[5134] in Kerberos
Re: Porting KRB5 to Linux?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Wed May 10 14:25:04 1995
To: kerberos@MIT.EDU
Date: 10 May 1995 18:11:18 GMT
From: jik@cam.ov.com (Jonathan I. Kamens)
I think there's an important point here that people are missing: What exactly
does the "Linux" part of "compiles out of the box on Linux" mean?
Consider:
* There are numerous Linux distributions; each one installs things somewhat
differently, and each one installs some things that the others don't (or
doesn't install some things that the others do).
* Most of the distributions allow the installer to choose exactly which
components to install.
* Some people (admittedly, a small number) have installed their Linux boxes
completely from scratch, hand-picking which packages to install and compiling
and installing them themselves.
* Some people keep their Linux installations up-to-date by reinstalling when
new versions of their distributions come out; some people, on the other hand,
install new or updated software only when they discover a problem that forces
them to do so.
In short, saying that your machine is running "Linux" is not enough to
determine what will or will not compile cleanly on your machine.
Virtually none of the people in this thread have mentioned what distribution
of Linux they've got installed on their machines, or what version of that
distribution, or what kernel version (which is relevant because different
kernel versions cause different header files to be present in
/usr/include/linux and /usr/include/asm). Roman Gollent said what he's
running ("I'm running a patched up version of Slack 2.2 with GCC 2.6.3 and the
1.2.8 kernel. I also updated bash since that caused compilation problems in
the kernel and the screen make."), and said that Krb5 compiled out of the box
for him. If it doesn't compile out of the box for other people, it doesn't
mean that Roman is wrong, it just means that those people have different Linux
configurations.
It *also* doesn't mean that the people who maintain Krb5 need to fix problems
with it that are preventing it from compiling out of the box. The fact of the
matter is that it's difficult to impossible to support every single Linux
distribution, old or new, with or without certain packages installed.
Frankly, if Krb5 doesn't compile on your Linux box, it's just as likely that
there's something wrong with your Linux box as it is that there's something
wrong with Krb5.
Now, I will make this offer: If you are having a problem compiling Krb5 on
Linux, you can send me E-mail with details of your configuration (Linux
distribution, version, Kernel version, gcc version) and with details of the
problems you are having (e.g., what directory is having trouble and the output
of "make" in that directory), and I will try to help you determine the
problem. If the problem is, indeed, a problem with the Krb5 distribution, I
will submit a bug report to MIT. If the solution to the problem is of general
interest, I will post it here.
Now, can we *please* stop flaming?
--
Jonathan Kamens | OpenVision Technologies, Inc. | jik@cam.ov.com
