Install GNUstep on a fresh Debian Jessie (S1-E2)

[Tristan Bellogi]

Hi all,

Back here after a while (I had o be finished with my previous project before being 100% on this one: having a "Debian GNUstep dev-workstation".

This post is just about to help one to figure our how it could be difficult to achieve this "simple" goal:
having GNUstep "correctly" installed on a fresh Debian Jessie (8.3.x).
I'm runing:

Debian "Jessie Version  64-bit
memory: 4GB
Proc: Intel® Pentium(R) Dual CPU @ 2.1GHz × 2
GCC 4.9 & GCC 5.x installed by default
using Clang/LLVM 3.7 installed from <http://llvm.org/apt/>

1) Using deb packages issuing a simple apt-get command:
    - using this method, one already seems to be able to install "everything"... Too many IMHO, although,it seems to concern Debian maintainer(s) of the whole suite and NOT the GNUstep team...
Thus, at least on my PC, most applications unexpectedly crash or hang out until one explicitly kill it (ex. ProjectCenter), other simply won't lunch (Gorm).
To be honest I didn't try any other since I don't need  GWorkspace or a SystemPreferences since PC & Gorm cant' satisfy my very first needs, actually.

2) Using Ivucica's GNUstep-Ubuntu scripts as model to achieve a GNUstep building from scratch, I'm now facing others issues:

    - 1) svn co http://svn.gna.org/svn/gnustep/tools/make/trunk make

    - 2) CC=clang-3.7 CXX=clang++-3.7 OBJC=clang-3.7 OBJCFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include \ #***
./configure --with-layout=gnustep --enable-debug-by-default --enable-objc-nonfragile-abi \
-enable-native-objc-exceptions

    ***: OBJCFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include
Just because YES ObjectiveC2 is yet installed here after this set of commands:

    a) git clone https://github.com/gnustep/libobjc2.git

    b) cmake .. -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang-3.7 -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++-3.7 \
-DCMAKE_ASM_COMPILER=clang3.7 -DCMAKE_ASM_FLAGS=-c

    c) make -j8

    d) make test (all succed!)

    e) sudo -E make install

So after 2, I got:

