Bug#712781: src:scilab: please use SLICOT Debian package instead of embedded copy

[Sébastien Villemot]

Hi Pierre,

Le mercredi 24 mai 2023 à 10:45 +0200, Pierre Gruet a écrit :
> This is quite an old bug, bu I guess you might still have some interest in it.

Thanks for looking into it.

> I tried to use the contents of the slicot Debian package instead of the
> embedded files in scilab, but I get
> 
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `zb02mw_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `ricdmf_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `riccsl_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `fstair_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `polmc_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `zb02ow_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `zb02mv_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `ssxmc_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `ricdsl_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `inva_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `ereduc_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `zb02ox_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `riccms_'
> /usr/bin/ld: ./modules/.libs/libscilab-cli.so: undefined reference to `zb03od_'
> 
> At least some of the missing routines here are defined in
> 	scilab/modules/cacsd/src/slicot/Ex-schur.f
> which has no equivalent in the source of the slicot Debian package.
> 
> By looking at the slicot website and at the contents of the Debian package
> for slicot, I guess no newer version of slicot should be expected to land
> into Debian?

The Debian package src:slicot contains a pre-release of version 5.0 of
Slicot, which was the last version distributed by upstream under the
GPL (later versions are proprietary).

However at some point upstream changed their mind and decided to stop
distributing the 5.0 release under the GPL, so they removed it from
their website. The website now has only has version 4.5 under the GPL.
We kept 5.0 in Debian because there is nothing that prevents us from
doing so from a legal point of view. Other projects (e.g. the “control”
package for Octave) do the same.

But it looks like the version of Slicot embedded in Scilab is even
older than 4.5, and corresponds to version 4.0. My guess is that the
missing symbols that you get correspond to functions that were removed
between 4.0 and 5.0.

Unfortunately this probably means that fixing the present bug requires
more work than just patching the build system (i.e. Scilab upstream
needs to move to a more recent Slicot).

Best wishes,

-- 
⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀  Sébastien Villemot
⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁  Debian Developer
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀  https://sebastien.villemot.name
⠈⠳⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀  https://www.debian.org

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