Re: Gnattest under Debian/Ubuntu Linux/Linux Lint

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

Simon Wright writes on comp.lang.ada:
> ziotom78@gmail.com writes:
>> I am trying to have GNAT installed on my Linux Mint 14 (Nadia)
>> computer, and I have some problems in determining how to install
>> "gnattest". I have verified it is *not* in any of the following
>> packages:
>> - gnat-4.6
>> - gnat-4.6-base
>> - gnat-gps
>> - gnat-gps-common
>> - libaunit2-dev
>> - libaunit3
>> - asis-programs
>>
>> What puzzles me is that in AdaCore's repositories its source code
>> belongs to "gps":
>>
>> http://viewvc.libre.adacore.com/viewvc.cgi/Public/trunk/gps/gnattest/
>>
>> so I assumed that installing "gnat-gps" would've been enough to have
>> "gnattest" as well. Is it true that this tool is not available in
>> Debian packages? (This would not be the first weird thing with Gnat's
>> packages in Debian...)

No, gnattest is not available in Debian packages at the moment.  As you
noticed the sources are part of the gnat-gps sources but for a version
later than 5.1 (Debian currently has gnat-gps 5.0).

> It's a synchronisation problem.
>
> gnattest is an ASIS[1][2][3] tool (it has to understand the program
> structure).
>
> I'm pretty sure that the only ASIS sources we GNAT users get to see are
> those in the GNAT GPL sources on libre.adacore.com.

Debian has libgnatvsn, built from the GCC sources, to ensure
synchronization between GCC and ASIS.

> gnattest first appeared in GNAT GPL 2012 ASIS, and Debian is (I
> believe) currently using the GNAT GPL 2010 version.

More correctly, GCC 4.6 and ASIS GPL 2010 Edition, glued by libgnatvsn.

>> If "gnattest" is really missing, is there any quick way to install it
>> instead of uninstalling Debian's Gnat and downloading AdaCore's? Last
>> time I tried under Ubuntu x64 I had a few problems because of some
>> inconsistencies in the directory where libraries should be installed,
>> and I would therefore like to stick with Debian packages if possible.

There is no quick way.  You'd have to rebuild ASIS and GPS from sources
using GNAT GPL 2012 Edition; gnattest would come as part of GPS.  Sorry
if that's not what you wanted to hear :/

> Only _some_ inconsistencies?! When you install GNAT GPL, you can choose
> the top-level directory, and then you just need to make sure $prefix/bin
> is on your path, which will keep things apart; but I agree, you really
> don't want to mix libraries.
>
> I wonder how much trouble it'd be to get gnattest to build under Debian?

I've already completed the packaging of GNAT 4.8 (with its libgnatvsn)
for Debian.  The next steps are to package ASIS 2012, a later version of
GtkAda, and then (last) a recent version of gnat-gps.  Usually, doing
this takes me between 6 and 12 months.  Now if someone would step
forward and offer help... :)

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.