Solved: Meson config failure (sort of)

[Jack <ostroffjh users sourceforge net>]

On 2017.09.19 18:45, Jack wrote:
> Hello Peter,
>
> Per you note about gnome config questions, I decided to try meson.   
> My first attempt at config (just running "meson ../balsa-git" in the  
> build directory) completed but pointed out I had to use either  
> --without-gnome or --with-libsecret.  That is correct, as I'm on a  
> mostly KDE system, with minimal gnome components.
>
> First note - unless I've missed something, the meson syntax is pretty  
> restrictive, needing -Dwith-something=value.  You can't omit the  
> value (mainly true or false).  Not an issue, but FYI.
>
> Second note - With the config line I gave it, it couldn't find any  
> html converter (even though I have html2text installed, but I'll deal  
> with that next) and then failed.  The output ends with:
>
> Message: You cannot properly quote html-only messags.
> Meson encountered an error in file meson.build, line 277, column 14:
>
> Line 277 in meson.build is "if gpgmever.version_compare('< 1.8.0')"  
> and "gpgme-config --version" returns "1.8.0".
> Looking at the end of meson-logs/meson-log.txt, and it ends with
>
> Message: You cannot properly quote html-only messags.
> Running command: /bin/true --version
>
> Meson encountered an error in file meson.build, line 277, column 14:
> Uncomparable version string 'true (GNU coreutils) 8.25\nPackaged by  
> Gentoo (8.25 (p1.1))\nCopyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation,  
> Inc.\nLicense GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later  
> <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.\nThis is free software: you are  
> free to change and redistribute it.\nThere is NO WARRANTY, to the  
> extent permitted by law.\n\nWritten by Jim Meyering.'.
>
> and that is indeed the output of  "/bin/true --version".  I suppose  
> my qeustion is why meson is running /bin/true instead of gpgme-config  
> at this point.  I have no idea if it is a side effect of not finding  
> html2txt or if it is a real bug in meson.  It's is a separate issue  
> whether /bin/true should be so verbose instead of just returning  
> "8.25" but I'll leave that alone for now, since I don't think it's  
> really important.
>
> Any suggestions?  (In the meantime, I'm going to see if I can  
> correctly point it to html2text, or at least tell it not to need it.)
>
> Jack

"meson --help src-dir" given generic meson info, but not the details  
that "./configure --help" does.  For those, you have to do a successful  
run of meson, and then do "meson builddir."

My problem was not reading carefully.  Note two example lines from  
"mesonconf builddir"

   Option                 Current Value Possible  
Values                    Description
  ------                 -------------  
---------------                    -----------
 with-gnome             false         [True,  
False]                      Use GNOME libraries (default=true)
  with-gpgme              
yes                                              build with gpgme/GnuPG  
support (yes|no|path to gpgme-config, default=no)

wiht-gpgme does not list "Possible Values" but does give the options  
under the Description.  I was using true or false, both of which failed  
as above.  Using "yes" worked just find.


Compiling now with ninja.