[GRASS5] [emitchell@altaira.com: Re: grass autoconf]

[Andreas Lange]

Eric Mitchell wrote:
> 
> 
> The state of the GNU toolset on platforms other than Linux
> and Solaris is sketchy at best.  Some require the GNU linker,
> some require the platform linker, some require the platform's
> native assembler, etc.  With IRIX, the last problem we ran
> into was that the compiler couldn't generate code for the
> "new 32bit ABI".  This caused problems with 3rd party code
> we were attempting to compile against, and forced us to use
> the SGI compiler for our project.  It's possible that with
> SGI's recent efforts behind Linux, they may have improved the
> condition of the GNU tools on their hardware.
> 

Hi Eric, hi developers,

i was a bit too pessimistic about the GNU tools on IRIX. I verified that
i am able to build shared libraries on IRIX with egcs/libtool.
I don't think that the state of the GNU tools on IRIX is sketchy, gcc
2.8.1 and egcs 2.91 use the IRIX linker and assembler. Only the
deprecated gcc 2.7 used the GNU linker and assembler. SGI changed their
attitude and with IRIX 6.5 standard distribution you get all header
files, linker and assembler, which is IMHO an optimal solution, better
than the GNU binutils, which may interfere with other components of the
system.

Most problems on IRIX are due to the complicated library system: IRIX
supports the old 32bit library format, a new 32bit library format (n32)
and the 64bit library format. There is a complete set of libraries for
each format in lib, lib32 and lib64 respectively. So if you link against
a library you have to give the appropriate flag to the compiler (-32,
-n32/-mabi=n32, -64/mabi=64) and to set the library path (lib, lib32,
lib64) accordingly. There may be problems with older versions of GNU gcc
which compile in the old 32 bit format by default or if you try to link
n32 programs to o32 libraries in the lib-directory used by default. 

I compiled Mesa3.2 on IRIX (yes, this is carrying coals to
newcastle...), the configure procedure worked, the libraries are
compiled in n32 format, but put in /usr/freeware/lib. Executables are
ok.   

Another problem is that with using libtool compiling will be tied to
gcc/egcs. Has anyone tested if libtool works with the 'native'
compilers?

> 
> I should be able to do some preliminary autoconf work over
> the next week or so.  I'll keep you posted.
> 
looking forward to that,

many thanks for your effort with autoconf,

Andreas

-- 
Andreas Lange, 65187 Wiesbaden, Germany, Tel. +49 611 807850
Andreas.Lange at Rhein-Main.de, A.C.Lange at GMX.net

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