Compiling tsocks-1.8 in Solaris 10 SPARC - gcc

I have a ORACLE/Sun SPARC server with Solaris 10 SPARC OS installed
I am attempting to install tsocks-1.8beta4.tar.gz into Solaris
However in my PuTTY terminal is the following error....
ld: fatal: library -lc not found
This error is being generated by the saveme.c file within the tsocks directory. It contains the following line I believe is causing the fault
unlink("/etc/ld.so.preload")
I dont have the file ld.so.preload inside my Solaris 10 SPARC OS
What shall I do next?

tsocks makes many, many Linux-specific assumptions, such as /etc/ld.so.preload being used, and attempting to statically link portions of the tsocks package.
Solaris 10 does not have a static libc.a. You can not statically link any executable on Solaris 10 and later against system libraries such as libc and libm.
See Static Linking - where did it go?:
With Solaris 10 you can no longer build a static executable. It's not that ld(1) doesn't allow static linking, or using archives, it's just that libc.a, the archive version of libc.so.1, is no longer provided. This library provides the interfaces between user land and the kernel, and without this library it is rather hard to create any form of application.
We've been warning users against static linking for some time now, and linking against libc.a has been especially problematic. Every solaris release, or update (even some patches) has resulted in some application that was built against libc.a, failing. The problem is that libc is supposed to isolate an application from the user/kernel boundary, a boundary which can undergo changes from release to release.
If an application is built against libc.a, then any kernel interface it references is extracted from the archive and becomes a part of the application. Thus, this application can only run on a kernel that is in-sync with the kernel interfaces used. Should these interfaces change, the application is treading on shaky ground.
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Related

Is it possible to use a different gcc version inside a Conda environment?

I have to install a package (spatial-correlation-sampler) which calls for gcc: >=5.3. On my system (Linux, remote server), gcc version is 4.8.5, and a Conda virtual environment uses the same version. Is it possible to use a different version within the virtual environment?
Is it possible to use a different gcc version inside a Conda environment?
Probably yes, except if you (or your Conda environment) needs or uses some GCC plugin. These plugins are specific to a particular version of GCC: a plugin coded for GCC 4.8 (such as my old GCC MELT) won't work with GCC 6. But see also this draft report on Bismon (which might become a successor to GCC MELT).
On Linux/x86-64, a C code compiled with GCC 4.8 would be compatible with the same code compiled with GCC 10, since both follow the same ABI and calling conventions.
For C++ code compiled with GCC, there could be subtle ABI or calling conventions incompatibilities (related to name mangling and exceptions).
Be also aware that Python 2 and Python 3 have different foreign function interfaces. Read chapters related to extending and embedding the Python interpreter.
See also the Program Library HowTo, Advanced Linux Programming and C++ dlopen mini-HowTo and Linux Assembly HowTo and of course Linux From Scratch.
On my system (Linux, remote server), gcc version is 4.8.5
GCC is Free Software.
You are allowed to compile and install a more recent GCC from its source code on your system. An installed GCC 4.8 can be use to build e.g. a GCC 8 from its source code (then installed into /usr/local/bin/gcc, then you just configure wisely your $PATH variable). You could even do that with the unsupported GCC 5.
On recent Debian or Ubuntu you would install dependencies with something like sudo aptitude build-dep g++ and you might also want to use Docker. You may need to download several gigabytes.
Some companies or freelancers are able (for a fee) to compile a GCC tailored for your system. I know AdaCore, but there are many others corporations or freelancers selling support on GCC. Contact me by email for more.
PS. On a powerful AMD Threadripper 2970WX desktop, I just built GCC 10.1 with make -j8 and g++ 9.3 on Debian/Sid in 10:21.38 elapsed time, requiring less than 7 Gbytes of disk space (for both GCC source code and object files). Of course, I disabled the compiler bootstrap. You could do the same thru ssh to your system (it could take an hour or two of elapsed time, because a Linux VPS has less cores so you might need to just make -j2).

Run a program built with gcc8 on a producing environment without gcc8

My developing/producing environments are all CentOS-7.7.
In order to compile my program with gcc-8.3.0, I have installed "devtoolset-8" on my developing env, but it can not be used in the way same as gcc-4.8.5 that was shipped with CentOS7 oringinally.
Every time I need to compile a program, I must use "scl enable devtoolset-8 -- bash" to switch to gcc8 instead of gcc4.8.5.
When the program was deploying onto the producing-env, there is no gcc8, nor libstdc++.so.6.0.25, so it can not run.
I guess libstdc++.so.6.0.25 should be released with gcc8? I can neither install "devtoolset-8" on the producing-env, nor build gcc8 from source on the producing env.
The version of libstdc++ that can be installed from the official yum repo of CentOS, is libstdc++.so.6.0.19, hence my programs can not be loaded at the producing-env.
How to let such programs to run?
Thanks!
Pls forgive my Ugly English.
In order to not have to copy or ship a separate libstdc++.so but rather link statically (as suggested in a comment) against the C++ runtime, one can link C++ programs with -static-libstdc++ (also specifying -static-libgcc will also make sure that the program does not depend on a recent enough version of libgcc_s.so on the system - although that should rarely be a problem).
There can also be the issue of the target system having a version of glibc that is too old (relative to the build system). In that case, one could anyhow compile gcc of no matter how recent of a version on the older system, so that the resulting C++ executables as well as libstdc++ are linked against the older glibc. Linking C++ programs with -static-libstdc++ will again help to not depend on the program having to be able to find libstdc++.so at run-time.
Finally, the C++ program could also be linked with -static not depending on any dynamic libraries at all.

