make build-from-scratch fails on Linux

[Tom Goddard]

Build fails on Ubuntu 22.04 trying right at the start doing distclean.

The problem seems to be that Makefile.bundle is trying to run "devel clean" if it finds ChimeraX has already been built. It hasn't been built but it tests if CX_BIN = /bin/chimerax exists and it does because this machine has ChimeraX 1.6.1 installed. CX_BIN should really be ChimeraX.app/bin/chimerax but the CHIMERAX_APP variable isn't set correctly because the build ChimeraX.app directory doesn't exist yet.

% make build-from-scratch

...
make[3]: Entering directory '/home/goddard/ucsf/chimerax/src/bundles/add_charge'
if [ -x /bin/chimerax -a -e bundle_info.xml ]; then \
	PYTHONNOUSERSITE=1 /bin/python3.11 -I -m chimerax.core --nogui --exit --safemode --cmd "devel clean . exit true" ; \
else \
	rm -rf build dist *.egg-info src/__pycache__ src/*/__pycache__ ; \
fi
/bin/python3.11: Error while finding module specification for 'chimerax.core' (ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'chimerax')
make[3]: *** [../Makefile.bundle:116: clean] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/goddard/ucsf/chimerax/src/bundles/add_charge'
make[2]: *** [/home/goddard/ucsf/chimerax/mk/subdir.make:36: add_charge.clean] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/goddard/ucsf/chimerax/src/bundles'
make[1]: *** [/home/goddard/ucsf/chimerax/mk/subdir.make:36: bundles.clean] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/goddard/ucsf/chimerax/src'
make: *** [/home/goddard/ucsf/chimerax/mk/subdir.make:36: src.clean] Error 2

[Zach Pearson]

Not sure why build-dirs and build-app-dirs are different steps, let me try a build that combines them. That'd ensure ChimeraX.app always exists as soon as a build starts.

[Tom Goddard]

Maybe saner, if ChimeraX*.app does not exist then CHIMERAX_APP=ChimeraX.app.

[Zach Pearson]

​Sounded good to me. If the wildcard fails it can just be set to $(TOP)/ChimeraX.app so we're unambiguous about what directories we expect to exist.

[Zach Pearson]

Did this bug go away for you? Can I close this ticket?

[Tom Goddard]

I don't know. I reported this 10 months ago. Best to test a fix when you made it and close the ticket. I suggest you close it now and it will get reported again some day if there is still a problem.

[Zach Pearson]

Good point.