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GnuCobol on Windows - chocolatey package broken

2023-03-02
2023-03-16
  • Andy Townsend

    Andy Townsend - 2023-03-02

    Just as a heads up - as per https://community.chocolatey.org/packages/gnucobol#comment-6099134453 the packaged Windows build at https://community.chocolatey.org/packages/gnucobol is broken. What seems to have happened is that new 3.2 builds have been posted at https://arnoldtrembley.com/GnuCOBOL.htm and the old 3.1.2 ones removed.

    It looks like the author of https://community.chocolatey.org/packages/gnucobol and https://arnoldtrembley.com/GnuCOBOL.htm might be different people (and of course I've no idea how "authorised" the build there is) - I'm just mentioning it here so that people are aware.

     
    • Simon Sobisch

      Simon Sobisch - 2023-03-02

      The page you link, where you've likely posted "a month ago" says:

      If you do not hear back from the maintainers after posting a message below, please follow up by using the link on the left side of this page or follow this link to contact maintainers. If you still hear nothing back, please follow the package triage process.

      So... what about doing so?

       
      • Andy Townsend

        Andy Townsend - 2023-03-03

        Done - we'll see what happens...

         
    • Arnold Trembley

      Arnold Trembley - 2023-03-04

      Well, that was a surprise!

      I don't really know anything about Chocolatey, so I was not aware they had linked to my GC 3.1.2 build from 2 years ago. That particular build has been removed, and the replacement is available at this link:
      https://www.arnoldtrembley.com/GC312-BDB-SP2-rename-7z-to-exe.7z

      That's assuming they want the current most stable release, which is GC 3.1.2. The "SP2" version has several upgrades to included components.

      I do have a GC 3.2 rc2, but that will be replaced (hopefully) in the next few weeks with a stable GC 3.2 final release.

      I don't know how Chocolatey is updated, but they would probably need to calculate a new MD5 checksum for the replacement build, since I have never calculated an MD5 checksum.

      I've never heard from the Chocolatey maintainer, but if I would be happy to work with them to make sure they always have a good link.

      EDIT - I have just not gone back and restored that older version to my website, so the old link should work once again:
      https://arnoldtrembley.com/GC312-BDB-rename-7z-to-exe.7z

      I know it's the same file, so the MD5 checksum should still be the same. But you never know.

      Kind regards,

       

      Last edit: Arnold Trembley 2023-03-04
      • Arnold Trembley

        Arnold Trembley - 2023-03-04

        EDIT - I have just not gone back and restored that older version to my website, so the old link should work once again:
        https://arnoldtrembley.com/GC312-BDB-rename-7z-to-exe.7z

        I know it's the same file, so the MD5 checksum should still be the same. But you never know.

        It turns out calculating an MD5 checksum is quite easy. Windows versions (32-bit or 64-bit) can be downloaded from:
        https://sourceforge.net/projects/filechecksumutility/

        And the checksum matches, so Chocolatey should work once again.

         
        • Simon Sobisch

          Simon Sobisch - 2023-03-04

          Thanks for "unbreaking" the old external package!
          Just to mention - if you want to have nice checksum support with nearly as much archive support as possible on Win32 then you likely would want to checkout a fork of 7z: https://github.com/mcmilk/7-Zip-zstd (7z provides SHA checksums only and does not support zstd or lzip archives, 7-Zip-std adds those while integrating upstream changes).

          And just a note: because of recent test results and changes in several "core" COBOL parts I'm going to create 3.2RC3 in the upcoming week...

           
        • Brian Tiffin

          Brian Tiffin - 2023-03-14

          Thanks, Arnold.

          Simon, Ron, me, et al, why is Arnold's name not anywhere in SVN? :-)

          Joking, not joking.

          Arnold, would you mind if we put your name in some of the front matter source file commentary?

          Seriously. A credit deserved, I think.

          Have good,
          Blue

           
          👍
          1
          • Simon Sobisch

            Simon Sobisch - 2023-03-14

            Goes into the next update for THANKS file, before or 3.2RC3, which is (over)due for this week.

