Re: libtool and AIX

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Dan,

* Dan Stromberg wrote on Thu, Jun 23, 2005 at 11:38:33PM CEST:
> 
> Anyway, I'm writing about the possibility of getting libtool working
> better on AIX.

Cool!

> The primary reason AIX is an exception to the general rules, is that it
> appears that when you compile an AIX binary defining a library path for
> the executable at runtime, the first file/directory listed in that path
> has a special meaning - sometimes.

All of your explanations pertain to the non-brtl case, right?
(I.e., the case where LDFLAGS=-Wl,-brtl was not given)

> More specifically, if that first directory component really is a
> directory, then it'll be searched as one would expect on just about any
> other *ix.
> 
> However, if that first directory component in the : separated list isn't a
> directory, then it's interpreted as a "loader domain", which is more or
> less a namespace for libraries.
> 
> Why does AIX need library namespaces?  Because AIX's default behavior is
> to load one version, and one version only, of a given library.  Yes, if
> you want libfoo-2.0 and libfoo-1.0 loaded into core concurrently, then
> tuff nuggies, you only get the first one that was loaded, unless:
> 
> 1) You slibclean away the library
> 2) You put one or both of those programs into non-default loader domains
> 
> So to recap, AIX really wants to place a special interpretation on the
> first directory in a runtime library load path, sometimes.
> 
> It appears that libtool, however, sometimes likes to insert directory
> paths ahead of the directory paths that are specified by the programmer
> (true?).
> 
> So if libtool could have some sort of way of specifying something like one
> fo the following, that might really help matters on AIX:
> 
> 1) Preserve library search path, taking new dirs on the end
> 2) Optionally specify a special path that will Always end up first in the
> library search path
> 3) Have a general way of specifying what must go ahead of what
> 
> Any thoughts on how to go about this?

Yes.  The first best thing to do is to write a test case which exposes
this, preferably for CVS HEAD or branch-2-0.  Something like this:

# create old
$LIBTOOL --mode=compile $CC $CFLAGS -c a.c
$LIBTOOL --mode=link $CC $CFLAGS $LDFLAGS -o liba.la a.lo \
    -rpath $prefix1/lib -version-info ...
$LIBTOOL --mode=install ...
# create new
  ... $prefix1
 ...
# link against it

(which is most conveniently achieved in the Autotest framework of HEAD.
For a version in the old-testsuite style see a recent patch by Sven.)

A test (or several) makes it easy to see which part you want changed,
and we might be in a better position to decide which change is the best.

Can you be bothered to write such a test?

Regards,
Ralf