[gdal-dev] GDAL 1.10 JP2000 Problem/Crash

[John Daniel]

On May 23, 2013, at 12:37 PM, Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam at pobox.com> wrote:

> John,
> 
> In my experience the crashes with the ECW 3.3 library are not specific to recent versions of GDAL.  I've run into them over the years. 

Frank,
I was just curious about potential future problems with GDAL 1.10. If ECW runs as well, or as poorly, as it does with GDAL 1.9.2, then I'm happy.

> Why does the direct use of the app directory object files concern you?  I can't recall exactly why it is setup that way.  It seems to me I once tried to use the library for the apps area but it was missing something I needed.  It seems the current arrangement is just a bit ackward but hopefully not a serious barrier for Kakadu licensees. 

Because changing the interface to the shared library is a big deal. Kakadu isn't going to do that without good reason and clear documentation on how to handle it. Our relatively recent Kakadu 7.1 library does just that and requires a minor patch to GDAL 1.9.2. However, Kakadu can change its internal code at any time and would be under no expectation to tell anyone or explain the changes.  

We are experiencing this exact problem with libXML. Our old version was using undocumented internals of libz. When the sysadmins updated libz for someone else's requirements, any application that used libXML, including GDAL, ceased to function. We still don't have all of our servers operational. We move slowly around here. 

We also had trouble building Kakadu so that its object files were compatible with GDAL. Now we also have a patch for Kakadu to add -fPIC for apps. 

I have no expectation that ECW 3.3 will continue to function in the future. It already doesn't work on our Solaris machines and needs patches for my Mac. Kakadu is well supported so I'm not worried about that. But I am a bit worried about direct linking to object files in a proprietary and very expensive library. There is potential for a future problem there.

John Daniel
Software Engineer
Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies (SGT, Inc.)
Contractor to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
47914 252nd Street
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57198
Phone: 905.240.2953
Mobile: 905.442.9385
Skype: 303.586.1987
Email: jdaniel at usgs.gov


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