default variable ignored for `openssl_fips`

I can’t build element-desktop with node18 due to the error message:

gyp: name 'openssl_fips' is not defined while evaluating condition 'openssl_fips != ""' in binding.gyp while trying to load binding.gyp

openssl_fips used in /tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/homedir/.electron-gyp/20.1.4/include/node/common.gypi, which is fetched from https://electronjs.org/headers/v20.1.4/node-v20.1.4-headers.tar.gz and put in npm_config_devdir, i.e. ~/.electron-gyp.

include/node/common.gypi looks like this:

{
  'variables': {
    ...,
    'openssl_fips%': '',
    'openssl_no_asm%': 0,
    'conditions': [
      ...,
      ['openssl_fips != ""', {
        'openssl_product': '<(STATIC_LIB_PREFIX)openssl<(STATIC_LIB_SUFFIX)',
      }, {
        'openssl_product': '<(STATIC_LIB_PREFIX)openssl<(STATIC_LIB_SUFFIX)',
      }],
      ...
    ]
}

The definition of openssl_fips% = '' is also in the file, so according to https://gyp.gsrc.io/docs/InputFormatReference.md variables ending with % should be used as default value if not set previously.

But that mechanism doesn’t seem to kick in:

• first, to be able to debug and see a backtrace, edit node-gyp/gyp/pylib/gyp/__init__.py so def main(args): only does return gyp_main(args) without swallowing the very useful backtrace.
• when inspecting the variables dictionary in node_modules/node-gyp/gyp/pylib/gyp/input.py’s EvalSingleCondition just before the crash 'openssl_fips%': '', but openssl_fips is unset. The condition expression from the node-headers then can’t be evaluated since the variable is not available when EvalSingleCondition runs eval(ast_code, ..., variables).

-> either, the condition has to lookup the variable with a % appended, or it needs to be in the variables dict without a %. I guess the latter should be the case.

I haven’t found yet where exactly the bug is, or if it even is a bug in node-gyp. But maybe you already have some idea 😃

• Node Version: node v18.10.0 and npm 8.19.2
• Platform: Linux 5.19.8-JJ
• Compiler: gcc version 12.2.0
• Module: keytar, for element-desktop

Verbose output (from npm or node-gyp):

yarn run hak
neon info generating native/index.node
hak build: keytar
Running yarn with env {
  [... many env variables],
  npm_config_init_version: '1.0.0',
  npm_config_arch: 'x64',
  npm_config_target_arch: 'x64',
  npm_config_disturl: 'https://electronjs.org/headers',
  npm_config_runtime: 'electron',
  npm_config_target: '20.1.4',
  npm_config_build_from_source: true,
  npm_config_devdir: '/tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/homedir/.electron-gyp'
}
gyp info it worked if it ends with ok
gyp info using node-gyp@8.4.1
gyp info using node@18.10.0 | linux | x64
gyp info find Python using Python version 3.10.7 found at "/usr/lib/python-exec/python3.10/python3"
gyp http GET https://electronjs.org/headers/v20.1.4/node-v20.1.4-headers.tar.gz
gyp http 200 https://artifacts.electronjs.org/headers/dist/v20.1.4/node-v20.1.4-headers.tar.gz
gyp http GET https://electronjs.org/headers/v20.1.4/SHASUMS256.txt
gyp http 200 https://artifacts.electronjs.org/headers/dist/v20.1.4/SHASUMS256.txt
gyp info spawn /usr/lib/python-exec/python3.10/python3
gyp info spawn args [
gyp info spawn args   '/tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/work/element-desktop-1.11.10/.hak/keytar/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/build/node_modules/node-gyp/gyp/gyp_main.py',
gyp info spawn args   'binding.gyp',
gyp info spawn args   '-f',
gyp info spawn args   'make',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   '/tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/work/element-desktop-1.11.10/.hak/keytar/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/build/build/config.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   '/tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/work/element-desktop-1.11.10/.hak/keytar/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/build/node_modules/node-gyp/addon.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   '/tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/homedir/.electron-gyp/20.1.4/include/node/common.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dlibrary=shared_library',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dvisibility=default',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_root_dir=/tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/homedir/.electron-gyp/20.1.4',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_gyp_dir=/tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/work/element-desktop-1.11.10/.hak/keytar/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/build/node_modules/node-gyp',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_lib_file=/tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/homedir/.electron-gyp/20.1.4/<(target_arch)/node.lib',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dmodule_root_dir=/tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/work/element-desktop-1.11.10/.hak/keytar/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/build',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_engine=v8',
gyp info spawn args   '--depth=.',
gyp info spawn args   '--no-parallel',
gyp info spawn args   '--generator-output',
gyp info spawn args   'build',
gyp info spawn args   '-Goutput_dir=.'
gyp info spawn args ]
gyp: name 'openssl_fips' is not defined while evaluating condition 'openssl_fips != ""' in binding.gyp while trying to load binding.gyp
gyp ERR! configure error 
gyp ERR! stack Error: `gyp` failed with exit code: 1
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.onCpExit (/tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/work/element-desktop-1.11.10/.hak/keytar/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/build/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:259:16)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:513:28)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:291:12)
gyp ERR! System Linux 5.19.8-JJ
gyp ERR! command "/usr/bin/node" "/tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/work/element-desktop-1.11.10/.hak/keytar/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/build/node_modules/.bin/node-gyp" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /tmp/portage/net-im/element-desktop-1.11.10/work/element-desktop-1.11.10/.hak/keytar/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/build
gyp ERR! node -v v18.10.0
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v8.4.1
gyp ERR! not ok

[TheJJ]

Any idea how we can properly resolve this issue? Thanks! Wait until electron depends on >=node-gyp-9.0 or no longer includes the openssl_fips-using config file?

[TheJJ]

I’ve now “fixed” this “problem” for my concrete gentoo ebuild with a lot of duct-tape: https://github.com/SFTtech/gentoo-overlay/commit/3eb701ffab15e451493485a8d0953860524b50b3

I couldn’t just depend on node-16 because some dependency png-to-ico requires "@types/node": "^17.0.36",. I’m impressed how these projects do ever even build once.