[Openmcl-devel] Problems trying to create CDB files for the Addressbook framework

[Gary Byers]

On Wed, 10 May 2006, Gary King wrote:

> Hi Gary,
>
> Thanks for the input. I did manage to get the ffi files created but am now 
> having problems with going from them to the CDB (one step forward... into a 
> wall <smile>). I'm familiar with the work that you and Ralph Richard Cook did 
> back in late October / early November 2005. If I manage to understand things 
> well enough, I'm happy to try and improve on the hoop jumping -- though the 
> time frame for that would be uncertain.
>
> Though I think this will be a duplication, here is the error I get when 
> trying to parse the ffi files:
>
>> ;;; proof that it can work...
>> ? (parse-standard-ffi-files :webkit)
>> T
>> ;;; but no for my address book files
>> ? (parse-standard-ffi-files :addressbook)
>> > Error: No such file or directory : #P"ccl:darwin- 
>> headers;addressbook;new-constants.cdb"
>> > While executing: CDBM-OPEN, in process listener(1).
>> > Type :POP to abort.
>> Type :? for other options.
>> 1 > :b
>> (F0135B70) : 0 (CDBM-OPEN #P"ccl:darwin-headers;addressbook;new- 
>> constants.cdb") 40

CDB file are written once (in a sort of batch process) and are
subsequently read-only.  PARSE-STANDARD-FFI-FILES tries to create
a new set ("new-constants.cdb", etc.) as one of the first things
that it does; it then parses the FFI files, writes the information
that it finds to the "new-*.cdb" files, renames any previously-
existing (non-"new") .cdb files in the directory (to *.cdb-BAK),
and renames the newly-created files (strippling off the "new-"
prefix from the name.)

While it's parsing, it often needs to resolve forward references
(things like #define FOO BAR, where BAR isn't defined yet.)  It'll
look in all of the "constants.cdb" files in all active interface-dirs
for BAR in that case; the directory it's parsing is active and that
directory's "constants.cdb" file may not exist yet, so you'll get
a warning the first time that this happens and it'll ignore that
(not-yet-created) file for the rest of the run.  (Parsing a set of
.ffi files twice -sometimes- yields better results; if there are
forward references like the case above, the second pass can sometimes
resolve them.)

Anyway, the error that you're getting is while trying to create
"new-constants.cdb" before anything else really happens.  There
might be other explanations, but one of the ways in which a
"no such file or directory" error can happen when creating an
output file is if some parent directory is missing ...