[SQL] Build issues: "-static" builds resulting initdb problems

[Metin Ozisik]

Version: 8.0.2
 
Platforms: Linux, Fedora Core 2, Suse 9.2, Mandrake 
10.1
 
Build time parameter: CFLAGS="-static" 
./configure
 
        results in a 
staticly linked binaries. (you are supposed to have static lib versions of 
readline, ncurses, etc, etc. of course)
 
However, conversion shared objects built in 
src/backend/utils/mb/conversion_procs still retain unresolved symbols, like: 
LocalToUtf, UtfToLocal, pg_ascii2mic, pg_mic2ascii (from 
src/backend/utils/mb/conv.c), as may be observed in:
 
   for i in 
utf8*.so; do echo $i.; nm $i | grep " U "; done
 
 
During initdb time, (I think initdb calls postgres 
and postgres attempts to load them.., regardless, both binaries are static), 
postgres' attempt to load conversion_procs fails with:
 
    initdb --pgdata=/some/directory 
-L /some/dir/pgsql/share
    
    loading pg_descriptions... 
ok
    creating conversions ... FATAL: 
could not load library "../ascii_and_misc.so": ../../ascii_and_misc.so: 
undefined symbol: pg_mic2ascii
    child process exited with exit 
code 1
 
 
I think a dynamic version of postgres would have 
supplied the unresolved symbols in shared-object load time, hence that wouldn't 
be an issue.
 
It seems undefined symbols in lib/utf8_and_*.so 
conversion procs (the four symbols listed above, from conv.c) needs to be 
resolved in link-time, so a "-static" build can work.
 
Regards,
-metin
 
 
 

Re: [SQL] Build issues: "-static" builds resulting initdb problems

[Metin Ozisik]

Correct. A static binary is perfectly capable of dynamic-loading shared 
objects; therefore "-static" should not shadow "-E". I will forward this to 
linker folks. In the meantime, if you guys can provide self-sufficient 
conversion shared-objects by any chance in some future release perhaps, that 
will be much appreciated.

Regards,
-metin
- Original Message - 
From: "Tom Lane" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Metin Ozisik" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: 
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 9:03 AM
Subject: Re: [SQL] Build issues: "-static" builds resulting initdb problems


"Metin Ozisik" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
The purpose of using static linking is to reduce dependencies to
shared-libraries (dependencies to different types and versions of Linux), 
so
an instance of postgreSQL, say built on Suse 9.0, would still work on
Mandrake 10.1. Yes it gets a bit bulky and have a number of disadvantages
over dynamic linking (on the plus side it would be a bit faster), however
the main motivater is binary portability.
Well, both the PL languages and the character set conversion support are
*only* buildable as shared libraries right now.  If you want to
statically link those into the main backend build, you can probably do
it, but it will take some nontrivial hacking.
In the meantime it would appear that your linker ignores the -E (export
all symbols) switch when -static is specified.  I suppose it thinks
that not only don't you want any shared libraries now, but you won't
want any dynamically loaded libraries later.  This is a Bad Idea;
complain to the linker hackers about it.
regards, tom lane 

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Re: [SQL] Build issues: "-static" builds resulting initdb problems

[Metin Ozisik]

The purpose of using static linking is to reduce dependencies to 
shared-libraries (dependencies to different types and versions of Linux), so 
an instance of postgreSQL, say built on Suse 9.0, would still work on 
Mandrake 10.1. Yes it gets a bit bulky and have a number of disadvantages 
over dynamic linking (on the plus side it would be a bit faster), however 
the main motivater is binary portability.

Regards,
-metin
- Original Message - 
From: "Tom Lane" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Metin Ozisik" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: 
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 9:38 PM
Subject: Re: [SQL] Build issues: "-static" builds resulting initdb problems


"Metin Ozisik" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Build time parameter: CFLAGS="-static" ./configure
Is there a particular reason for you to be doing that?
creating conversions ... FATAL: could not load library =
"../ascii_and_misc.so": ../../ascii_and_misc.so: undefined symbol: =
pg_mic2ascii
pg_mic2ascii is a function exported by the core backend.  I suppose
that "-static" is somehow suppressing the visibility of that symbol
to the dynamically loaded library ascii_and_misc.so.  I am not sure
whether this indicates a dynamic loader bug, or whether it's a case
of "so don't do that then" ... but in any case I don't think it's
a Postgres bug.
regards, tom lane 

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