Bug 327997 – sys-fs/encfs should not depend on sys-apps/attr

• Status: RESOLVED FIXED
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Martin Väth 2010-07-12 21:10:10 UTC]

For some reason sys-fs/encfs-1.6 lists sys-apps/attr in its DEPEND.
However, I tested, and encfs-1.6 compiles and runs fine without this package.
Please drop this dependency or make it at least optional by a USE flag,
since for systems on which extended file attributes are not desired,
it does not make any sense (or might even introduce some problems, possibly
including security issues) to have sys-apps/attr installed.

[Comment 1 Samuli Suominen (RETIRED) 2010-07-12 21:44:20 UTC]

configure.ac has:

AC_CHECK_HEADERS([attr/xattr.h sys/xattr.h])

encfs/encfs.cpp has:

#ifdef HAVE_ATTR_XATTR_H
#include <attr/xattr.h>

it's checked for and used if present build-time. please write a patch to upstream to make it configurable from ./configure switch, meanwhile I see no reason to do anything in tree

[Comment 2 Martin Väth 2010-07-13 12:36:56 UTC]

(In reply to comment #1)
> configure.ac has:
> 
> AC_CHECK_HEADERS([attr/xattr.h sys/xattr.h])
>
> it's checked for and used if present build-time. please write a patch [...]

Note that sys/xattr.h is part of glibc, so the second header-file is fine,
and the removal of the attr/xattr.h automagic does not require any patch:
To force a negative result, it suffices to export the environment variable
  ac_cv_header_attr_xattr_h=no
This is not a hack but documented behavior:
This cache variable name is documented in the autoconf info
for AC_CHECK_HEADERS.

In fact, exporting of this variable appears "cleaner" to me than any patch,
since this removes the automagic even if a future version of autoconf
should call AC_CHECK_HEADERS(attr/xattr.h) implicitly for some other reason.

[Comment 3 Martin Väth 2010-07-16 14:13:44 UTC]

Created attachment 239059 [details, diff]
Patch for ebuild to provide USE=xattr, avoiding automagic

For the case that my previous explanation was a bit unclear:
I attach a patch for the ebuild to make the sys-apps/attr dependency
really optional (and non-automagic).

As I tried to explain previously, I think this is cleaner than an
upstream patch could be.

[Comment 4 Martin Väth 2010-07-16 14:20:07 UTC]

(Since the bug is not assigned yet and nobody is on the CC list,
I guess I have to reopen it so that my previous replies do not vanish unseen).

[Comment 5 Jeroen Roovers (RETIRED) 2010-07-19 00:51:56 UTC]

(In reply to comment #4)
> (Since the bug is not assigned yet and nobody is on the CC list,
> I guess I have to reopen it so that my previous replies do not vanish unseen).

It helps...

[Comment 6 Samuli Suominen (RETIRED) 2010-08-31 19:06:02 UTC]

that works. thanks.

+  31 Aug 2010; Samuli Suominen <[e-mail]> encfs-1.6.ebuild:
+  USE="xattr" by Martin Väth.