makepkg/makepkg-mingw should always check that base-devel is an implicit build dependency of every package

[FractalU]

Description / Steps to reproduce the issue

When running makepkg/makepkg-mingw to build a package, that tool should always check whether base-devel is installed as an implicit dependency of every package to avoid some unexpected issues. For example when building lua one would install mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-cc and make and run makepkg-mingw. Then, the following error occurs.

patch: command not found

This also happens to a lot of other packages such as nodejs. For packages that don't even depend on a C compiler, when running makepkg/makepkg-mingw there is a chance to get the following error.

==> ERROR: Cannot find the strip binary required for object file stripping.

This occurs when the strip command isn't found. The strip command is found in the binutils and llvm packages. Every C compiler already depends on a package containing strip, so this error disappears when installing a C compiler.

This all happens, when the base-devel package isn't installed. The msys2 documentation points out to install this package when building packages with makepkg/makepkg-mingw. But the bad thing is that this package isn't required and that it mostly kind of works without it. This unexpectedly leads to these above mentioned errors that are very confusing. Not everyone reads all the msys2 documentation to build some packages, so the base-devel part of the documentation can easily be overlooked. This is especially true for some msys2 user who rebuilds certain packages to find some bugs. I think that base-devel should always be installed when running makepkg/makepkg-mingw so it's clear that every package has base-devel as its build dependency. It's similar to how every package depends implicitly on base. Also it would be nice that when base-devel isn't installed makepkg/makepkg-mingw would provide a different error message than Missing dependencies, so its clear what bese-devel is. It's a meta package required to build packages.

Additionally, the base-devel package has 6 redundant dependencies that are now in base.

Those are:

file
gawk
grep
pacman
sed
tar

I suggest to remove those from base-devel, so it's easier to see what additional packages base-devel provides over base.

Expected behavior

Each package implicitly depends on base-devel on building. makepkg/makepkg-mingw checks whether base-devel is installed and refuses to build a package if it isn't.

base-devel has its redundant dependencies that are now in base removed.

Actual behavior

Each package doesn't implicitly depend on base-devel, but it's assumed to be. Therefore, having sometimes weird error messages such as patch: command not found or ==> ERROR: Cannot find the strip binary required for object file stripping. if base-devel isn't installed while running makepkg/makepkg-mingw.

Verification

• [X] I have verified that my MSYS2 is up-to-date before submitting the report (see https://www.msys2.org/docs/updating/)

Windows Version

MINGW64_NT-10.0-22621

Are you willing to submit a PR?

No response

[lazka]

Thanks for the detailed write up. We just follow what Arch Linux does here, but I agree that it could be improved.

[FractalU]

I checked out arch linux website and it turns out arch does have a base-devel package. So I guess this issue applies to arch as well. But I don't know, because I don't use arch linux.

[Biswa96]

So I guess this issue applies to arch as well. But I don't know, because I don't use arch linux.

Because, it is assumed that the person already knows base-devel is required.

[FractalU]

Why assume if it can be enforced? With the assumption that people who build packages know base-devel is required, it's obvious that that assumption is not guaranteed. There is a logic with the dependency. If makepkg requires base-devel to be installed to build packages, then that concludes that every package implicitly depends on base-devel. That needs to be checked. Otherwise it cannot be said that this is true. It's better with the base package. base is always installed after the initial setup. There is a guarantee there. It can be said that every package implicitly depends on base.

[FractalU]

@MehdiChinoune I don't think you understand what I'm saying. If base-devel is required by makepkg then makepkg must check if base-devel is installed to ensure the basic build tools are available. Simple as that. Also, RTFM is not a substitution for tools that don't properly work.

[FractalU]

@MehdiChinoune As I said, RTFM is not a substitution for tools that don't properly work. You don't even try to understand the issue.