Compile against external libpotrace

[Alex Valavanis]

We currently bundle a copy of the potrace library in Inkscape trunk. A quick search tells me that libpotrace is available in Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE. For the sake of maintainability, and reducing our installation footprint, we should allow building against the external library.

[Tyler Hicks (tyhicks)]

Bug #1438366 might provide added incentive to address this bug.

[Alex Valavanis (valavanisalex)]

Current status in distros:

Ubuntu Precise: 1.10
Ubuntu Trusty, Utopic, Vivid: 1.11

Fedora 20,21,22: 1.12

OpenSUSE 12.2,12.3: 1.10
OpenSUSE 13.1,13.2: 1.11
OpenSUSE tumbleweed: 1.12

Seems like it should be fairly straightforward to switch to a regular dependency... any objections? Do we have any in-trunk modifications to the package?

[Alex Valavanis (valavanisalex)]

Ubuntu Vivid now has potrace 1.12 (see Bug #1443467)

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

> Do we have any in-trunk modifications to the package?

Some code-design changes only, and no bug fix in the trunk.

[Alex Valavanis (valavanisalex)]

Merge proposed from lp:~valavanisalex/inkscape/fix-1156664

Anyone keen to look at adding upstream Potrace to DevLibs?

[Alex Valavanis (valavanisalex)]

Fix committed in lp:inkscape r14480

DevLibs update still needed

[Alex Valavanis (valavanisalex)]

Potrace build-dep added in PPA.

Bumped importance in DevLibs, since Potrace-dependent features are now disabled

[Patrick Storz (ede123)]

This actually broke building on Windows completely (see below). Please fix ASAP!

    cc : compile src/trace/potrace/decompose.cpp (src/trace/potrace/bitmap.h modified)
Make error line 307: problem compiling: mingw32-g++: error: src/trace/potrace/decompose.cpp: No such file or directory
mingw32-g++: fatal error: no input files
compilation terminated.

compile src/trace/potrace/inkscape-potrace.cpp
Make error line 307: problem compiling: In file included from src/trace/potrace/inkscape-potrace.cpp:17:0:
src/trace/potrace/inkscape-potrace.h:21:24: fatal error: potracelib.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.

    cc : compile src/trace/trace.cpp (src/document.h modified)
Make error line 307: problem compiling: In file included from src/trace/trace.cpp:15:0:
src/trace/potrace/inkscape-potrace.h:21:24: fatal error: potracelib.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.

    cc : compile src/ui/dialog/tracedialog.cpp (src/trace/potrace/inkscape-potrace.h modified)
Make error line 307: problem compiling: In file included from src/ui/dialog/tracedialog.cpp:33:0:
src/trace/potrace/inkscape-potrace.h:21:24: fatal error: potracelib.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.

    cc : compile src/ui/tools/flood-tool.cpp (src/document.h modified)
Make error line 307: problem compiling: In file included from src/ui/tools/flood-tool.cpp:24:0:
src/trace/potrace/inkscape-potrace.h:21:24: fatal error: potracelib.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.

[Alex Valavanis (valavanisalex)]

Hi Eduard,

Sorry to hear this... I don't have a Windows machine to test this, I'm afraid. It looks like it's trying to build the potrace-dependent tools, which should not be possible without the HAVE_POTRACE flag being defined.

Did you run a clean build? I believe this would just need:

btool clean
btool

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Reproduced with a clean build, Inkscape rev. 14495.

> It looks like it's trying to build the potrace-dependent tools, which should not be possible without the HAVE_POTRACE flag being defined.

The attached patch can be used as a workaround until Potrace is available in the devlibs (sorry, I no longer have the necessary tools installed to compile it myself). All Potrace related tools are disabled, but at least Inkscape compiles correctly.

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Temporary workaround committed rev. 14496. Don't forget to revert it when it's fixed in the devlibs!

[LucaDC (lucadc)]

Just confirming that the workaround worked for me: clean build successful on Windows XP SP 3.
Thank you jazzynico!

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

Tests in progress with Inkscape trunk rev. 14557, devlibs rev. 32 and libpotrace 1.13 (compiles locally).
Looks good for now.

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

libpotrace added in the devlibs, rev. 54.
build.xml file modified in the trunk, rev. 14559.