Odb on Windows: problem with sexplib

[murmour]

Steps to reproduce the problem

1. Install the official Cygwin-based OCaml installer;
2. Install Odb by downloading the latest odb.ml, adding appropriate lines to findlib.conf, ld.conf and creating the ~/.odb/lib directory;
3. Run the Cygwin shell;
4. Install type_conf with ocaml odb.ml type_conv (should succeed).

   Problem

mrm@proxima /cygdrive/c/projects/odb
$ ocaml odb.ml sexplib
Installing sexplib
Deps for sexplib satisfied

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  108k  100  108k    0     0  30876      0  0:00:03  0:00:03 --:--:-- 50144
package downloaded to C:\cygwin\home\mrm\.odb\install-sexplib\sexplib-108.00.02

Configuration:
ocamlfind: ........................................... C:\ocaml\bin\ocamlfind.EXE
ocamlc: .............................................. C:\ocaml\bin\ocamlc.opt.EXE
ocamlopt: ............................................ C:\ocaml\bin\ocamlopt.opt.EXE
ocamlbuild: .......................................... C:\ocaml\bin\ocamlbuild.EXE
Package name: ........................................ sexplib
Package version: ..................................... 108.00.02
os_type: ............................................. Win32
system: .............................................. mingw
architecture: ........................................ i386
ccomp_type: .......................................... cc
ocaml_version: ....................................... 4.00.0
standard_library_default: ............................ C:/ocamlmgw/lib
standard_library: .................................... c:/OCaml/lib
standard_runtime: .................................... ocamlrun
bytecomp_c_compiler: ................................. i686-w64-mingw32-gcc -O -mms-bitfields -Wall -Wno-unused
native_c_compiler: ................................... i686-w64-mingw32-gcc -O -mms-bitfields -Wall -Wno-unused
model: ............................................... default
ext_obj: ............................................. .o
ext_asm: ............................................. .s
ext_lib: ............................................. .a
ext_dll: ............................................. .dll
default_executable_name: ............................. camlprog.exe
systhread_supported: ................................. true
Install architecture-independent files dir: .......... C:\cygwin\home\mrm\.odb
Install architecture-dependent files in dir: ......... $prefix
User executables: .................................... $exec_prefix\bin
System admin executables: ............................ $exec_prefix\sbin
Program executables: ................................. $exec_prefix\libexec
Read-only single-machine data: ....................... $prefix\etc
Modifiable architecture-independent data: ............ $prefix\com
Modifiable single-machine data: ...................... $prefix\var
Object code libraries: ............................... $exec_prefix\lib
Read-only arch-independent data root: ................ $prefix\share
Read-only architecture-independent data: ............. $datarootdir
Info documentation: .................................. $datarootdir\info
Locale-dependent data: ............................... $datarootdir\locale
Man documentation: ................................... $datarootdir\man
Documentation root: .................................. $datarootdir\doc\$pkg_name
HTML documentation: .................................. $docdir
DVI documentation: ................................... $docdir
PDF documentation: ................................... $docdir
PS documentation: .................................... $docdir
findlib_version: ..................................... 1.3.3
is_native: ........................................... true
suffix_program: ...................................... .exe
Remove a file.: ...................................... del
Remove a directory.: ................................. rd
Turn ocaml debug flag on: ............................ true
Turn ocaml profile flag on: .......................... false
Compiler support generation of .cmxs.: ............... true
OCamlbuild additional flags: .........................
Create documentations: ............................... true
Compile tests executable and library and run them: ... false
pkg_unix: ............................................ c:/OCaml/lib
pkg_bigarray: ........................................ c:/OCaml/lib
pkg_num: ............................................. C:/OCaml/lib/site-lib/num
pkg_camlp4_quotations: ............................... c:/OCaml/lib/camlp4
pkg_camlp4_extend: ................................... c:/OCaml/lib/camlp4
pkg_type_conv: ....................................... C:/cygwin/home/mrm/.odb/lib/type_conv
ocamldoc: ............................................ C:\ocaml\bin\ocamldoc.EXE

mkdir 'C:\cygwin\home\mrm\.odb\install-sexplib\sexplib-108.00.02\_build'
''ocamlc.opt -I 'c:/OCaml/lib\ocamlbuild' unix.cma 'c:/OCaml/lib\ocamlbuild/ocamlbuildlib.cma' myocamlbuild.ml 'c:/OCaml/lib\ocamlbuild/ocamlbuild.cmo' -o myocamlbuild.exe
getconf: Unrecognized variable `LFS64_CFLAGS'
mkdir lib
''ocamlfind ocamldep -package unix -package num -package bigarray -modules lib/conv.mli > lib/conv.mli.depends
''ocamlfind ocamldep -package unix -package num -package bigarray -modules lib/sexp.mli > lib/sexp.mli.depends
''ocamlfind ocamldep -package unix -package num -package bigarray -modules lib/sexp_intf.ml > lib/sexp_intf.ml.depends
''ocamlfind ocamldep -package unix -package num -package bigarray -pp 'cpp -undef -traditional -I/mnt/local/sda1/ysulsky/src/misc/public/ocaml-core.bak/base/sexplib/syntax' -modules lib/pre_sexp.ml > lib/pre_sexp.ml.depends
'cpp' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Preprocessing error on file lib/pre_sexp.ml
Exit code 2 while executing this command:
  ''ocamlfind ocamldep -package unix -package num -package bigarray -pp 'cpp -undef -traditional -I/mnt/local/sda1/ysulsky/src/misc/public/ocaml-core.bak/base/sexplib/syntax' -modules lib/pre_sexp.ml > lib/pre_sexp.ml.depends
E: Failure("Command 'C:\\ocaml\\bin\\ocamlbuild.EXE -classic-display -no-log -no-links -install-lib-dir c:/OCaml/lib\\ocamlbuild -byte-plugin lib/sexplib.cma lib/sexplib.cmxs lib/sexplib.cmxa lib/sexplib.a syntax/pa_sexp_conv.cma top/sexplib_top.cma top/sexplib_top.cmxs top/sexplib_top.cmxa top/sexplib_top.a -tag debug' terminated with error code 2")
Exception: Failure "Could not build sexplib".

Root of evil

The build system should have called not cpp but i686-w64-mingw32-cpp. That is how a properly packaged C library would compile when configured with --host=i686-w64-mingw32.

[thelema]

This one definitely needs forwarding to the sexplib maintainers. The call to cpp even has -I/mnt/local/sda1/ysulsky/src/misc/public/ocaml-core.bak/base/sexplib/syntax hard-coded in it. I'll send them a link to this excellent report.