Debian Bug report logs - #869868
Diffoscope should be much more flexible with respects to the ELF tools it uses

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Daniel Egger <daniel@eggers-club.de>

To: submit@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Diffoscope should be much more flexible with respects to the ELF tools it uses

Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2017 11:20:33 +0200

Package: diffoscope
Version: 84

I'm using diffoscope on a Mac and it doesn't have tools like readelf and objdump by default and even after installation (e.g. via brew) those would be called greadelf and gobjdump instead to not conflict with local tools under the same name. Diffoscope should either find them automatically or have some configuration to the names.

However it doesn't stop there: With objdump you can't just pick *any* version but you need one with support for the precisely the target architecture you want to look at; if it has multiple potential choices, it'll barf but more typically it does not have the correct architecture support, e.g. when crosscompiling. So it is important to again either automatically guess and check for the correct version using the readelf information or to provide configuration...

In case you are wondering now; I'm trying to compare embedded application binaries compiled with a arm-non-eabi toolchain.

Message #10 received at 869868@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Ximin Luo <infinity0@debian.org>

To: Daniel Egger <daniel@eggers-club.de>, 869868@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#869868: Diffoscope should be much more flexible with respects to the ELF tools it uses

Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2017 12:52:00 +0000

Daniel Egger:
> Package: diffoscope
> Version: 84
> 
> I'm using diffoscope on a Mac and it doesn't have tools like readelf and objdump by default and even after installation (e.g. via brew) those would be called greadelf and gobjdump instead to not conflict with local tools under the same name. Diffoscope should either find them automatically or have some configuration to the names.
> 
> However it doesn't stop there: With objdump you can't just pick *any* version but you need one with support for the precisely the target architecture you want to look at; if it has multiple potential choices, it'll barf but more typically it does not have the correct architecture support, e.g. when crosscompiling. So it is important to again either automatically guess and check for the correct version using the readelf information or to provide configuration...
> 
> In case you are wondering now; I'm trying to compare embedded application binaries compiled with a arm-non-eabi toolchain.

We could either support READELF and OBJDUMP environment variables, or support a BINUTILS_PREFIX envvar that gets prefixed onto "readelf" and "objdump" when running those commands.

Which one would you prefer (or something else entirely)?

X

-- 
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Message #13 received at 869868@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>

To: Ximin Luo <infinity0@debian.org>, 869868@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Daniel Egger <daniel@eggers-club.de>

Subject: Re: Bug#869868: Diffoscope should be much more flexible with respects to the ELF tools it uses

Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2017 16:11:39 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Thu, Jul 27, 2017 at 12:52:00PM +0000, Ximin Luo wrote:
> We could either support READELF and OBJDUMP environment variables,
> or support a BINUTILS_PREFIX envvar that gets prefixed onto "readelf"
> and "objdump" when running those commands.

Or we could do something a lot more wide, invasive and ambitious: having
the binary name of all tools saved in a dictionary and give the user (or
automatically change it according to the system, like --list-tools) the
ability to override them.

-- 
regards,
                        Mattia Rizzolo

GPG Key: 66AE 2B4A FCCF 3F52 DA18  4D18 4B04 3FCD B944 4540      .''`.
more about me:  https://mapreri.org                             : :'  :
Launchpad user: https://launchpad.net/~mapreri                  `. `'`
Debian QA page: https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=mattia  `-

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #18 received at 869868@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org>

To: 869868@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Daniel Egger <daniel@eggers-club.de>

Subject: Re: Diffoscope should be much more flexible with respects to the ELF tools it uses

Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2017 15:46:44 -0400

Hi Daniel,

> However it doesn't stop there: With objdump you can't just pick
> *any* version but you need one with support for the precisely
> the target architecture you want to look at

Can you give me an example? eg. Where are these binaries located, etc.
etc. or are they in such bespoke dirs that the ability to override
externally is required?


Regards,

-- 
      ,''`.
     : :'  :     Chris Lamb
     `. `'`      lamby@debian.org / chris-lamb.co.uk
       `-

Message #23 received at 869868@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Daniel Egger <daniel@eggers-club.de>

To: Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org>

Cc: 869868@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Diffoscope should be much more flexible with respects to the ELF tools it uses

Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2017 21:59:09 +0200

Hi Chris,

> Can you give me an example? eg. Where are these binaries located, etc.
> etc. or are they in such bespoke dirs that the ability to override
> externally is required?

The issue here is: the tools are architecture dependent, for ARM binaries you'll need tools compiled with ARM support, e.g. https://packages.debian.org/buster/amd64/binutils-arm-none-eabi/filelist . They often live right next to the regular tools but are prefixed with the architecture triplet, but there're also custom toolchains which have the same triplet prefix but live in a custom prefix like /opt. The one without the triplet prefixed is in many cases only capable of handling the native and compatible architectures, so trying to use that on an ARM binary will not work.

Preferably diffoscope would look at the ELF binary and automagically try to use the correct binutils for processing but for the start I'd be happy if I could just tell it which tool to use rather than resorting to extreme measures like manipulating the binary search path or linking the desired binary over the generic name in a preferred binary path and then back again.

Servus,
      Daniel

Message #28 received at 869868-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>

To: 869868-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#869868: fixed in diffoscope 86

Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2017 21:05:06 +0000

Source: diffoscope
Source-Version: 86

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
diffoscope, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 869868@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org> (supplier of updated diffoscope package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

Format: 1.8
Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2017 22:23:06 +0200
Source: diffoscope
Binary: diffoscope
Architecture: source
Version: 86
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Reproducible builds folks <reproducible-builds@lists.alioth.debian.org>
Changed-By: Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>
Description:
 diffoscope - in-depth comparison of files, archives, and directories
Closes: 869868 871029 871413 873157
Changes:
 diffoscope (86) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   [ Mattia Rizzolo ]
   * tests:
     + binary: skip a test if the 'distro' module is not available.
     + iso9660: avoid an overly-catching exception.
   * debian/copyright: coalesce some file paragraphs and update information.
 .
   [ Guangyuan Yang ]
   * tests:
     + iso9660: support both cdrtools' genisoimage's versions of isoinfo.
 .
   [ Chris Lamb ]
   * comparators:
     + xml: Use ``name`` attribute over ``path`` to avoid leaking comparison
       full path in output.
   * Tidy diffoscope.progress a little.
 .
   [ Ximin Luo ]
   * Add a --tool-prefix-binutils CLI flag.  Closes: #869868
   * On non-GNU systems, prefer some tools that start with "g".  Closes: #871029
   * presenters:
     + html:
       - Don't traverse children whose parents were already limited.
         Closes: #871413
 .
   [ Santiago Torres-Arias ]
   * diffoscope.progress:
     + Support the new fork of python-progressbar.  Closes: #873157
Checksums-Sha1:
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 ad1161e33bbbc745cec26d8f6155f75c4dcc97f8 653940 diffoscope_86.tar.xz
 387289e22ab928f6c328e8e815a1aac4c74c1bbd 18609 diffoscope_86_amd64.buildinfo
Checksums-Sha256:
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 99e0f70a4ea420a5b4fa9404a05198b0da18023ea0c8a8fee7857a207aab05ed 653940 diffoscope_86.tar.xz
 a8f59fd9e6e0958bf903c79b9cc47b71aa1978e61b4bfe63a12c9ad1129b50e2 18609 diffoscope_86_amd64.buildinfo
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 f7531bd0502197a582b79a4febb20cf3 653940 devel optional diffoscope_86.tar.xz
 dd377aa5c966848f49d9cae26e05a620 18609 devel optional diffoscope_86_amd64.buildinfo

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