Bazel for packages with a "bootstrap->configure->make" build? - bazel

Question

I'm experimenting with using libhttpserver and, by extension, libmicrohttpd from inside a Bazel build. The build process for these libraries seems to go:
./bootstrap
mkdir build
cd build
../configure
make
which is a slight variation, that I haven't seen before, on the more classic configure && make workflow.
Has anyone managed to make such a library work under Bazel?
Does anyone have a public example I can crib from?
The closest thing I've found to supporting this is #rules_foreign_cc//tools/build_defs:configure.bzl#configure_make but that seems to have no concept of the bootstrap step. Even hacking it doesn't seem to work as the bootstrap script ends up failing with:
mkdir: cannot create directory 'tmpwrk23': Read-only file system
autopoint: *** cannot create directory tmpwrk23
autopoint: *** Stop.
autoreconf: autopoint failed with exit status: 1
I'm about ready to just reach for a genrule() but that seems very error prone...

Answer 1

I went down the same path as you and was able to get libhttpserver compiling with bazel using the rules_foreign_cc project after coming across the 6/23/20 update on this blog post. I added code below, but in general rules_foreign_cc has a make rule, which you can set override make_commands and call ./bootstrap.
WORKSPACE:
...
http_archive(
name = "rules_foreign_cc",
strip_prefix = "rules_foreign_cc-master",
url = "https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_foreign_cc/archive/master.zip",
)
load("#rules_foreign_cc//:workspace_definitions.bzl", "rules_foreign_cc_dependencies")
rules_foreign_cc_dependencies(register_default_tools = True)
all_content = """filegroup(name = "all", srcs = glob(["**"]), visibility = ["//visibility:public"])"""
http_archive(
name = "rules_cc",
urls = ["https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_cc/archive/262ebec3c2296296526740db4aefce68c80de7fa.zip"],
strip_prefix = "rules_cc-262ebec3c2296296526740db4aefce68c80de7fa",
)
http_archive(
name = "libgnutls",
build_file_content = all_content,
strip_prefix = "gnutls-3.6.15",
urls = ["https://www.gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/gnutls/v3.6/gnutls-3.6.15.tar.xz"],
)
http_archive(
name = "libhttpserver",
build_file_content = all_content,
strip_prefix = "libhttpserver-master",
urls = ["https://github.com/etr/libhttpserver/archive/master.zip"],
)
http_archive(
name = "libmicrohttpd",
build_file_content = all_content,
strip_prefix = "libmicrohttpd-0.9.71",
urls = ["https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libmicrohttpd/libmicrohttpd-0.9.71.tar.gz"],
)
BUILD:
load("#rules_foreign_cc//tools/build_defs:configure.bzl", "configure_make")
load("#rules_foreign_cc//tools/build_defs:make.bzl", "make")
load("#rules_cc//cc:defs.bzl", "cc_binary", "cc_library")
package(default_visibility = ["//visibility:public"])
configure_make(
name = "libgnutls",
lib_source = "#libgnutls//:all",
configure_options = ["--with-included-unistring"],
out_include_dir = "include/gnutls",
shared_libraries = ["libgnutls.so"],
)
configure_make(
name = "libmicrohttpd",
lib_source = "#libmicrohttpd//:all",
deps = [":libgnutls"],
)
make(
name = "libhttpserver",
lib_source = "#libhttpserver//:all",
make_commands = [
"./bootstrap",
"mkdir build_dir",
"cd build_dir",
"../configure --prefix=${INSTALLDIR}",
"make",
"make install",
],
deps = [":libmicrohttpd", ":libgnutls"],
)
cc_binary(
name = "hello-world",
srcs = ["hello_world.cc"],
deps = [
":libhttpserver"
],
)
hello_world.cc (example on libhttpserver github page, run "curl -XGET -v http://localhost:8080/hello" to test)
#include <iostream>
#include <httpserver.hpp>
using namespace std;
using namespace httpserver;
class hello_world_resource : public http_resource {
public:
const std::shared_ptr<http_response> render(const http_request&) {
return std::shared_ptr<http_response>(new string_response("Hello, World!"));
}
};
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
cout << "hello!" << std::endl;
webserver web_server = create_webserver(8080);
hello_world_resource resource;
web_server.register_resource("/hello", &resource);
web_server.start(true);
return 0;
}