1", O_RDONLY)        = 3
    open("/lib/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY)        = 3
    stat("b/out/Default/a/liba.a", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=220, ...}) = 0
    stat("b/out/Default/a/liba.a", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=220, ...}) = 0
    open("b/out/Default/a/liba.a", O_RDONLY) = 3
    stat("b/out/Default/a/../../a/../a/a.o", 0x7fff68220a50) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
    open("b/out/Default/a/../../a/../a/a.o", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
    stat("b/out/Default/a/../../a/../a/a.o", 0x7fff68220af0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
    open("b/out/Default/a/../../a/../a/a.o", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
    nm: b/out/Default/a/liba.a: No such file or directory

There are probably ways to work around this - building both projects from the 
top-level directory works, for instance - but the error message is rather 
obtuse and gives no hint as to what actually went wrong.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by i...@bnoordhuis.nl on 4 Jul 2012 at 2:31