`lingo build` (in the sandbox) does not work

[lhstrh]

I'm using the latest lfc from master.

Output:

- embedded: Error: Command exited with status exit status: 1: "/home/marten/lingua-franca-master/git/lingua-franca/bin/lfc" "--json={\"out\":\"/home/marten/lf-lang/lingo/sandbox/target\",\"properties\":{\"no-compile\":true},\"src\":\"/home/marten/lf-lang/lingo/sandbox/src/Main2.lf\"}"
- git-hook: Error: Command exited with status exit status: 1: "/home/marten/lingua-franca-master/git/lingua-franca/bin/lfc" "--json={\"out\":\"/home/marten/lf-lang/lingo/sandbox/target\",\"properties\":{\"logging\":\"info\",\"no-compile\":true},\"src\":\"/home/marten/lf-lang/lingo/sandbox/src/Main.lf\"}"

Also observed by @gundralaa who is blocked by this issue.

Running lfc --json={"out":"/home/marten/lf-lang/lingo/sandbox/target","properties":{"logging":"info","no-compile":true},"src":"/home/marten/lf-lang/lingo/sandbox/src/Main.lf"} results in:

Usage: lfc [-cfhlnqV] [--print-statistics] [--build-type=<buildType>]
           [--external-runtime-path=<externalRuntimePath>]
           [--logging=<logging>] [-o=<outputPath>] [-r=<rti>]
           [--runtime-version=<runtimeVersion>] [-s=<scheduler>]
           [-t=<true/false>] [--target-compiler=<targetCompiler>]
           [-w=<workers>] (FILES... | --json=<jsonString> |
           --json-file=<jsonFile> | --stdin)
      FILES...              Paths to one or more Lingua Franca programs.
      --build-type=<buildType>
                            The build type to use.
  -c, --clean               Clean before building.
      --external-runtime-path=<externalRuntimePath>
                            Specify an external runtime library to be used by
                              the compiled binary.
  -f, --federated           Treat main reactor as federated.
  -h, --help                Show this help message and exit.
      --json=<jsonString>   JSON object containing CLI arguments.
      --json-file=<jsonFile>
                            JSON file containing CLI arguments.
  -l, --lint                Enable linting of generated code.
      --logging=<logging>   The logging level to use by the generated binary
  -n, --no-compile          Do not invoke target compiler.
  -o, --output-path=<outputPath>
                            Specify the root output directory.
      --print-statistics    Instruct the runtime to collect and print
                              statistics.
  -q, --quiet               Suppress output of the target compiler and other
                              commands
  -r, --rti=<rti>           Specify the location of the RTI.
      --runtime-version=<runtimeVersion>
                            Specify the version of the runtime library used for
                              compiling LF programs.
  -s, --scheduler=<scheduler>
                            Specify the runtime scheduler (if supported).
      --stdin               Read paths to Lingua Franca programs from stdin.
  -t, --threading=<true/false>
                            Specify whether the runtime should use
                              multi-threading (true/false).
      --target-compiler=<targetCompiler>
                            Target compiler to invoke.
  -V, --version             Print version information and exit.
  -w, --workers=<workers>   Specify the default number of worker threads.

There seem to be two problems that need to be fixed:

• [ ] Improve the error reporting in lingo so that it is clear what went wrong
• [ ] Fix lfc so that it can actually handle the --json argument (https://github.com/lf-lang/lingua-franca/issues/1909)

[tanneberger]

I am not sure what the bug is but I pulled today's nightly build and run

../target/debug/lingo build --lfc /home/revol-xut/Downloads/lf-cli-0.4.1-SNAPSHOT-nightly-20230725050236-Linux-x86_64/bin/lfc

And this worked just fine

[oowekyala]

The bug is probably only when you don't use a prebuilt version of lfc, because then it goes through gradle (lf-lang/lingua-franca#1909). When I had this bug in development I found that it was possible to add single quotes around the json arg here: https://github.com/lf-lang/lingo/blob/bbb0b6fcf214b226b0705f06159050582d248c93/src/backends/lfc.rs#L35

(effectively using "--json='{}'" as the format string) and that would fix the issue. I reverted that for trivial reasons so we could add it back.

[tanneberger]

@oowekyala So lfc release builds can handle --json, but the debug build cannot ? - this sounds silly

Can the release build handle wrapping the argument into quotes "--json={}" ?

[oowekyala]

The issue is with gradle and the release builds do not ship with gradle. That's why there could be a diff between release and dev builds afaiu. I don't know if both builds support the quoting though.

[lhstrh]

The problem is that the quotes that surround the JSON string disappear. In the lfc script, invoking the following works:

"${gradlew}" -p "${base}" "cli:${tool}:run" --args="--json='{\"src\":\"foo.lf\"}'"

But, of course, we're not hard-coding the parameters but getting them from the command line, like so:

 "${gradlew}" -p "${base}" "cli:${tool}:run" --args="$*"

At first, I thought this was just a problem with the string not being escaped properly, so I tried this:

args="$(printf "%q" "$@")"
"${gradlew}" -p "${base}" "cli:${tool}:run" --args="$args"

but the result of that is not what we want. I.e., given the input --json='{"src":"foo.lf"}', the escaped string is \{\src\:\foo\\}, and lfc reports an Invalid JSON string. On the other hand, ./build/install/lf-cli/bin/lfc --json='{"src":"foo"}' works fine in the sense that the JSON is parsed and lfc complains that it cannot find foo.lf.

[axmmisaka]

I don't know if both builds support the quoting though.

They both do, but in different ways; the difference is, imo, whether an extra layer of quoting is necessary depending whether it will be parsed by gradle/gradlew. (With gradlew I need ./bin/lfc --json="'{\"src\": \"test/C/src/Hello.lf\"}'", where the single quoting is to prevent gradle from parsing the double quote; with release I only need lfc --json='{"src": "examples/C/src/Smokers.lf"}')

My point, which I believe is also the consensus which you have reached, is that we should just do https://github.com/lf-lang/lingo/issues/31 and stop adapting to gradle wrapper's behaviour, which, according to their GH issues, changes as the version updates 🤡

Using gradlew causes lots of troubles, even for reading from file/stdin. Suppose somebody wants to do this (which people should be able to!) lfc --json-file=<(echo "{\"src\": \"test/C/src/Hello.lf\"}") This is okay with the release version of lfc, but not with gradlew.

[tanneberger]

This is issue is not relevant anymore because we agreed that lingo will not work with the gradle lfc