Thread: Re: AIX shared libraries (was Re: [PATCHES] Fix linking of OpenLDAP libraries)

Tom Lane wrote:
>> The natural way in AIX would be:
>> - Create libpq.so
>> - Create libpq.a by 'rm -f libpq.a; ar -rc libpq.a libpq.so'
>> - Install only libpq.a
>
> Hm.  This seems possible with some moderate hacking on Makefile.shlib
> (certainly it'd be no more invasive than the existing Windows-specific
> platform variants).  However, looking at what's already in
> Makefile.shlib for AIX makes me doubt the above claim a bit, because
> AFAICS libpq.so is produced from libpq.a on that platform.  Is it
> possible that the rules have changed across AIX versions, and that the
> code in there now is needful for older versions?

I don't think that this behaviour has changed. I remember it from
AIX 4.3.2.

Of course libpq.so is created from (the static) libpq.a.
But once you have the dynamic library, you can link statically
against it.

> Another issue with installing only .a is that there's no provision
> for versioning in .a library names ... what happens to someone who
> needs two generations of libpq on his machine?

Use different directories and set LIBPATH?
I don't know if there is a canonical way to do that. I'll investigate.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe

> Tom Lane wrote:
> > Is it
> > possible that the rules have changed across AIX versions,
> > and that the code in there now is needful for older versions?
>
> I don't think that this behaviour has changed. I remember it from
> AIX 4.3.2.
>
AIX 4.3 is the first version to support the -brtl.  The current code is
in place to mimic the behaviour of dlopen, etc, on the older platforms.

I think we are at a point that we can stop maintaining AIX older than
4.3 if we want.
-rocco

RoccoA@Routescape.com ("Rocco Altier") writes:
>> Tom Lane wrote:
>> > Is it
>> > possible that the rules have changed across AIX versions, 
>> > and that the code in there now is needful for older versions?
>> 
>> I don't think that this behaviour has changed. I remember it from
>> AIX 4.3.2.
>> 
> AIX 4.3 is the first version to support the -brtl.  The current code is
> in place to mimic the behaviour of dlopen, etc, on the older platforms.
>
> I think we are at a point that we can stop maintaining AIX older than
> 4.3 if we want.

Version 5.1 is no longer being maintained by IBM; we were some
displeased when we heard when support offerings were expiring :-(.
Fortunately, we already had plans in place for a migration to 5.3.

I have to agree that even 4.3 is "really rather old" now.

Looking at IBM's "support lifecycle" list...
<http://www-306.ibm.com/software/info/supportlifecycle/list/a.html>

AIX version   Available    Support Withdrawn
----------------------------------------------------------------- 5.1         May 2001      April 2006 5.2         Oct
2002     Sept 2008 5.3         Aug 2004      unannounced, presumably late 2010...
 

I'd guess that 4.3 fell out of support in late 2004.
-- 
let name="cbbrowne" and tld="linuxdatabases.info" in String.concat "@" [name;tld];;
http://linuxfinances.info/info/
"Of course 5  years from now that will be different,  but 5 years from
now  everyone  will  be  running  free  GNU on  their  200  MIPS,  64M
SPARCstation-5."  -- Andrew Tanenbaum, 1992.