FAQ and Wiki page about -Wimplicit-function-declaration warning, review welcomed
Jim DeLaHunt
list+macports-dev at jdlh.com
Mon Jan 24 07:42:59 UTC 2022
Hello, MacPorts developers:
I was working on a Portfile, and came across the ever-popular "Warning:
Configuration logfiles contain indications of
-Wimplicit-function-declaration; check that features were not
accidentally disabled". After a little searching, I could not find good
instructions on what it meant to me and what I should do. After a bit
more searching, I found useful posts to macports-dev and macports-user
from last year.
I took what I learned, and wrote the wiki entries I wished I had found
with just a little searching. I would welcome your review, and
improvements. Go right ahead and edit the wiki entries if you want.
I added an FAQ:
Why am I getting a message, "Warning… indications of
-Wimplicit-function-declaration"?
<https://trac.macports.org/wiki/FAQ#WhyamIgettingamessageWarningindicationsof-Wimplicit-function-declaration>
This FAQ is intended to be easy to find, and give a user who sees the
warning (without having followed macports-dev and macports-user in
detail for a year) some confidence that this is a known phenomenon, and
some simple instructions on what to do about it.
I added a wiki page. It is intended to be sufficient for users in the
first section, and sufficient for portfile developers in the remaining
sections. It also shows up nicely in wiki search results for the text of
the warning message.
WimplicitFunctionDeclaration
<https://trac.macports.org/wiki/WimplicitFunctionDeclaration>
WimplicitFunctionDeclaration is wiki shorthand for a particular warning
message, "Warning: Configuration logfiles contain indications of
-Wimplicit-function-declaration; check that features were not
accidentally disabled", which MacPorts sometimes displays when
configuring a port. This page explains what you as a MacPorts user
should understand about this message, and what helpful steps you can
take. It also explains to port maintainers, and the adventurer who wants
to diagnose the problem behind the warning, the reason why the message
appears, and how to pursue the problem to the upstream developers.
Page structure:
WimplicitFunctionDeclaration
The warning
Respond by filing MacPorts ticket(s)
What it means
Diagnosis
Respond by filing upstream bug reports
See also
Macports-users email threads
GNU Automake tools
Having written all that, I hope that I have equipped other novice
Portfile developers to be prepared to turn these warnings into upstream
bug fixes for their ports. I will now work on upstream bug reports for
my ports.
I will revisit the WimplicitFunctionDeclaration page from time to time
to do copy editing and to add new findings.
Best regards,
—Jim DeLaHunt, Vancouver, Canada
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