            Current draft:

            Past and present maintainers:
            
            Keisuke Nishida <knishida@netlab.jp>
            Roger While (1950-2015)
            Simon Sobisch <simonsobisch@gnu.org>
            
            
            Other core developers with major code and design contributions
            
            Ron Norman <rjn@inglenet.com> including but not limited to
              - Implementation and ongoing work on the C-/D-/VBISAM handler
              - Report Writer development
              - Standard EXTFH together with ADDRESS OF FH--FCD and FH--KEYDEF
              - Improved compatibility with Micro Focus COBOL
              - Runtime configuration
              - C-API to inspect/update COBOL data fields
              - Dump on abort
              - Performance improvements
            
            Edward Hart <edward.dan.hart@gmail.com> including but not limited to
              - fine-grained configuration of run-time checks
              - Compiler configuration, in particular reserved word handling
              - datetime intrinsic functions
              - XML GENERATE and JSON GENERATE
              - Initial support for internal repository (function and program prototypes)
              - Syntax support for standard COBOL and existing implementor extensions
              - Bug fixes and test suite enhancements
            
            
            We are grateful for the work of the Translation Project, its translation teams
            and their individual contributors, who provide translations of user messages
            for non-English speakers.
            
            Similar thanks go to all the packagers who allow users to install GnuCOBOL from
            their distributions' package management systems.
            
            Also to the many people that have helped with testing this software.
            We hope that everyone will continue to provide feedback. This is invaluable
            to the ongoing development process.
            
            A special mention here goes to people who have given exceptional support in
            terms of time and resources on hardware that was not available to the
            developers:
            Oleg Philon     - For his work on the PowerPC
            David Wilson    - For his work on the MAC (Darwin)
            Sergey Kashyrin - For his work on:
              - SUN Solaris
              - IBM AIX
              - HP-UX
            
            And continuing this amazing support:
            Arnold Trembley <arnold.trembley@att.net> - Win32 packaging and user support
            Chuck Haatvedt <chuck.haatvedt@gmail.com> - Work on optimized BCD handling
            Ludwin Janvier <lud.janvier@gmail.com> - patches for build/packaging issues
            Hans-Martin Rasch - Work on compiler syntax
            Michel Gouget - Work on syntax - IS
            Bill Klein - The mainstay for COBOL questions
            Frank Swarbrick - Work on compiler syntax
            Warren Gay - For testing systems we didn't even know we supported!
               (e.g. old DEC Alpha systems)
            Fabrizio Calabretta - Work on the internal EXTFH interface
            
            OCamlPro SAS for assigning David Declerck, Nicolas Berthier and
            Fabrice Le Fessant to work for adding GCOS (Bull) support and
            contributing the result.
            
            Denis Hugonnard-Roche for continuous additions to the internal test suite to
            improve code coverage.
            
            
            Further explicit thanks to
            
            Alain Lucari <eurlix@libertysurf.fr>
            Brian Tiffin <btiffin@gnu.org>
            David Korn <dgk@research.att.com>
            Dave Pitts <dpitts@cozx.com>
            Joe Robbins (-2017)
            Keiichi Takahashi <bitwalk@jcom.home.ne.jp>
            Peg <peg@coboler.com>
            Richard Smith <rich@theforest.plus.com>
            Thomas Biehler <tobiglob@users.sourceforge.net>
            William M. Klein <wmklein@ix.netcom.com>
            Yoshiki Kusumoto <webmaster@coboler.com>
            
            
            -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
            For OpenCOBOL 0.10:
            
            Bug reports and patches by:
            
              Ingo D. Rullhusen
              Richard A. Painter
              Tim Josling
            
            OpenCOBOL was inspired by the TinyCOBOL project.
            Thanks to the TinyCOBOL authors and maintainers.
            
            
            Additional from TinCOBOL:
            
            Rildo Pragana (1958-2020)
            
            Andrew Cameron
            Bernard Giroud 
            David Essex 
            Jeff Smith
            Jim Noeth
            Stephen Connolly
            Laura Tweedy
            

            Feedback welcomed.

