Bug 7742 - dhcp lacks important features when BR2_ENABLE_DEBUG
Summary: dhcp lacks important features when BR2_ENABLE_DEBUG
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: buildroot
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Other (show other bugs)
Version: 2014.11
Hardware: All All
: P5 minor
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: unassigned
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2014-12-22 16:14 UTC by Thomas Claveirole
Modified: 2015-07-30 10:12 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Attachments
Fix the reported bug at least partially. (1.44 KB, patch)
2014-12-22 16:14 UTC, Thomas Claveirole
Details

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Description Thomas Claveirole 2014-12-22 16:14:06 UTC
Created attachment 5804 [details]
Fix the reported bug at least partially.

Hi,

When configured with --enable-debug, the DHCP server built from the dhcp package has some important features disabled.  Most notably, it cannot go background, change its UID and GID, nor create PID files (see server/dhcpd.c from the package's sources)...

... and setting BR2_ENABLE_DEBUG does add a --enable-debug option to all target packages that use the Autotools, including the dhcp package (code is in package/Makefile.in:387 and package/pkg-autotools.mk:205).  

However, the help for BR2_ENABLE_DEBUG states that this option should only impact debugging symbols.  Therefore, disabling dhcp features when BR2_ENABLE_DEBUG is on is a bit harsh.

I am not sure what a proper fix for this would be.  *Maybe* a solution is not to give --enable-debug to dhcp when BR2_ENABLE_DEBUG, but the Autotools infrastructure does not allow this.  Attached is a patch I use for the dhcp package that keeps the aforementioned features even when one configures the package with --enable-debug.  But I only looked quickly at dhcpd's source code, and --enable-debug might disable other features I am not aware of (and possibly in other programs, e.g., the DHCP client).

Cheers,
Thomas
Comment 1 Thomas Petazzoni 2014-12-23 11:24:02 UTC
Interesting, thanks for the report.

We have seen several cases of --enable-debug causing problems, and indeed the help text of BR2_ENABLE_DEBUG only mentions that it's causing the packages to be built with debugging symbols.

So, I would personally suggest that we simply do not pass --enable-debug when BR2_ENABLE_DEBUG is set, and make BR2_ENABLE_DEBUG only enable debugging symbols.
Comment 2 Thomas Petazzoni 2015-07-30 10:12:08 UTC
We are no longer passing --enable-debug to all packages when BR2_ENABLE_DEBUG=y since commit http://git.buildroot.net/buildroot/commit/package/Makefile.in?id=0552a367dbdc27a211daaac3359d81dd537e384f. Therefore, this bug is fixed.