Re: wish list for rsh

["Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH" <allbery@kf8nh.apk.net>]

In message <x3rpuuiddqj.fsf@lyell.csse.monash.edu.au>, Brian May writes:
+-----
| >>>>> "Brandon" == Brandon S Allbery KF8NH <allbery@kf8nh.apk.net> writes:
|     Brandon> The problem with SASL is that it doesn't get along with
|     Brandon> platforms that have screwball shared library support
|     Brandon> (read: AIX).
| 
| Whats wrong with shared library support on AIX?
+--->8

It's a sort-of-Unixized port of OS/2 shared libraries.  So you need to use 
OS/2-style import files to link one shared library against another, linking 
goes much more easily if you have OS/2-style export files, and all symbols 
must be resolved at shared library build time, among other oddities compared 
to most Unixes.

Also, shared objects that work fine on every other system I've built them 
on, regardness of weirdness (such as the shared library version of netpbm 
from the libgr package), build on AIX but programs using them dump core on 
startup.  I suspect this means static data in shared libraries behaves 
strangely.  (I *hope* it doesn't use the OS/2 default of "static data is 
shared between processes using the shared library"...).

In any case, the Cyrus SASL libraries refuse to build properly on AIX as 
distributed, and while I can get something (of unknown functionality) if I 
update it to use the latest libtool, you then have to use that same libtool 
version to link against SASL.

| In the past I have heard about a GNU project under development from
| GNU that will allow a static library to be read at runtime like a
| shared library[1] (for platforms without good shared library support),
| do you think this would help?
+--->8

One can hope.  I do wish IBM would implement Solaris/Linux-style shared 
libraries, though.

| [1] Sorry I can't remember any details right now, but can attempt to
| look them up if you want. I think it was somehow related to the
| libtool project.
+--->8

Wouldn't surprise me much; libtool can do only so much to deal with 
pathological platforms.

-- 
brandon s. allbery	   os/2,linux,solaris,perl	allbery@kf8nh.apk.net
system administrator	   kthkrb,heimdal,gnome,rt	  allbery@ece.cmu.edu
carnegie mellon / electrical and computer engineering			kf8nh
    We are Linux. Resistance is an indication that you missed the point.