Re: [Gcl-devel] Re: gcl/maxima on hppa

[LaMont Jones]

On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 10:17:04AM -0400, Camm Maguire wrote:
> Greetings!  I think I may have stumbled on a possible explanation for
> gcl's build failure on hppa.  Hppa alone will not relocate (i.e. allow
> dlopen to open) modules not compiled with -fPIC.  All other
> architectures on which dlopen is currently used (alpha, ia64, mips,
> mipsel)

Actually, mips and mipsel force -fPIC on all compiles.  The spec requires
that shared objects be built with -fPIC.

> 1) gcl can also relocate and load objects via a direct call to the BFD
>    library routine bfd_get_relocated_section_contents.  This method is
>    currently used as the default on i386, sparc, ppc, s390, m68k and
>    arm.  It is not yet fully implemented on hppa.  Completing this
>    routine should enable a fully functional gcl, maxima, and in the
>    hopefully near future acl2 on this platform.

Cool.

> 2) Find a way to load objects with dlopen without -fPIC.  Attempting
>    this results in the error that a certain relocation output by the
>    compiler cannot be handled by dlopen.  Perhaps there is some other
>    gcc compiler option short of the full -fPIC which can avoid this
>    relocation?

Nope.  The non-PIC is truly not position independent.

> In either case, I will need a knowledgeable hppa person to advise,
> discuss and help generate patches for this to get fixed any time soon.
> Gcl can build its own bfd library, so patches here can be simply
> incorporated.

willy would be a good target.  I'm going to be out of town for a couple
of weeks, but (if it's still pending) I'd be happy to help when I get
back.

lamont