checking for gcc... clang-3.7
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether clang-3.7 accepts -g... yes
checking for clang-3.7 option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... clang-3.7 -E
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether clang++-3.7 accepts -g... yes
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking target system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking for library combo... gnu-gnu-gnu
checking for apple compiler flags... yes
checking for ar... ar
checking for dlltool... no
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking if 'install -p' works... yes
checking if we should use 'install -p' when installing files... yes
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking for gnm... no
checking for gnutar... no
checking for gtar... no
checking for chown... chown
checking if we should enable strict gnustep-make version 2 mode by default... no
checking for GNUstep filesystem layout to use... gnustep
checking if we manage to import the filesystem layout configuration... ok
checking for prefix... /usr/GNUstep
checking for GNUstep configuration file to use... /etc/GNUstep/GNUstep.conf
checking if we should import an existing configuration file... no
checking for user config file to use... .GNUstep.conf
checking if the obsolete --with-user-dir option was used... no: good
checking for user defaults dir to use... GNUstep/Defaults
checking for GNUSTEP_MAKEFILES to use... /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Makefiles
checking for flattened directory structure... yes
configure: Now printing the filesystem layout configuration.
checking for System Applications directory... /usr/GNUstep/System/Applications
checking for System Admin Applications directory... /usr/GNUstep/System/Applications/Admin
checking for System Web Applications directory... /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/WebApplications
checking for System Tools directory... /usr/GNUstep/System/Tools
checking for System Admin Tools directory... /usr/GNUstep/System/Tools/Admin
checking for System Library directory... /usr/GNUstep/System/Library
checking for System Headers directory... /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Headers
checking for System Libraries directory... /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Libraries
checking for System Documentation directory... /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Documentation
checking for System Info Documentation directory... /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Documentation/info
checking for System Man Documentation directory... /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Documentation/man
checking for Network Applications directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Applications
checking for Network Admin Applications directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Applications/Admin
checking for Network Web Applications directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library/WebApplications
checking for Network Tools directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Tools
checking for Network Admin Tools directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Tools/Admin
checking for Network Library directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library
checking for Network Headers directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library/Headers
checking for Network Libraries directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library/Libraries
checking for Network Documentation directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library/Documentation
checking for Network Info Documentation directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library/Documentation/info
checking for Network Man Documentation directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library/Documentation/man
checking for Local Applications directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Applications
checking for Local Admin Applications directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Applications/Admin
checking for Local Web Applications directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library/WebApplications
checking for Local Tools directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Tools
checking for Local Admin Tools directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Tools/Admin
checking for Local Library directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library
checking for Local Headers directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library/Headers
checking for Local Libraries directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library/Libraries
checking for Local Documentation directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library/Documentation
checking for Local Info Documentation directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library/Documentation/info
checking for Local Man Documentation directory... /usr/GNUstep/Local/Library/Documentation/man
checking for User Applications directory... GNUstep/Applications
checking for User Admin Applications directory... GNUstep/Applications/Admin
checking for User Web Applications directory... GNUstep/Library/WebApplications
checking for User Tools directory... GNUstep/Tools
checking for User Admin Tools directory... GNUstep/Tools/Admin
checking for User Library directory... GNUstep/Library
checking for User Headers directory... GNUstep/Library/Headers
checking for User Libraries directory... GNUstep/Library/Libraries
checking for User Documentation directory... GNUstep/Library/Documentation
checking for User Info Documentation directory... GNUstep/Library/Documentation/info
checking for User Man Documentation directory... GNUstep/Library/Documentation/man
checking for System User directory... /home
checking for Network User directory... /home
checking for Local User directory... /home
checking for custom shared objc library... NONE
checking for the flag to link libobjc... -lobjc
checking whether objc has thread support... no
checking whether Objective-C++ is supported... yes
checking whether we should use the nonfragile ABI... yes
checking for the flag to use to do partial linking... -Wl,-r
checking for the GCC version... version: 4.2
checking whether the compiler is clang... yes
checking whether the compiler supports native ObjC exceptions... yes
checking if the compiler supports autodependencies... yes: gcc version is 4.2 >= 3.0
checking if the compiler supports precompiled headers... yes
checking if the compiler requires -shared flag to build for Solaris... yes: gcc version is 4.2 >= 4.0
checking if we should enable 'make debug=yes' by default... yes
checking for gmake... no
checking for gnumake... no
checking for make... make
checking for the GNU Make version... version: 4.1
checking for GNU Make >= 3.79... yes
checking if GNU Make has the info function... yes
checking if we should strip makefiles after installation... no
checking if we should enable support for parallel building... yes
checking for the version of gnustep-make we are compiling... 2.6.7
checking for latex2html... no
checking for bash... /bin/bash
checking for test... /usr/bin/test
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating config-noarch.make
config.status: creating config.make
config.status: creating openapp
config.status: creating opentool
config.status: creating executable.template
config.status: creating GNUmakefile
config.status: creating GNUstep.conf
config.status: creating GNUstep-strict-v2.conf
config.status: creating GNUstep.sh
config.status: creating GNUstep.csh
config.status: creating fixpath.sh
config.status: creating gnustep-make.spec
config.status: creating gnustep-config
config.status: creating TestFramework/gnustep-tests
config.status: creating filesystem.make
config.status: creating filesystem.sh
config.status: creating filesystem.csh
config.status: creating gnustep-make-ld.so.conf
config.status: executing default commands

At  this point, I simply run

sudo -E make install

update my .bashrc by adding:

# Local Variables:
export CC=clang-3.7				    #tell the world we're using clang/llvm compiler chain
export CXX=clang++-3.7
export OBJC=clang-3.7
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/loca/lib/		    #tell the world where to find ObjC2

+. /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Makefiles/GNUstep.sh #sourcing GNUstep env

Also run:

echo $PATH
/home/ylg/GNUstep/Tools:/usr/GNUstep/Local/Tools:/usr/GNUstep/System/Tools:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games

But while doing this I just notice that:

checking for System User directory... /home
checking for Network User directory... /home
checking for Local User directory... /home

seem to NOT have not been created... I've a correct GNUstep tree within /usr/GNUstep but no GNUstep dir within my own home, nor anywhere else...??? Did I've already made a BIG mistake or miss something important ?
Since every install scripts I've being reading begin to install the Make System first, completly remove clang/llvm... In this case I of course can't use --enable-objc-nonfragile-abi option in the my command...
And of course if I choose to run upon Objc2 it is probably to be able to use such a feature ;-)

Ok, let's go further, just to see..., next step is to download the Base library and build it., OK?
At this point, running a simple: ./configure shortly ends asking me to install the GNUstep Make first!?
 
Finally, I begin being sarcastic with myself: I'm just a poor programmer trying to play with tools reserved for  more experimented ones... or maybe to paraphrase the great William S. "something got rotten in the kingdom of GNUstep"...

Really need help, just because I afraid that if William was right about the Kingdom of Danmark, I might be right 'bout myself as programmer... :-(

Later,
Tristan