Re: deep troubles with register_frame_info

[Ruediger Oertel <ro@suse.de>]

On Mon, 5 Apr 1999, H.J. Lu wrote:

> > It's not the change that came in glibc. It's simply the other shared
> > libraries. We compiled glibc-2.0 with egcs from the start and
> > register_frame_info was never in there (similar as it is on redhat
> > with a gcc-compiled glibc-2.0)
> 
> Have you kept your glibc 2.0 up to date?
I've tried that as well, I'm not saying a systen built with the new egcs
and/or the new libc would not work perfectly. It does, no doubt at all.

The problem is: I compile a binary or a library on that system to intall
it on something previous and then I would have to exchange the libc as
well. I doubt this will be acceptable to almost a million users.

> > The problem comes up with (e.g.) libncurses, which contained the
> > register_frame_info functions with the old setup, and thus, binaries
> > compiled on a SuSE-6.09 system relied on finding these functions (outside
> > the binary itself). /usr/bin/vim for example is a candidate.
> > libncurses compiled after the change in egcs-1.1.2 would not contain
> > the function register_frame_info any more. Thus installing a recently
> > compiled ncurses-rpm (or what ever archiver format you prefer)
> > on a old installation will result in a partially inoperable system.
> >  
> > 
> 
> 1. Get yourself a new glibc 2.0 from CVS. Or
as above, I can get a new libc, but this will not change the installed
systems running everywhere in the world.

> 2. Use glibc 2.1.1. Or
I'd love to. I'm doing this for the AXP version of SuSE. I know it works
better, faster more reliable....
There are just some proprietary software that will not work with it
presently, and until we have updated versions, we'll have to wait.

> 3. Don't recompile libncurses. Or
> 4. Recompile vim.
Well the way I have to deal with it is simply: (that's what I've learned
again and again since I started):

Recompilation of any given part of a system at any given time needs
to work. Anything else is a non binary compatible change that will
have to wait - at least until the switch to glibc-2.1, which will
result in a stepping of the major release number for the distribution(s).

Of course, not everybody has to be that strict, but I'm tied here.

with kind regards (mit freundlichem Grinsen),
                                     Ruediger Oertel (ro@suse.de)
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