[3319] in SIPB bug reports
X shared libraries
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Mon Nov 23 13:32:52 1992
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 13:32:18 -0500
From: "Jonathan I. Kamens" <jik@pit-manager.MIT.EDU>
To: ckclark@Athena.MIT.EDU
Cc: bug-sipb@Athena.MIT.EDU, probe@Athena.MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Calvin Clark's message of Thu, 19 Nov 92 13:50:23 -0500 <9211191850.AA05538@podge>
There are two different issues here:
1) Should we be using the shared libraries in the x11r5 locker?
2) Should we be using the shared libraries in the release?
Calvin: I am irked by the fact that you took it upon yourself to
decide (1) and start recompiling applications, before giving anyone a
reasonable amount of time to discuss the issue. The fact that there
are applications linked against the shared libs is INTENTIONAL.
Before belaying the decision of the person who installed those
programs (i.e., me), it would have been nice for you to have given me
a chance to explain why I did what I did.
(I have not responded about this before now because I have been both
sick and busy since the issue was first raised, not because I am
uninterested in the issue.)
Furthermore, it was wrong for you to "fix" the problem by taking
programs that hda previously been linked against x11r5 and link them
aginst x11r4 instead. If you wanted to fix the problem of using
sharded libraries, you should have linked against static x11r5
libraries in the x11r5 locker.
There are problems with using either the versions of the shared
librarires in /usr/athena/lib/shared or the versions in the x11r5
locker. In both cases, if new versions of the libraries are
installed, old clients will fail, because of the shitty version
control in RS/6000 shared libraries. In the case of the x11r5 locker,
if it goes down, clients don't work.
The best way to avoid problems would therefore seem to be to use
static linking instead of shared libraries. However, there is one
major problem with that -- we don't really have the space in the
locker to store that many statically linked programs. Another problem
is that statically linked programs take up more memory when executing.
My opinion? First of all, Calvin, I think you should put back to
their previous state all the programs you relinked. THEN we can
discuss the issue and come up with a solution and implement it. Since
it is unlikely that the x11r5 locker's libraries are going to change
in the near future, the only problem with using the shared libraries
there is pollux service outages, and that just doesn't happen very
often or for very long.
Second, all the programs that are currently linked against
/usr/athena/lib/shared should be either relinked against the x11r5
locker's shared libraries or linked statically.
It will not be completely safe to use shared libraries until (a) there
is some version numbering in the ones in the release, so we can use
those, and/or (b) there is version numbering in the ones in the x11r5
locker, so we can use those, and/or (c) the x11r5 locker is
replicated. If we therefore decide that we should statically link
everything, then we have to find enough disk space for the larger
binaries in both the sipb cell version of the sipb locker and the
Athena cell version of the locker (possibly meaning that once again
we'll have to ask for an increase in its quota).
jik
