Re: LYNX-DEV autoconfig changes for SCO OpenServer

[Bela Lubkin]

Larry W. Virden wrote:

> > > The -R flag should be relevant to all ELF based systems (System V.4 
> > > based).
> > > It tells the linker to place the following argument (a directory) into
> > > the .so in the run time dynamic link resolver's PATH.  In this way,
> > > the executable can find all the .so files needed for runtime resolution of
> > > the program.
> > 
> > "should be relevant", perhaps, but it is not.  The OpenServer toolchain
> > is based on, but not identical, to the UnixWare 2.0 toolchain.  It has a
> > -R flag with a completely different meaning.  Also, the UnixWare 2.0 and
> > 2.1 ld's have no -R flag at all.  I think this is in fact relevant only
> > to Solaris 2.x (or perhaps the GNU ld, which is I believe what's used in
> > Linux and BSD, has also followed suit?)
> 
> Nope - it's not specific at all to Solaris 2.x.  It's a System V.4 ELF
> 'feature'.  It's just that Solaris 2.x is one of these systems.

So is UnixWare, and it doesn't have the -R flag at all.

> > /usr/ccs/lib the default search path for the runtime linker, and if so,
> > what is the point of specifying it?
> 
> I don't know which libraries a particular system in question knows as
> defaults.  Perhaps there is some way of determining this.  I suspect
> not.  However, an application which links with .so files _will not run_
> unless the user or system admin somehow indicates where to find .so
> files which are installed in whatever his/her system considers 'non-standard'
> locations.  

Now we are to the crux of the matter.  *If* /usr/ccs/lib exists on a
system -- at least on a system such as Solaris 2.x, UnixWare or
OpenServer -- it exists because it is the default location of C
libraries.  The _default_.  It should not be necessary to tell the
system default compiler where to find the system default libraries;
Solaris should need neither "-L/usr/ccs/lib" nor "-R/usr/ccs/lib".

When you get into a non-default compiler -- say, gcc -- the possibility
arises that it doesn't know where to find the default libraries.
However, in such a case what you are looking at is a mis-installed
compiler.  We should not be shipping makefiles that by default assume a
mis-configured environment.

> > that whole clause of configure.  If it isn't irrelevant, do what
> > configure usually does: compile a test program.  If you can `cc
> > -L/usr/ccs/lib -R/usr/ccs/lib` a program, then run it successfully, you
> > at know that it is at least not immediately fatal to specify those
> > flags...
> 
> I agree here.

Are you, Larry, running on a Solaris 2.x system?  What happens if you
build Lynx without any -L -R flags at all?  I say it will Just Work.

>Bela<
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