[GRASS5] ./configure --with-dbm on Debain/Testing

[Hamish]

> > > > Debian has recently changed around their GNU DBM packages a bit;
> > > > the libgdbm-dev package now provides dmb.h.
...
> > > I don't know whether:
> > > 
> > > a) this package includes a symlink (e.g. libdbm ->
> > > libgdbm_compat), so that existing packages will continue to work,
> > > or...
> Well, I was thinking along the lines of:
> 	/usr/lib/libdbm.so -> libgdbm_compat.so
> or:
> 	/usr/lib/libndbm.so -> libgdbm_compat.so

Nope.
Debian should probably include that so that _compat actually *is*
compatible, I'll suggest that in the bug report, although I have to
admit I'm mostly stumbling my way through here.


> In which case you would be able to get the DBM routines by using -ldbm
> or -lndbm, which are traditional names for the library. Both of those
> names are currently checked by the configure script.

Once I add the following link, ./configure gets past the DBM check.

ln -s /usr/lib/libgdbm_compat.so /usr/local/lib/libdbm.so
(and add /usr/local/lib to /etc/ld.so.conf & run /sbin/ldconfig)

But I haven't tried a full recompile with it yet.

[aside- that says something for Debian, this install is 2.5 years old,
and I've never had to modify ld.so.conf for /usr/local/lib before.
Usually have to hit Redhat with that in the first 10 minutes. Surprises
me I never had to do it before.]


> > > While b) seems pretty far-fetched, this *is* Debian, so it isn't
> > > entirely out of the question. If it is b) then the Debian folks
> > > can distribute their own modified GRASS package.

Absolutely, if that's the case.


> libgdbm is (unsurprisingly) the GNU version, which includes both DBM
> and NDBM functions, as well as a new set of functions (i.e. the GDBM
> interface). At least it did, until Debian decided that they were going
> to be different to every other Unix system from the last couple of
> decades. But that's Debian's problem, not ours.

Again, I think this is a change in the GNU version, which Debian is just
shadowing.

libgdbm_compat exists in the latest versions here, for example:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/gnu/gdbm/


shrug
Just something to look out for in the future.

Hamish