Re: libtool, Apache 2.0, AIX

[Robert Boehne]

Hello,

The native AIX way of handling shared libraries is to create
a shared object and put it in an archive.  I believe that this
archive normally includes a shared object, and a static archive,
then perhaps other pairs on a multilib system
(32 bit, and 64 bit for instance).
  There is also the option of creating "System V compatability"
libraries,
the .so files that other Unicies use. (ref. -Wl,-brtl)
If this is news to everyone reading this thread, I'm not suprised,
as it took me many reads of AIX's ld man pages, Levine's "linkers
and Loaders", and a few emails exchanged with David Edelsohn to come
to that conclusion.
  In Libtool we allow for either to be built, the latter being
created when -Wl,-brtl is added to LDFLAGS during configure.
There may be problems with using one or the other, but you may
be able to work around them if you're aware of how they work.
AIX libraries need to be fully resolved at link time, so they
need to have all the libraries they reference added on the link
line or to use import/export files.  This has an advantage
over SysV style libs in that unresolved references (i.e. mistakes)
are reported when linking the library, not when linking executables.
  I guess the point is that Libtool doesn't let you completely
ignore the differences between AIX and others, so I'd suggest
that you read up on the subject to find out what the best solution
for your particular situation is.

In Jeff's earier post his item #3 states he's got an unusable
library.  We don't want that, but I don't have enough information
to determine why this is the case.  Could you post enough for
me to reproduce it?

Thanks,

Robert


Jeff Trawick wrote:
> 
> Marc Stephenson <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > I do agree that it would be nice to have an option to disable the AIX
> > archiving feature.  If this function were to be generically described, 
> > perhaps
> > it could be described as a non-library option.
> >
> > If you're building a shared library to be linked against on AIX, the
> > normal way is to have an archive with one or more members.  If you want a
> > dynamically loadable object which is not going to be linked against, then
> > you really just want .so files, independent of run-time linking.
> 
> I'm definitely cool with that.
> 
> --
> Jeff Trawick | address@hidden | PGP public key at web site:
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>              Born in Roswell... married an alien...
> 
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-- 
Robert Boehne             Software Engineer
Ricardo Software   Chicago Technical Center
TEL: (630)789-0003 x. 238
FAX: (630)789-0127
email:  address@hidden