purescript / purescript/npm-installer
Improve error message if the `purs` binary's dynamic loader does not exist
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- Dominant language
- JavaScript
- Stars
- 10
- Forks
- 15
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Description
For systems which aren't based on glibc, such as Alpine, or for systems like Nix which put the glibc dynamic loader in a weird place, the installer fails with this rather unhelpful error:
✖ Verify the prebuilt binary works correctly
/home/skykanin/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/purescript/purs.bin --version
Error: spawn /home/skykanin/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/purescript/purs.bin ENOENT
at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:268:19)
This was observed in both #16 and #21. I would like to improve this error by catching ENOENT, checking that purs.bin does in fact exist (just in case), and if it does, checking whether its dynamic loader is a file which exists. If it doesn't, we could output a message along the lines of:
The prebuilt binary does not appear to be suitable for your system (specifically, the dynamic loader /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 was not found).
and then fall back to building from source. We'll have to depend on an ELF parser to manage this but I think it's justifiable.
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First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
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- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start at the installer’s prebuilt-binary verification that runs purs.bin --version and handles the reported ENOENT. Reproduce the failure on an affected system, check whether purs.bin exists, inspect its dynamic loader, and ensure a missing loader produces a specific message before falling back to building from source.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- javascript
- Domain
- tooling
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 38/100