install target installs libportal

[hfiguiere]

Operating System

Fedora 41

XDG Desktop Portal version

Other

XDG Desktop Portal version (Other)

1.19.1

Desktop Environment

GNOME

Desktop Environment (Other)

No response

Expected Behavior

Doesn't install libportal

Current Behavior

Installs libportal

Installing subprojects/libportal/libportal/portal-enums.h to /usr/include/libportal
Installing subprojects/libportal/libportal/libportal.so.1.0.0 to /usr/lib64
Installing subprojects/libportal/libportal/libportal-gtk3.so.1.0.0 to /usr/lib64
Installing subprojects/libportal/libportal/libportal-gtk4.so.1.0.0 to /usr/lib64
Installing subprojects/libportal/libportal/libportal-qt5.so.1.0.0 to /usr/lib64
Installing subprojects/libportal/libportal/libportal-qt6.so.1.0.0 to /usr/lib64
[...]
Installing symlink pointing to libportal.so.1.0.0 to /usr/lib64/libportal.so.1
Installing symlink pointing to libportal.so.1 to /usr/lib64/libportal.so
Installing symlink pointing to libportal-gtk3.so.1.0.0 to /usr/lib64/libportal-gtk3.so.1
Installing symlink pointing to libportal-gtk3.so.1 to /usr/lib64/libportal-gtk3.so
Installing symlink pointing to libportal-gtk4.so.1.0.0 to /usr/lib64/libportal-gtk4.so.1
Installing symlink pointing to libportal-gtk4.so.1 to /usr/lib64/libportal-gtk4.so
Installing symlink pointing to libportal-qt5.so.1.0.0 to /usr/lib64/libportal-qt5.so.1
Installing symlink pointing to libportal-qt5.so.1 to /usr/lib64/libportal-qt5.so
Installing symlink pointing to libportal-qt6.so.1.0.0 to /usr/lib64/libportal-qt6.so.1
Installing symlink pointing to libportal-qt6.so.1 to /usr/lib64/libportal-qt6.so

Steps to Reproduce

1. build xdg-desktop-portal
2. ninja -C _build install

Anything else we should know?

libportal is only a dependency for tests. It should never been installed.

[swick]

This is a bit ugly because with the installed tests we do have to install them. On the bright side, packagers don't use the subproject.

[hfiguiere]

maybe installed tests can only be run with a system libportal...

I haven't found how to tell the subproject to not install though.

[smcv]

Setting the default options for the subproject to build a static-only library would probably be a good start?

[swick]

meson install has --skip-subprojects which works as advertised. Making the libportal subproject static (default_library=static in dependency default_options) still installs some files:

Installing subprojects/libportal/libportal/portal-enums.h to /usr/include/libportal
Installing subprojects/libportal/libportal/libportal.a to /usr/lib64

It's also not possible to mark the subproject itself with something like --skip-subprojects so those two things are our only options.

Given that I want to remove the C tests which depend on libportal, I'm inclined to leave it to someone else to decide what to do.

[smcv]

meson install has --skip-subprojects which works as advertised.

If we are using the submodule for libportal, and the tests are dynamically linked to libportal, isn't that going to mean that any "as-installed" tests have a missing runtime dependency and cannot run successfully?

If I'm right about that, then using default_library=static and recommending meson install --skip-subprojects might be a good idea.

Making the libportal subproject static (default_library=static in dependency default_options) still installs some files

We could perhaps mitigate that by making its default options include '-Dprefix=' + (prefix/libdir) + '/flatpak-private', or something, so that it ends up installing usr/lib64/flatpak-private/{include/libportal/*.h,lib64/*.a} on your system, which will not "fight" with other copies of libportal if any?

[smcv]

This is a bit ugly because with the installed tests we do have to install them.

libportal is just for the tests, am I correct?

On the bright side, packagers don't use the subproject.

Perhaps the build system should just error out in the bad situation:

if libportal_dep.type_name() == 'internal'
  if enable_installed_tests
    error('-Dinstalled-tests=true requires a system copy of libportal')
  endif
  warning('Using libportal subproject, please install using meson install --skip-subprojects')
endif

[smcv]

This should no longer be the case now that the tests don't use libportal.