Here's the corresponding website update: flutter/website#5466

This seems to have broken flutter/plugins CI, here:

https://github.com/flutter/plugins/runs/2099838499

Call Stack (most recent call first):

  /usr/share/cmake-3.16/Modules/FindPkgConfig.cmake:643 (_pkg_check_modules_internal)

  flutter/CMakeLists.txt:29 (pkg_check_modules)

I'll attempt to follow the new instructions to update our CI environment :)

(PS: The change suggested in the docs worked!)

This seems to have broken flutter/plugins CI, here:

Since it's somewhat non-obvious (to the point that I forgot even though I should have known better): it breaks that CI because we have a test that creates a new app every time it runs, so we get the new requirement immediately.

I can add that this calls pkg-config --exists libgcrypt which as far as I can tell requires libgcrypt.pc to be in something like /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/pkgconfig/libgcrypt.pc and that notably Debian Buster (stable) doesn't include this file (https://packages.debian.org/buster/amd64/libgcrypt20-dev/filelist) whereas Debian Sid (unstable) does (https://packages.debian.org/sid/amd64/libgcrypt20-dev/filelist).

This in effect means that Debian Stable users will get told to run apt-get install libgcrypt20-dev even if it's already installed. It also means that flutter run (desktop target) won't work on Debian Stable (because pkg_check_modules(GCRYPT REQUIRED IMPORTED_TARGET libgcrypt) also fails).

Technically this might be a Debian bug, but it might still be worth knowing on this end.

it breaks that CI because we have a test that creates a new app every time it runs, so we get the new requirement immediately.

Correct, in fact, it only broke the test in flutter channel master, because that's what grabs the latest changes from the top of the repo. Users in other channels weren't affected.

I don't have an opinion about the pkg-config --exists libgcrypt change; @stuartmorgan any thoughts about @jensjoha's comment?

This in effect means that Debian Stable users will get told to run apt-get install libgcrypt20-dev even if it's already installed.

That sucks :/ Maybe we should expand the doctor check to try ldconfig if pkg-config fails. We’d also need to add a specialized cmake module for gcrypt then. What do you think @stuartmorgan?

This would be a question for @cbracken at this point.

(I do think it's problematic that we are increasingly breaking configurations that used to work just fine just to support the snap distribution of Flutter.)

This would be a question for @cbracken at this point.

(I do think it's problematic that we are increasingly breaking configurations that used to work just fine just to support the snap distribution of Flutter.)

You're absolutely right. In the past this sort of change has been beneficial for both the manual and snap install options, but especially considering it breaks some manual installs, this change is indeed not something I think (now) should be applied upstream.

I've fixed this issue downstream in the snap (a solution that was actually very simple and should have picked up had I not been so hasty), so we can (and I think should) revert these changes:

#78415
flutter/website#5504

Please accept my sincerest apologies for the mess!

In the past this sort of change has been beneficial for both the manual and snap install options

Actually, this statement may in fact be false. I don't think the addition of libblkid and liblzma fixed anything but the snap. How do you feel about these? Should we revert these explicit requirements in flutter (and the website) as well? I'm leaning toward yes.

I can confirm that this in addition to removing the pkg_check_modules for libblkid and liblzma from the project's CMakeLists works just fine.

I've also confirmed that without those pkg_check_modules, manual install on a fresh system using just sudo apt-get install clang cmake ninja-build pkg-config libgtk-3-dev works as well.

It seems a no-brainer to revert the libblkid and liblzma explicit requirements from flutter upstream as well then. I'll update the PR's linked above with these changes.

@ditman fyi: https://github.com/flutter/website/pull/5504/files

@MarcusTomlinson thanks for the heads up! We may be able to trim our Docker image after these changes land!