Re: Question about dumping emacs under Solaris

[Dan Nicolaescu]

Ali Bahrami <address@hidden> writes:

  > Hello,
  > 
  >    I have a question about how emacs is dumped under
  > Solaris. In the file emacs/src/s/sol-2-6.h:
  > 
  >     /* Handle Solaris 2.6.  */
  > 
  >     #include "sol2-5.h"
  > 
  >     #if 0 /* dldump does not handle all the extensions used by GNU ld.  */
  >     #undef UNEXEC
  >     #define UNEXEC unexsol.o
  >     #endif
  >     
  > This ifdef prevents the unexsol.c code, containing a call
  > to dldump(), from being used. Instead, the generic ELF unexec
  > code is used. Looking at the RCS revisions, I see that dldump()
  > was disabled in revision 1.3 of the file, dating from
  > September 13, 2002.
  > 
  > Can anyone shed any light on what GNU ld extensions are not
  > properly handled by the Solaris dldump()? I know that 2002
  > was a while ago, and possibly no one remembers, but it
  > would be helpful to know what went wrong.
  > 
  > I work at Sun, on the linker. We've discussed this, and are at
  > a loss as to what the problem might be. dldump() is pretty
  > generic, and nothing leaps out as being unable to support GNU
  > ld objects. There are some differences between the ELF objects
  > produced by the Solaris and GNU, but they tend to be pretty
  > compatible for the most part.

Regardless if anyone remembers why those changes were made, positive
proof that the code works is the best option.

Given what you said above, you are probably able to experiment with
building with various versions of both Sun and GNU tools, on various
Solaris versions and check if emacs works correctly.

If things work OK, then there's no reason not to enable the code in
question immediately.