binutils test result mysteries

[Maciej W. Rozycki]

On Sun, 2 Dec 2012, Dimitry Andric wrote:

> > > Red Hat makes it difficult to get a static C library, for some reason.
> > > You need to turn on the "RHEL Server Optional" category in your package
> > > manager to even see it.
> > 
> > Looks like they hid it way down in this :
> > 
> > [root@sedna ~]# yum provides "*/libc.a"
> > Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit, rhnplugin
> > 1:compat-glibc-2.5-46.2.x86_64 : Compatibility C library
> > Repo        : rhel-x86_64-workstation-6
> > Matched from:
> > Filename    : /usr/lib/x86_64-redhat-linux5E/lib64/libc.a
> > 
> > The name "Compatibility C library" doesn't fill me with warm and fuzzy joy.
> 
> No, this is not the one you need.  You need exactly the "glibc-static"
> package.  You must enable the "RHEL Server Optional" category in Red Hat
> Network to be able to download it with yum.  If you cannot do this,
> either switch to CentOS, or accept that some tests will fail.

 No, tests must not FAIL when an external optional component is missing 
(personally I think that this dependency is unfortunate, e.g. in a perfect 
world the test suite would have no dependency on a working compiler or any 
libraries for the target being tested, but I guess these particular tests 
are better than none at all for the area covered).  In such a case the 
UNSUPPORTED result must be returned instead as per POSIX test framework 
requirements.  These test cases are broken and should be fixed.  See 
http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/dejagnu/dejagnu_6.html for further 
details.

 Dennis, BTW, binutils tarballs are accompanied on ftp.gnu.org with their 
GPG signatures that you can use to verify authenticity.

  Maciej