Cross-compiling glib (without desktop): overcomplicated

Platform
1

I need static libs of glib to build BlueZ which my application is using.

Everything is CLI only.

I need to cross-compile everything to create a smooth coherent environment.

So I need to cross-compile glib, but it’s way too complicated.

1.) Got the source from gitlab (latest master)
2.) Created cross.txt:
For BlueZ to be successfully cross-compiled, we need to have the glib library (even in configure time).

glib itself is a beast, containing massive amount of unnecessary code.

We are building on CLI (no desktop), and target is also CLI-only.

Now glib build fails, gio-desktop failed to build.

Is there a way to cross-compile this glib library without desktop functionality?

Update

glib’s source has been obtained from their repository:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib

cross.txt:

[binaries]
c = '/opt/x-tools/aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc'
cpp = '/opt/x-tools/aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-g++'
ar = '/opt/x-tools/aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-ar'
strip = '/opt/x-tools/aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-strip'

[host_machine]
system = 'Linux'
cpu_family = 'aarch64'
cpu = 'aarch64'
endian = 'little'

[built-in options]
c_args = ['-O3', '-flto=auto', '-funroll-loops', '-fno-plt']
cpp_args = ['-O3', '-flto=auto', '-funroll-loops', '-fno-plt']
  1. Meson setup:
meson setup ~/src/lib/glib . 
  --cross-file ./cross.txt  
  --prefix=staging 
  --default-library=static 
  -Dintrospection=disabled  
  -Dtests=false
  1. Build fail!
ninja
...
[278/705] Linking target gio/gio-launch-desktop
FAILED: gio/gio-launch-desktop
gio-launch-desktop.c:199:(.text.startup+0x58): undefined
 reference to `_g_fd_is_journal'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
...
[285/705] Linking target glib/gtester
FAILED: glib/gtester
/gmessages.c:2117:(.text+0x6a98): undefined reference to `_g_fd_is_journal'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
...
[286/705] Linking target gobject/gobject-query
FAILED: gobject/gobject-query
gmessages.c:2117:(.text+0x6818): undefined reference to `_g_fd_is_journal'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.

To be honest, I need only glib, nothing else.

I could build successfully with “ninja -C builddir glib/libglib-2.0.so gobject/libgobject-2.0.so gio/libgio-2.0.so”

But then it’s again way too overcomplicated to copy everything to proper destination in “staging” directery: libraries, headers, pkgconfig script.

Oh, and in this successul build case, if I call “ninja install”, it will try to build those failing targets, and eventually fail.

Anyone?

2

It looks like gjournal-private.c is only compiled if host_system == 'linux'. Can you investigate why gio/meson.build skips its addition perhaps?

3

Is it case sensitive? I believe mine is set to “Linux”.

Although I’m not with my computer at the moment.

Thank you!

4

I’m not familiar enough with Meson to know off-hand. However it happens, that file needs to be compiled at least for this to work as expected. Making the build not assume that looks more complicated.

5

Ok, thank you! Will try and report back.

6

Jusr have it tested:

host_system == 'linux' was the issue. Mine was set to Linux.

Changing it to lowercase solved the build issue.

Thank you!