node --vars broken in 0.5.4

[laverdet]

Bisects to this revision, though not very helpful..
df22ccb

[bnoordhuis]

@ry - is it safe to remove the #if 0 again at https://github.com/joyent/node/blob/9728723/src/node_version.h#L22 ?

[laverdet]

I hope you guys can get this in for 0.5.5. Without node --vars my build is failing and I've gotten 2 reports so far. I confirmed that if I uncomment the include that bnoordhuis mentioned it works as expected. Thanks!

[ry]

@laverdet what do you need node --vars for?

[laverdet]

I use it in my build to get the install prefix for node along with the platform. I could switch to pulling that info from within node itself using the process object, but it seemed as though the missing node --vars was a mistake. If this is going away permanently I can get along.

[marook]

'$ node --vars' doesen't report NODE_PREFIX and NODE_CFLAGS when 'node_config.h' is not included. NODE_PREFIX and NODE_CFLAGS not set causes my '$ npm install libxmljs' build to fail because i've installed node to ~/.local.

[polotek]

@ry any word on this? Or recommend some other way to properly retrieve build info for node?

[bnoordhuis]

Let's decide if we want to bring back --vars in 0.6.1.

[polotek]

I'm not attached to --vars. But we do need a recommended, non-hacky solution for getting build info. I'm a little out of my depth here, so I don't have any suggestions. Sorry.

[laverdet]

I forgot what all node --vars provided, but you can get pretty valuable information from the process object.

marcel@fantasma ~ $ echo 'console.log(process.platform)' | node
linux
marcel@fantasma ~ $ echo 'console.log(process.arch)' | node
x64
marcel@fantasma ~ $ echo 'console.log(process.versions.v8)' | node
3.7.3

I replaced my build with this a long time ago when I realized it was likely node --vars wasn't coming back.

[laverdet]

That said, I'm ok closing this one out if no one feels really strongly about it. I don't need it anymore.

[marook]

Maybe the build flags can be made available through a configuration script? Like GTK for example uses a gtk-config script to return the build vars.

Here's an GTK tutorial which uses the gtk-config script http://www.gtk.org/tutorial1.2/gtk_tut-2.html

[SaltwaterC]

@laverdet: yes, your solution works with 0.5.x and 0.6. But let's see what happens with 0.4.x:

node -v
v0.4.12
echo 'console.log(process.platform)' | node

readline.js:80
    tty.setRawMode(true);
        ^
Error: ENOTTY, Inappropriate ioctl for device
    at new Interface (readline.js:80:9)
    at Object.createInterface (readline.js:38:10)
    at new REPLServer (repl.js:110:16)
    at Object.start (repl.js:226:10)
    at Function.runRepl (node.js:370:26)
    at startup (node.js:61:13)
    at node.js:448:3

If you have a better suggestion that works with the old stable, please let us know.

[bnoordhuis]

@SaltwaterC: try node -e process.platform

[SaltwaterC]

@bnoordhuis: thanks. That works properly.

[ry]

What exactly do you need --vars for? Please link to code. These flags are GCC specific so we would rather not have them.

[laverdet]

I'm just going to close this. If anyone can think of anything they can't get from the process object please reopen.