> > this is a little off the main topic, but i was wondering .. > > > what does the -fPIC do? what causes this "issue" ? good buddy of mine > wrote & updates a QMAIL Install script ... does it all for you, > including courier-IMAP or Bincc ... and he was wondering whether or not > he shoudl include the -fPIC command when his script compiles vpopmail - > whether this command will bomb & cause errors on 32bit systems. > >From the gcc manpage: -fPIC If supported for the target machine, emit position-independent code, suitable for dynamic linking and avoiding any limit on the size of the global offset table. This option makes a difference on the m68k, m88k, and the SPARC.
Position-independent code requires special support, and therefore works only on certain machines. Essentially what this does is make libraries relocatable, the difference between -fpic and -fPIC being the size of the global offset table (and this difference is only on some archs). You may want to try with -fpic instead, since you're not using one of the arches specifically mentioned. Since vpopmail doesn't generate dynamic libraries this shouldn't really be making any difference. Doing it on 32bit won't cause any problems, as it has nothing to do with word size. Also, you'll want to be on the latest stable gcc release you can get your hands on, as the x86-64 target has been evolving fairly rapidly from what I can see with a little quick googling. Hope that helps, Nick