             
            • Brian Tiffin

              Brian Tiffin - 2023-03-14

              Typo in TinCobol near the bottom for Rildo. Though that wouldn't be a bad small tin COBOL brandname. ;-)

              Cheers,
              Blue

               
            • Eugenio Di Lorenzo

              I think a citation should be added to Gary and Vincent's documentation contribution to their remarkable Programmer's Guide which is an integral and valuable part of the project.

               
              • Simon Sobisch

                Simon Sobisch - 2023-03-14

                Totally agreed, added as:

                Gary L. Cutler <cutlergl@gmail.com> and Vincent B. Coen <vbcoen@gmail.com> for
                writing and maintaining the GnuCOBOL Programmer's Guide.
                
                 

                Last edit: Simon Sobisch 2023-03-14
            • Mickey White

              Mickey White - 2023-03-14

              Blue for the FAQ !!!

               
              • Simon Sobisch

                Simon Sobisch - 2023-03-14

                He's already in, if he wants to he can add details (would be FAQ and possibly cobcrun)

                 
                • Brian Tiffin

                  Brian Tiffin - 2023-03-15

                  Yeah, I was pondering that. Being in the further explicit thanks list seems underwhelming. :-)

                  Might do something, probably won't.

                  Cheers,
                  Blue

                   
            • Brian Tiffin

              Brian Tiffin - 2023-03-15

              László Erdős, contributions
              Sauro Menna, GCSORT
              Marco Ridoni, Gix
              Colin Duquesnoy. OpenCOBOLIDE
              ?

              Not sure how many layers deep this would want to go.

              Have good,
              Blue

               
              • Simon Sobisch

                Simon Sobisch - 2023-03-15

                Those are people I'm thankful for, but are already "quite away" from the GnuCOBOL code we do distribute with the tarball.
                There are also others who are active in the discussion board but that's not what this file is about, I think.

                ... concerning GCSORT - maybe it would be good to check for possible inclusion within the GnuCOBOL source tree directly as gcsort/cobsort utility?
                @smenna What is your take on this (we'd need a copyright assignment to the FSF)?

                 
                • Sauro Menna

                  Sauro Menna - 2023-03-16

                  Hi Simon,
                  it is an honor for me to receive this opportunity and I am very pleased and proud.
                  I do not have a lot of expertise for this licensing step so I am asking for help on how I can proceed.
                  I have a doubt about licensing since GCSort consists of a baseline originally created by Cedric ISSALY (OCSort module then renamed) in GCSort,
                  in addition I used, for memory mapped temporary file management, the mmfioc.c file adapting it to the needs of GCSORT which was originally created by Geoff McLane.
                  In this case, is the transition still possible ?
                  How can this be done ?
                  Are there any costs to be incurred ?
                  Thank you.
                  Sauro

                   
                  • Simon Sobisch

                    Simon Sobisch - 2023-03-16

                    No costs (other than the copyright clerk but that is paid by the FSF).

                    But you're right that we'd need both yours and Cedric's assignment.
                    I guess we may could get mmfioc.c out - otherwise we'd need a third assignment.

                     
  • Arnold Trembley

    Arnold Trembley - 2023-03-05

    I registered with Chocolatey, and emailed the maintainer of the Chocolatey GnuCOBOL install, who sent a very nice reply.

    The Chocolatey GnuCOBOL install script has now been updated to link to the updated GC 3.1.2 build, which has several improvements:

    1. Upgrade MinGW build environment from GCC 6.3.0 to GCC 9.2.0 (that's the embedded C compiler)
    2. Upgrade PDCursesmod to 4.3.4 (for screen I/O)
    3. Upgrade gmplib from 6.2.0 to 6.2.1 (math package)
    4. Add official GnuCOBOL manuals in PDF format, in a new "docs" subfolder
    5. Add the GCSORT utility program (similar to DFSORT on IBM MVS and z/OS)

    Kind regards,

     
    👍
    1

    Last edit: Arnold Trembley 2023-03-05
    • Anonymous

      Anonymous - 2023-03-06

      Excellent, thanks!

       

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