Add Python symlink to path (for non-Windows OSes only) (#2362)

* lib: create a Python symlink and add it to PATH

Helps to ensure a version of Python validated by lib/find-python.js
is used to run various Python scripts generated by gyp.

Known to affect gyp-mac-tool, probably affects gyp-flock-tool as well.

These Python scripts (such as `gyp-mac-tool`) are invoked directly,
via the generated Makefile, so their shebang lines determine
which Python binary is used to run them.
The shebang lines of these scripts are all `#!/usr/bin/env python3`,
so the first `python3` on the user's PATH will be used.

By adding a symlink to the Python binary validated by find-python.js,
and putting this symlink first on the PATH, we can ensure we use
a compatible version of Python to run these scripts.

(Only on Unix/Unix-like OSes. Symlinks are tricky on Windows,
and Python isn't used at build-time anyhow on Windows,
so this intervention isn't useful or necessary on Windows.

A similar technique for Windows, no symlinks required,
would be to make batch scripts which execute the target binary,
much like what Node does for its bundled copy of npm on Windows.)

* test: update mocked graceful-fs for configure test

Add missing functions "unlink()" and "symlink()" to mocked module.

* lib: log any errors when creating Python symlink

Warn users about errors, but continue on in case the user does
happen to have new enough Python on their PATH.

(The symlinks are only meant to fix an issue in a corner case,
where the user told `node-gyp` where new enough Python is,
but it's not the first `python3` on their PATH.
We should not introduce a new potential failure mode to all users
when fixing this bug. So no hard errors during the symlink process.)

* lib: improve error formatting for Python symlink

Logging the entire error object shows the stack twice,
and all the other information is contained in the stack.

It also messes with the order of what is logged.

Rather than logging a bunch of redundant information in a messy way,
we can log only the stack. Logging it in a separate log.warn()
also gets rid of an extra space character at the beginning of the line.

* lib: restore err.errno to logs for symlink errors

This info (err.errno) is the only piece of information
in the error object that is not redundant to err.stack.

* lib: use log.verbose, not log.warn

These messages aren't important enough to be `log.warn`s.

Log as verbose only; they will also appear in full error output.

Author: DeeDeeG

lib/build.js

@@ -185,6 +185,13 @@ function build (gyp, argv, callback) {
       }
     }
 
+    if (!win) {
+      // Add build-time dependency symlinks (such as Python) to PATH
+      const buildBinsDir = path.resolve('build', 'node_gyp_bins')
+      process.env.PATH = `${buildBinsDir}:${process.env.PATH}`
+      log.verbose('bin symlinks', `adding symlinks (such as Python), at "${buildBinsDir}", to PATH`)
+    }
+
     var proc = gyp.spawn(command, argv)
     proc.on('exit', onExit)
   }

lib/configure.js

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ if (win) {
 function configure (gyp, argv, callback) {
   var python
   var buildDir = path.resolve('build')
+  var buildBinsDir = path.join(buildDir, 'node_gyp_bins')
   var configNames = ['config.gypi', 'common.gypi']
   var configs = []
   var nodeDir
@@ -73,7 +74,9 @@ function configure (gyp, argv, callback) {
 
   function createBuildDir () {
     log.verbose('build dir', 'attempting to create "build" dir: %s', buildDir)
-    fs.mkdir(buildDir, { recursive: true }, function (err, isNew) {
+
+    const deepestBuildDirSubdirectory = win ? buildDir : buildBinsDir
+    fs.mkdir(deepestBuildDirSubdirectory, { recursive: true }, function (err, isNew) {
       if (err) {
         return callback(err)
       }
@@ -84,11 +87,31 @@ function configure (gyp, argv, callback) {
         findVisualStudio(release.semver, gyp.opts.msvs_version,
           createConfigFile)
       } else {
+        createPythonSymlink()
         createConfigFile()
       }
     })
   }
 
+  function createPythonSymlink () {
+    const symlinkDestination = path.join(buildBinsDir, 'python3')
+
+    log.verbose('python symlink', `creating symlink to "${python}" at "${symlinkDestination}"`)
+
+    fs.unlink(symlinkDestination, function (err) {
+      if (err && err.code !== 'ENOENT') {
+        log.verbose('python symlink', 'error when attempting to remove existing symlink')
+        log.verbose('python symlink', err.stack, 'errno: ' + err.errno)
+      }
+      fs.symlink(python, symlinkDestination, function (err) {
+        if (err) {
+          log.verbose('python symlink', 'error when attempting to create Python symlink')
+          log.verbose('python symlink', err.stack, 'errno: ' + err.errno)
+        }
+      })
+    })
+  }
+
   function createConfigFile (err, vsInfo) {
     if (err) {
       return callback(err)

test/test-configure-python.js

@@ -14,7 +14,9 @@ const configure = requireInject('../lib/configure', {
     mkdir: function (dir, options, cb) { cb() },
     promises: {
       writeFile: function (file, data) { return Promise.resolve(null) }
-    }
+    },
+    unlink: function (path, cb) { cb() },
+    symlink: function (target, path, cb) { cb() }
   }
 })