From lbaxter@NetReach.Net

Thank you for the suggestion. I will be working on a new version of
the README this weekend (Tim Bunce will be releasing a new DBD-Oracle
soon), so your message is auspicious. I will add this.

But let me ask you​:

You followed the README, but used gcc instead of /opt/softbench/bin/cc
and it worked?

Can you repeat it? If so can you provide a script or make file that
does it? If you can, "you will be helping to save the world".

At the very least, can you send me your output of perl -V?

Thanks, oh.. and I'm glad you found it helpful.... so your're welcome.

With regards,

Lincoln

Michael Schuh wrote​:

Greetings all,

I recently (like, 40 minutes ago) installed Perl 5.6.1 on an HPUX 11.0 system. As my goal is to interact with an Oracle database, I followed Lincoln Baxter's README.hpux (THANK YOU!) and tried to build a dynamically linked version of Perl. However, in earlier attempts (stretching back over the last week or so) it died in the linking stage, admonishing me that a file was created without position independent code and advising me that I should recompile using the "+z" flag. As I was using gcc (which has no +z flag) this was very confusing until I noticed that the file to which the message was referring was libgdbm, which I had built just last week, and realized that I was using HPUX's ld ('cuz the GNU binutils ld won't work on HPUX) and this ld doesn't know about gcc.

Well, it was simple enough to fix​: go back to the libgdm build and add -fPIC to the complier options. After that, Perl built and loaded just like the documentation says it should.

My "bug"? It would have helped me, I think, if the three sets of documentation were more blatant about building everything PIC. The configure/build process for libgdbm does not have an obvious method to specify PIC, and neither the Perl documentation nor Lincoln Baxter's README.hpux remind the user that all files in a dynamic build need to be PIC. Yes, it's "well known" (and, if I had been asked, would have said as much...), but a mild reminder might have helped me.

Also, in the Makefile for libgdbm​:

30c30
< CFLAGS = -O -fPIC
---

CFLAGS = -O

although this is specific to gcc.

As is often the case in the software biz, just a few characters can make all the difference.

Thank you, and thank you very much for various contributions.

--
Mike Schuh

From lbaxter@NetReach.Net

This is not a bug. This can be closed.

@rspier - Status changed from 'new' to 'resolved'