AIX release builds broken

[richardlau]

Starting 21 June release AIX builds have been failing.

e.g.

07:18:59 if [ ! -r node ] || [ ! -L node ]; then \
07:18:59   ln -fs out/Release/node node; fi
07:18:59 gmake: *** [Makefile:1417: node-v27.0.0-nightly20260621665daeb54c-aix-ppc64.tar] Error 2
07:18:59 Build step 'Conditional steps (multiple)' marked build as failure
07:18:59 Archiving artifacts

There's not a lot to go on here, but for a passing build the output would be

07:23:12 if [ ! -r node ] || [ ! -L node ]; then \
07:23:12   ln -fs out/Release/node node; fi
07:23:12 /opt/freeware/bin/python3 tools/install.py install --dest-dir 'node-v27.0.0-nightly20260620a17d2b8fe3-aix-ppc64' --prefix '/'
07:23:12 installing /home/iojs/build/ws/node-v27.0.0-nightly20260620a17d2b8fe3-aix-ppc64/bin/node
07:23:12 installing /home/iojs/build/ws/node-v27.0.0-nightly20260620a17d2b8fe3-aix-ppc64/share/doc/node/gdbinit
07:23:12 installing /home/iojs/build/ws/node-v27.0.0-nightly20260620a17d2b8fe3-aix-ppc64/share/doc/node/lldb_commands.py
07:23:12 installing /home/iojs/build/ws/node-v27.0.0-nightly20260620a17d2b8fe3-aix-ppc64/share/man/man1/node.1
...

Builds on the test CI are generally passing, which would point to a part of the build that is only run for the release tar balls (during or just before running tools/install.py).

Opening this here instead of the Build WG repository as no changes have been made to AIX release machine in the time period when the builds started to fail.

[richardlau]

#62044 landed three days ago, and is both in the time period from when the build started failing (i.e. the nightly build prior to that passed and the subsequent ones are failing) and it modified the build to generate node.1 prior to running tools/install.py (and modified tools/install.py to install out/doc/node.1).

I tried to run the out/doc/node.1 target directly on the release machine, and it hangs up

bash-5.3$  gmake out/doc/node.1
npm warn cli npm v11.17.0 does not support Node.js v27.0.0-v8-canary2026062332a53c0490. This version of npm supports the following node versions: `^20.17.0 || >=22.9.0`. You can find the latest version at https://nodejs.org/.

added 369 packages, and audited 371 packages in 57s

142 packages are looking for funding
  run `npm fund` for details

1 high severity vulnerability

To address all issues, run:
  npm audit fix

Run `npm audit` for details.
|Hangup                     sudo -u iojs bash
bash-5.3#

Prior to #62044 we were not running any npm commands as part of the release AIX tarball builds.

This might be #54590. I've added

Defaults !use_pty

to /etc/sudoers and am running https://ci-release.nodejs.org/job/iojs+release/11883/nodes=aix72-power9/ to see if makes a difference.

[richardlau]

@aduh95 has pointed out an earlier error in the logs:

07:01:35 INFO: configure completed successfully
07:01:35 gmake install DESTDIR=node-v27.0.0-nightly202606231434a079e1-aix-ppc64 V=0 PORTABLE=1
07:01:35 gmake -C out BUILDTYPE=Release V=0
07:01:35 /bin/sh: test: argument expected
07:01:35 /bin/sh: process.versions.icu:  not found
07:01:35 /bin/sh: syntax error at line 2 : `(' unexpected
07:01:35 gmake[1]: *** [Makefile:848: tools/doc/node_modules] Error 2
07:01:35 gmake[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....

which would be in this target

node/Makefile

Lines 847 to 852 in 745a43e

	tools/doc/node_modules: tools/doc/package.json
	@if [ "$(shell $(node_use_openssl_and_icu))" != "true" ]; then \
	echo "Skipping tools/doc/node_modules (no crypto and/or no ICU)"; \
	else \
	cd tools/doc && $(call available-node,$(run-npm-ci)) \
	fi

and probably means an issue with the conditional, which prior to #62044 we would not have been running before.

[miladfarca]

@sxa @richardlau is this still an issue?

[richardlau]

Immediately no, as #62044 was reverted in #64091.
But based on #64090 (comment) I think there is still an issue in the Makefile on AIX for $(shell ...) commands if ksh (the default shell on AIX) is used instead of bash.