Nixpkgs: Termite broken

[asymmetric]

Issue description

The package termite has been marked as broken. Trying to install results in the following error:

vteseq.cc:3419:42: error: call of overloaded 'vteseq_n_lookup(const char*&, int&)' is ambiguous
   seqhandler = vteseq_n_lookup (name, len);

Why was the package marked as broken? Is there a way to help fix it?

Steps to reproduce

nix-env -Paq nixpkgs.termite

Technical details

• System:

LSB Version:    core-9.20160110ubuntu5-amd64:core-9.20160110ubuntu5-noarch:printing-9.20160110ubuntu5-amd64:printing-9.20160110ubuntu5-noarch:security-9.20160110ubuntu5-amd64:security-9.20160110ubuntu5-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 16.10
Release:        16.10
Codename:       yakkety

• Nix version: nix-env (Nix) 1.11.4
• Nixpkgs version: "17.03pre99246.dc64133"

[Mic92]

According to the project homepage it requires a different version of the vte library: https://github.com/thestinger/vte-ng

If you package this one and add it as a dependency the package should work again.

[asymmetric]

Thanks for the response @Mic92 . Could you help understand the reasoning behind the commit that marked it as broken?

Was the problem that termite was being packaged with the wrong dependency?

[7c6f434c]

The dependency it needs is not in NixPkgs, so it has to be packaged and
nobody cared enough to do it.

[vcunat]

We had the patched vte under gnome-3.20, but 3.20 was now removed whole without porting that to the vte in 3.22. EDIT: refs 754a9cf69 and 189f64d8.

[globin]

I've wasted hours trying to fix building the special vte library, you may try to continue:

{ gnome3, fetchFromGitHub, autoconf, automake, gtk_doc, gettext, libtool, gperf }:

gnome3.vte.overrideAttrs (oldAttrs: rec {
  name = "vte-ng-${version}";
  version = "0.46.1.a";

  src = fetchFromGitHub {
    owner = "thestinger";
    repo = "vte-ng";
    rev = version;
    sha256 = "125fpibid1liz50d7vbxy71pnm8b01x90xnkr4z3419b90lybr0a";
  };

  preConfigure = oldAttrs.preConfigure + "; ./autogen.sh";

  nativeBuildInputs = [ gtk_doc autoconf automake gettext libtool ];
  buildInputs = oldAttrs.buildInputs ++ [ gperf ];
})

This fails with:

  CXX      libvte_2_91_la-vteseq.lo
In file included from vteseq.cc:3413:0:
vteseq-n.gperf: In function 'const vteseq_n_struct* vteseq_n_lookup(const char*, size_t)':
vteseq-n.gperf:293:1: warning: no previous declaration for 'const vteseq_n_struct* vteseq_n_lookup(const char*, size_t)' [-Wmissing-declarations]
vteseq.cc: In function 'void (* _vte_sequence_get_handler(const char*))(VteTerminalPrivate*, GValueArray*)':
vteseq.cc:3426:42: error: call of overloaded 'vteseq_n_lookup(const char*&, int&)' is ambiguous
   seqhandler = vteseq_n_lookup (name, len);
                                          ^
vteseq.cc:3412:1: note: candidate: const vteseq_n_struct* vteseq_n_lookup(const char*, unsigned int)
 vteseq_n_lookup (register const char *str, register unsigned int len);
 ^
In file included from vteseq.cc:3413:0:
vteseq-n.gperf:293:1: note: candidate: const vteseq_n_struct* vteseq_n_lookup(const char*, size_t)
vteseq.cc: At global scope:
vteseq.cc:3412:1: warning: 'const vteseq_n_struct* vteseq_n_lookup(const char*, unsigned int)' declared 'static' but never defined [-Wunused-function]
 vteseq_n_lookup (register const char *str, register unsigned int len);
 ^
make[3]: *** [Makefile:1759: libvte_2_91_la-vteseq.lo] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory '/tmp/nix-build-vte-ng-0.46.1.a.drv-0/vte-ng-0.46.1.a-src/src'
make[2]: *** [Makefile:1200: all] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/tmp/nix-build-vte-ng-0.46.1.a.drv-0/vte-ng-0.46.1.a-src/src'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:570: all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/nix-build-vte-ng-0.46.1.a.drv-0/vte-ng-0.46.1.a-src'
make: *** [Makefile:477: all] Error 2

builder for ‘/nix/store/9r5gy12hazhklxi4l7gzwvr09ad25sa0-vte-ng-0.46.1.a.drv’ failed with exit code 2

I don't see marking one package broken preferable to keeping the whole gnome-3.20 in tree, sadly. Please open a pull request if you manage to succeed, but I don't see myself wasting more time on this otherwise soon.

[mbrgm]

@globin I fixed the errors you found during compilation and submitted a PR to upstream VTE. As the changes may take a while to propagate down into vte-ng, I added them as patches to the vte-ng package, which is now used to compile termite.