icu-config removed from Debian

[slavkoja]

I have my own Debian package for some time for Debian stretch (9), while i don't use it yet in production.

Recently I try to update it from 1.0.3 version to 1.2.6 on the Debian bullseye (11), but building fails on configure step, due missing icu-config, which was removed from debian's package with icu 63.1-6 (Debian buster) and it is deprecated by upstream too, as mentioned in bug report.

Please, don't use icu-config.

[frittentheke]

There are quite a few packages affected in Debian - https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=920900

But in the end icu-config is gone, so building fts-xapian on newer Debian Releases is unfortunately not possible without a change.

[frittentheke]

@slavkoja BTW, I used this little trick to build with Debian Buster on AMD64: LinearTapeFileSystem/ltfs#153

[slavkoja]

@frittentheke thanks for workaround, but IMO this have to be solved here, in configure script.

[grosjo]

Any suggestion to change configure script ?

[grosjo]

@cmouse any idea on that ?

[cmouse]

pkg-config maybe?

[grosjo]

@slavkoja please kindly check latest git

[slavkoja]

@grosjo I ttried it, result is better and seems to work, but on debian the latest ICU version is 63, then configure fails:

...
checking for valgrind... no
checking for pkg-config... (cached) /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.25... yes
checking for ICU_UC... no
checking for ICU_I18N... no
configure: error: icu 64 or higher is required, but was not found.
make[1]: *** [debian/rules:17: override_dh_auto_configure] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/build/dovecot-xapian-1.2.6+git'
make: *** [debian/rules:14: build] Error 2
...

Please, is 64 really needed?

[grosjo]

I have no debian here. Can you put 63 in the configure.ac file, autoreconf -i, configure/make and test it ?

[slavkoja]

I tried 63 already, and it compiles fain, with some warnings only:

In file included from fts-backend-xapian.cpp:51:
fts-backend-xapian-functions.cpp: In function 'bool fts_backend_xapian_index_text(Xapian::WritableDatabase*, uint, const char*, const char*, long int, long i
nt)':
fts-backend-xapian-functions.cpp:824:39: warning: format '%d' expects argument of type 'int', but argument 4 has type 'long int' [-Wformat=]
  824 |   if(verbose>1) i_info("NGRAM(%s,%s) %d max=%d",field,h,ngram->size,ngram->maxlength);
      |                                      ~^                 ~~~~~~~~~~~
      |                                       |                        |
      |                                       int                      long int
      |                                      %ld
fts-backend-xapian-functions.cpp:824:46: warning: format '%d' expects argument of type 'int', but argument 5 has type 'long int' [-Wformat=]
  824 |   if(verbose>1) i_info("NGRAM(%s,%s) %d max=%d",field,h,ngram->size,ngram->maxlength);
      |                                             ~^                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      |                                              |                             |
      |                                              int                           long int
      |                                             %ld
fts-backend-xapian.cpp: In function 'int fts_backend_xapian_init(fts_backend*, const char**)':
fts-backend-xapian.cpp:104:66: warning: format '%d' expects argument of type 'int', but argument 2 has type 'long int' [-Wformat=]
  104 |          i_error("FTS Xapian: 'partial' parameter is incorrect (%d). Try 'partial=2'",backend->partial);
      |                                                                 ~^                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      |                                                                  |                             |
      |                                                                  int                           long int
      |                                                                 %ld
fts-backend-xapian.cpp:109:63: warning: format '%d' expects argument of type 'int', but argument 2 has type 'long int' [-Wformat=]
  109 |          i_error("FTS Xapian: 'full' parameter is incorrect (%d). Try 'full=20'",backend->full);
      |                                                              ~^                  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      |                                                               |                           |
      |                                                               int                         long int
      |                                                              %ld

But success to compile tells near nothing about real usage and as i mentioned early, i do not use it yet, that is why i ask if 64 is really needed.

[grosjo]

Ok, I fixed those warnings

Please kindly test with 63 for a little while and let me know

[grosjo]

Looking at API, it seems not changes have an impact on this plugin. However, your feedback is very welcome running on ICU 63

[slavkoja]

Thanks for investigating this. I am sorry, i cannot provide feedback in reasonable time, because i have plan to use it in summer only.

I am still not sure if it will be useful for my users, because the xapian does not supports our language. But without compiling it i will not able to do any tests.

[grosjo]

Ok, I am closing this for now