NTL's DoConfig errors out when NTL is build with dependencies in a directory containing [-h|help|-help|--help]

[williamstein]

If you build sage and the directory path contains a "-h" anywhere in it, then NTL's perl DoConfig script displays a help message and exists. This totally breaks building sage. The code at fault is:

   if ($arg =~ '-h|help|-help|--help') {
      system("more ../doc/config.txt");
      exit;
   }

In particular, PREFIX will get passed in and if your directory were, e.g,. build-sage-help-me-foobar then Sage won't work.

Component: build

Issue created by migration from https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/5040

[sagetrac-mabshoff]

comment:1

The spkg at

http://sage.math.washington.edu/home/mabshoff/release-cycles-3.3/alpha3/ntl-5.4.2.p5.spkg

fixes the problem by removing the help option for now. Note that this spkg also fixes #4978.

Cheers,

Michael

[sagetrac-cwitty]

comment:2

Code looks good. The new spkg does build, and relevant doctests still pass after rebuilding NTL-related .pyx files.

Positive review.

[sagetrac-mabshoff]

comment:3

Merged in Sage 3.3.alpha3.

Cheers,

Michael