Arch Linux

I downloaded a precompiled 2.32 version from http://alan.petitepomme.net/unison/ and it worked. Maybe the package should use it too?

it worked!
thanks very much for the prompt and very helpful answer! :)

@sipik

For Arch Linux users, Unison 2.32 (and 2.27) cannot be built against the current packages on the official repositories. You can try the idea I posted in my previous comment.

Search for, download, and install ocaml (ocaml-3.12.1-3) and lablgtk2 (lablgtk2-2.14.2-5) from the Arch Rollback Machine:
http://arm.konnichi.com/search

Those two packages are required to build (not to run, only build) unison.

After they are installed, try building this PKGBUILD (unison-232 2.32.52-8).

Now see if Unison 2.32 syncs properly again. If you need me to clear anything up or try something on my end, let me know.

I used this package happily for about half a year and I updated yesterday. Since then whenever I try to do a sync I get:
[code]
Fatal error
Internal error: New archives are not identical.
Retaining original archives. Please run Unison again to bring them up to date.
[/code]
I deleted the archives and tried to recreate them with unison, but it always crashes with the above mentioned error. Any idea how I could fix this? Or at least maybe revert back to the old version, but I dont have that package saved anymore.

I tried using Ocaml 3.x to build Unison 2.32, but I was unsuccessful because lablgtk2 (updated from 2.14 to 2.16 on the Arch repos) is expecting Ocaml 4.x.

Basically, I'm running out of ideas. I would literally have to make PKGBUILDs for ocaml-3 (3.12.1) and lablgtk2-214 (2.14) and who knows what else, just to get Unison 2.32 and 2.27 to build properly again. In light of my other recent frustrations with rolling on Arch Linux, I'm losing motivation. (Having my system randomly freeze whenever I use wireless, likely due to a kernel update, isn't much fun. Neither is the fact that my power settings are confused, such as when I close my lid my laptop suspends, even though I have it set differently under Xfce's power settings. Not to mention the transition from sysvinit to systemd. Thankfully, I dual-boot with a reliable friend known as Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. I just want to use my computer after all...)

If anyone has any idea on how to get Unison 2.32 to build agian, do chime in.

In the meantime, you can still build this package if you first install lablgtk2 (2.14) and ocaml (3.12.1) from the Arch Rollback Machine: http://arm.konnichi.com/search

@curtdodds

I feel your pain. It's a constant game of catch-up. For users of Unison 2.40, it appears that upstream is going to apply a patch to fix the issue of different Ocaml versions. No idea about Unison 2.32 and 2.27 users.

The only thing I can really do from my side is to incorporate something into the PKGBUILD that grabs and compiles an older version of Ocaml. Luckily, users of Unison 2.32 and 2.27 who've already installed the package in the past need not worry about the new Ocaml-4 update, unless they rebuild Unison again.

My problem occurred on a fresh install of arch, using your current script.
The script pulled OCaml-4 from arch repos and compiled against it.
I did not see any way to downgrade OCaml to ver. 3.

So, again, copying the binaries (executables from /usr/bin/unison*) on another computer worked.
Those were compiled about six months ago with OCaml-3, and worked fine on the new installation.

I have no solution to offer, to fix your script, now that arch supplies only OCaml-4.
Sometimes the "latest greatest" breaks working systems.
All we can do is bitch about it.

I do hope you can solve the issue, rather than dropping support.
Thank you for your work on this script, whatever the future brings.

@curtdodds

Wait, upon reading through the thread again, did you happen to rebuild unison-232 during this? Or did this problem occur to you even before rebuilding the package? Ocaml is only a makedepends, and thus if you've built unison-232 prior to the ocaml 4.x release, then it should still work across all machines (Debian, SUSE, Ubuntu LTS, et al) that run unison 2.32.

@curtdodds

Yeah, this is going to get interesting. Unfortunately with Arch Linux, AUR pacakges can slowly erode because of changes not only with the upstream package itself, but also due to changes with dependencies, makedepends, and libraries from updated packages in the official repositories.

I'll see what I can do when I get the chance. If older versions of unison do not compile with Ocaml 4, then it might get tricky.

This package failed for me today. I have used it previously, without problem.
Some directories synced ok, others gave this message:
" Fatal error: Internal error: New archives are not identical."
and would crash, repeatedly.

Web search yielded this explanation:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/unison-users/message/10544

Indeed, arch now uses OCaml-4.
My workaround was to copy the binaries from a previous build, on another arch machine.