meson rule doesn't copy out files correctly

[xytan0056]

We are trying to use recently added meson rule to build glib and libffi, just as shown in the example

While it worked on my local (debian/buster) but fails on the following error in our CI (docker container in EC2 also debian buster) repro:

testuser@ip-x-x-x-x:~$ git clone https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_foreign_cc.git
...
testuser@ip-x-x-x-x:~/rules_foreign_cc$ curl -L  https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazelisk/releases/download/v1.17.0/bazelisk-linux-amd64 -o /tmp/bazelisk
...
testuser@ip-x-x-x-x:~/rules_foreign_cc$  cd rules_foreign_cc/examples/third_party

testuser@ip-x-x-x-x:~/rules_foreign_cc/examples/third_party$ /tmp/bazelisk build @libffi --sandbox_debug -s
INFO: Analyzed target @libffi//:libffi (0 packages loaded, 0 targets configured).
INFO: Found 1 target...
...
ERROR: /home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/.../external/libffi/BUILD.bazel:10:6: output 'external/libffi/libffi/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libffi.so.7.1.0' was not created
ERROR: /home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/.../external/libffi/BUILD.bazel:10:6: Foreign Cc - Meson: Building libffi failed: not all outputs were created or valid
Target @libffi//:libffi failed to build
Use --verbose_failures to see the command lines of failed build steps.
INFO: Elapsed time: 3.123s, Critical Path: 2.89s
INFO: 2 processes: 1 internal, 1 linux-sandbox.
FAILED: Build did NOT complete successfully

However, I can find the file in the workspace's copy_ folder

testuser@ip-x-x-x-x:~/rules_foreign_cc/examples/third_party$ find /home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/.../execroot/ | grep libffi.so.7.1.0
/home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/.../execroot/rules_foreign_cc_examples_third_party/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/external/libffi/copy_libffi/libffi/lib/libffi.so.7.1.0

as well as Meson.log

testuser@ip-x-x-x-x:~/rules_foreign_cc/examples/third_party$ tail -n 5 bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/external/libffi/libffi_foreign_cc/Meson.log
...
Installing symlink pointing to libffi.so.7.1.0 to /home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/c58a3a196ee30570ef2b2b5639e5691c/sandbox/linux-sandbox/13/execroot/rules_foreign_cc_examples_third_party/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/external/libffi/libffi/lib/libffi.so.7
Installing symlink pointing to libffi.so.7 to /home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/c58a3a196ee30570ef2b2b5639e5691c/sandbox/linux-sandbox/13/execroot/rules_foreign_cc_examples_third_party/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/external/libffi/libffi/lib/libffi.so

testuser@ip-10-205-16-143:~/rules_foreign_cc/examples/third_party$ ls -lh /home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/c58a3a196ee30570ef2b2b5639e5691c/sandbox/linux-sandbox/13/execroot/rules_foreign_cc_examples_third_party/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/external/libffi/libffi/lib/libffi.so.7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 testuser testuser 15 Jul 13 20:21 /home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/c58a3a196ee30570ef2b2b5639e5691c/sandbox/linux-sandbox/13/execroot/rules_foreign_cc_examples_third_party/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/external/libffi/libffi/lib/libffi.so.7 -> libffi.so.7.1.0

This also happens for configure_make rule

testuser@ip-x-x-x-x:~/rules_foreign_cc/examples/third_party$ /tmp/bazelisk build @gettext --sandbox_debug -s
...
ERROR: /home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/.../external/gettext/BUILD.bazel:13:15: output 'external/gettext/gettext/lib/gettext.a' was not created
ERROR: /home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/.../external/gettext/BUILD.bazel:13:15: Foreign Cc - Configure: Building gettext failed: not all outputs were created or valid
Target @gettext//:gettext failed to build
Use --verbose_failures to see the command lines of failed build steps.
INFO: Elapsed time: 197.812s, Critical Path: 195.50s
INFO: 4 processes: 3 internal, 1 linux-sandbox.
FAILED: Build did NOT complete successfully

despite that gettext.a is not even in the out list

Configure.log seems to stop halfway

testuser@ip-x-x-x-x:~/rules_foreign_cc/examples/third_party/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/external/gettext/gettext_f
oreign_cc$ tail -n 5 Configure.log
make[3]: Nothing to be done for 'install-data-am'.
make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/.../sandbox/linux-sandbox/12/execroot/rules_foreign_cc_examples_third_party/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/external/gettext/gettext.build_tmpdir'
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/.../sandbox/linux-sandbox/12/execroot/rules_foreign_cc_examples_third_party/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/external/gettext/gettext.build_tmpdir'
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/testuser/.cache/bazel/_bazel_testuser/.../sandbox/linux-sandbox/12/execroot/rules_foreign_cc_examples_third_party/bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/bin/external/gettext/gettext.build_tmpdir'
+ set +x

any pointers I can look into? cc @jheaff1

testuser@ip-x-x-x-x:~/rules_foreign_cc/examples/third_party$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="10"
VERSION="10 (buster)"
VERSION_CODENAME=buster
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

[jheaff1]

The libffi issue is that the build target defined in the rules_foreign_cc examples expects the .so file to have the path lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libffi.so.7.1.0. Yet in your build, the generated so file path has no x86_64-linux-gnu segment. It seems meson adds this segment for Ubuntu (used by rules_foreign_cc CI builds) and not Debian

simply remove “/x86_64-linux-gnu” from the libffi BUILD file.

[jheaff1]

The gettext issue is because for Linux, there are no output shared libs specified in the BUILD file. Rules_foreign_cc expects the build to generate lib.a on Linux if the Bazel target has no output shared libs or output binaries specified and if out_headers_only is not set to true

[jheaff1]

Also, it shouldn’t be necessary to build gettext for Linux as it is built into gcc. This is why the BUILD file for gettext is not complete for all platforms, as rules_foreign_cc only needs to build it for macOS

[xytan0056]

@jheaff1 thanks a lot for your reply.

remove “/x86_64-linux-gnu” this did help. However, my dev box is debian, and it does generate x86_64-linux-gnu segment.

dev environment -- removing “/x86_64-linux-gnu” fails

➜  glib-meson_foreign_cc_failing cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="10"
VERSION="10 (buster)"
VERSION_CODENAME=buster
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"
...

output 'external/libffi/libffi/lib/libffi.a' was not created

on our CI, removing that said dir works

testuser@ip-x-x-x-x:/go-code$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="10"
VERSION="10 (buster)"
VERSION_CODENAME=buster
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"