Bug 2838 - The "WARNING: net/if.h: present but cannot be compiled" error
Summary: The "WARNING: net/if.h: present but cannot be compiled" error
Status: RESOLVED LATER
Alias: None
Product: Samba 3.0
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Config Files (show other bugs)
Version: 3.0.9
Hardware: Sparc Solaris
: P3 minor
Target Milestone: none
Assignee: Samba Bugzilla Account
QA Contact: Samba QA Contact
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2005-06-29 15:19 UTC by David S. Collier-Brown
Modified: 2005-07-15 15:47 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:


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Description David S. Collier-Brown 2005-06-29 15:19:22 UTC
While configuring samba4 on Solaris 9,
I happened to notice this fly by:
configure: WARNING: net/if.h: present but cannot be compiled
configure: WARNING: net/if.h:     check for missing prerequisite headers?
configure: WARNING: net/if.h: see the Autoconf documentation
configure: WARNING: net/if.h:     section "Present But Cannot Be Compiled"
configure: WARNING: net/if.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
configure: WARNING: net/if.h: in the future, the compiler will take precedence
configure: WARNING:     ## ------------------------------------------ ##
configure: WARNING:     ## Report this to the AC_PACKAGE_NAME lists.  ##
configure: WARNING:     ## ------------------------------------------ ##

Google said, about this oops NOT n Solaris:
Subject: 	Re: present but cannot be compiled (Was: configure: WARNING: net/if.h:
present but cannot be compiled)

Thanks for the bug report!

Unfortunately, the problem comes from the package itself, not from
Autoconf.  The configure.ac script needs to be updated.  Please, send
all this message (which your output attached) to the bug list (or the
authors) of the package you were trying to configure.

Below two parts of the Autoconf documentation are included: 1. the
documentation of AC_CHECK_HEADER(S), and 2. what's to be done to
upgrade configure.ac.

Thanks!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Generic Header Checks
---------------------

   These macros are used to find system header files not covered by the
"particular" test macros.  If you need to check the contents of a header
as well as find out whether it is present, you have to write your own
test for it (*note Writing Tests::).

 - Macro: AC_CHECK_HEADER (HEADER-FILE, [ACTION-IF-FOUND],
          [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND], [INCLUDES = `default-includes'])
     If the system header file HEADER-FILE is compilable, execute shell
     commands ACTION-IF-FOUND, otherwise execute ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND.
     If you just want to define a symbol if the header file is
     available, consider using `AC_CHECK_HEADERS' instead.

     For compatibility issues with older versions of Autoconf, please
     read below.

 - Macro: AC_CHECK_HEADERS (HEADER-FILE..., [ACTION-IF-FOUND],
          [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND], [INCLUDES = `default-includes'])
     For each given system header file HEADER-FILE in the
     whitespace-separated argument list that exists, define
     `HAVE_HEADER-FILE' (in all capitals).  If ACTION-IF-FOUND is
     given, it is additional shell code to execute when one of the
     header files is found.  You can give it a value of `break' to
     break out of the loop on the first match.  If ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
     is given, it is executed when one of the header files is not found.

     For compatibility issues with older versions of Autoconf, please
     read below.

   Previous versions of Autoconf merely checked whether the header was
accepted by the preprocessor.  This was changed because the old test was
inappropriate for typical uses.  Headers are typically used to compile,
not merely to preprocess, and the old behavior sometimes accepted
headers that clashed at compile-time.  If you need to check whether a
header is preprocessable, you can use `AC_PREPROC_IFELSE' (*note
Running the Preprocessor::).

   This scheme, which improves the robustness of the test, also requires
that you make sure that headers that must be included before the
HEADER-FILE be part of the INCLUDES, (*note Default Includes::).  If
looking for `bar.h', which requires that `foo.h' be included before if
it exists, we suggest the following scheme:


AC_CHECK_HEADERS([foo.h])
AC_CHECK_HEADERS([bar.h], [], [],
[#if HAVE_FOO_H
# include <foo.h>
# endif
])

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Header Present But Cannot Be Compiled
=====================================

   The most important guideline to bear in mind when checking for
features is to mimic as much as possible the intended use.
Unfortunately, old versions of `AC_CHECK_HEADER' and `AC_CHECK_HEADERS'
failed to follow this idea, and called the preprocessor, instead of the
compiler, to check for headers.  As a result, incompatibilities between
headers went unnoticed during configuration, and maintainers finally
had to deal with this issue elsewhere.

   As of Autoconf 2.56 both checks are performed, and `configure'
complains loudly if the compiler and the preprocessor do not agree.
For the time being the result used is that of the preprocessor, to give
maintainers time to adjust their `configure.ac', but in the near
future, only the compiler will be considered.

   Consider the following example:

     $ cat number.h
     typedef int number;
     $ cat pi.h
     const number pi = 3;
     $ cat configure.ac
     AC_INIT
     AC_CHECK_HEADERS(pi.h)
     $ autoconf -Wall
     $ ./configure
     checking for gcc... gcc
     checking for C compiler default output... a.out
     checking whether the C compiler works... yes
     checking whether we are cross compiling... no
     checking for suffix of executables...
     checking for suffix of object files... o
     checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
     checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
     checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
     checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
     checking for egrep... grep -E
     checking for ANSI C header files... yes
     checking for sys/types.h... yes
     checking for sys/stat.h... yes
     checking for stdlib.h... yes
     checking for string.h... yes
     checking for memory.h... yes
     checking for strings.h... yes
     checking for inttypes.h... yes
     checking for stdint.h... yes
     checking for unistd.h... yes
     checking pi.h usability... no
     checking pi.h presence... yes
     configure: WARNING: pi.h: present but cannot be compiled
     configure: WARNING: pi.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
     configure: WARNING: pi.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
     configure: WARNING:     ## ------------------------------------ ##
     configure: WARNING:     ## Report this to address@bogus.example.com ##
     configure: WARNING:     ## ------------------------------------ ##
     checking for pi.h... yes

The proper way the handle this case is using the fourth argument (*note
Generic Headers::):

     $ cat configure.ac
     AC_INIT
     AC_CHECK_HEADERS(number.h pi.h,,,
     [[#if HAVE_NUMBER_H
     # include <number.h>
     #endif
     ]])
     $ autoconf -Wall
     $ ./configure
     checking for gcc... gcc
     checking for C compiler default output... a.out
     checking whether the C compiler works... yes
     checking whether we are cross compiling... no
     checking for suffix of executables...
     checking for suffix of object files... o
     checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
     checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
     checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
     checking for number.h... yes
     checking for pi.h... yes

----------------------------------------------------------------------

-
configure: WARNING: net/if.h: present but cannot be compiled
configure: WARNING: net/if.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
configure: WARNING: net/if.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
configure: WARNING:     ## ------------------------------------ ##
configure: WARNING:     ## Report this to address@bogus.example.com ##
configure: WARNING:     ## ------------------------------------ ##
-

...found this while using 'configure' generated by 'autogen.sh' and 
autoconf-2.57. The source I'm attempting to configure is a CVS version of 
samba, and the host/target machine is OpenBSD-i386 3.2.
Comment 1 Gerald (Jerry) Carter (dead mail address) 2005-07-15 15:47:37 UTC
The developers have not opened up Samba 4 for bugzilla 
reports.  You'll have to report it to them directly.