Cross-compiling for a specific platform -- linking libc

I have to compile a simple binary for a very old Linux system. I have no gcc/build libs available on the target machine but I do have access to the machine.
I am having trouble compiling the code on my machine and having it execute on target machine.
I am copying libc.so to my local machine and trying to compile and link the program so that it will execute on the target machine.
I have copied the libc from the target machine to mine and tried compiling it with my target executable.
this has gotten closes to a successful execution:
gcc -nostdlib ./libc-[version].so myFile.c -emain -o outfile.out
upon execution a very simple PoC test program runs, and then seg faults upon exit. the actual program simply seg faults.
It seems I have somewhat of a lack of understanding of linking. Any help?
It seems I have somewhat of a lack of understanding of linking.
You do. A "normal" user-level program doesn't start executing at main, it starts at _start.
The _start symbol typically comes from crt0.o file (part of libc), and knows how to "interface" between the way the kernel supplies arguments, and the way main expects to find them. It also initializes various data that must be initialized before main runs (e.g. stdio streams).
What you want to do then is:
Find out the actual link command that gcc main.o performs. You can do so by adding the -v flag.
Replicate such command, providing crt0.o and other input files, appropriate for your version of target libc.
It might be easier to spin up a VM with the OS matching your target (and with old tools that target it), and build your program inside of that VM.
Otherwise you'll likely have to set up a full cross-compiler environment (which includes libc and all other libraries you need). This is not a trivial proposition, and is certainly not accomplished by copying libc.so from the target machine. But it is well-documented and is certainly doable (with some skill).

ARM toolchain for ubuntu Error while compiling

I am trying to make the ARM toolchain in ubuntu. The way it is specified in http://hri.sourceforge.net/tools/arm-elf-gcc.html
I am getting the following error:
Configuring for a x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu host.
Invalid configuration `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu': machine `x86_64-unknown' not recognized
Invalid configuration `x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu': machine `x86_64-unknown' not recognized
Unrecognized host system name x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.
does anybody have idea whats going wrong here.
A Google-search on the "machine `x86_64-unknown' not recognized" error message indicates that this can happen if the config.guess and config.sub files in the program you're building are too old to recognize the machine type for 64-bit linux. I expect that's your problem. You can fix that by replacing the ones in your GCC source tree with newer versions; your system should have some in the /usr/share/libtool directory that will work. Alternately, compile in a 32-bit Linux installation, or with "--build=i686-pc-linux-gnu --host=i686-pc-linux-gnu" configure options.
There are also copies here:
http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/*checkout*/config/config/config.guess
http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/*checkout*/config/config/config.sub
The real question, though, is: Why you are trying to build a version of the ARM toolchain that's that old? The directions on the site you link to will lead you to download the sources for the 2.95.3 version of GCC -- which was released nearly a decade ago. In GCC terms, that's positively ancient; the latest version is 4.5. It's older than a lot of ARM instruction-set changes, too.
Thus, the right solution to your problem, unless you have some specific need for a 2.95 compiler, is to get a version of GCC that's much more recent.
Also, you'll probably save some pain by not compiling it yourself, unless you particularly want to. There are numerous sources of precompiled cross-compilers; since I work at CodeSourcery, I'll recommend ours (which you can download and use for free):
http://www.codesourcery.com/sgpp/lite/arm/portal/subscription?#template=lite. If you want something equivalent to the compiler on the page you linked to, you probably want the "uClinux" version.

seg fault when running arm-elf-gcc compiled code

Using MacPorts i have just installed arm-elf-gcc on to my MacBook Pro. This worked flawlessly and all seems to run fine.
However, after compiling a simple hello world test program in C and C++ and trying to run either on the target board (an ARM9 based board running Debian Linux) they immediately seg fault.
I'm a bit stuck as how to go about debugging this, as the target board has limited tools available and no gdb. I have successfully built and run other code using a Linux hosted cross compiler so it should work.
Any ideas?
Following the suggestion I have built and run gdbserver, I get the following in gdb on the host:
Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x00000000 in ?? ()
I thought it may be a problem with the standard c libs so I removed any calls and have just an empty main that return 0, it is compiled with -Wall -g hello-arm.cpp -static. As a test I compiled the same source with a Linux hosted cross compiler and it runs and exits fine. The only difference I can see is the that Linux compiled version is over twice the size and the difference in output from the file command:
arm-elf-gcc: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1, statically linked, not stripped
arm-*-linux: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1, statically linked, for GNU/Linux 2.4.18, not stripped
The usual method of debugging in this situation is to run gdbserver on the target board, and connect to it (via ethernet) with gdb running on a host computer.
Alternately, you could try comparing the assembly in a Mac-compiled "Hello World" program and a (working) Linux-compiled one to see what's different.
After digging around for a couple of days I am starting to understand a bit more about embedded compilers. I wasn't really sure of the difference between arm-elf-gcc installed via MacPorts and the arm-unknown-linux toolchain I had installed on my Linux box. I just came across a pdf titled "An introduction to the GNU compiler" which contains the following paragraph:
Important: Using the GNU Compiler to
create your executable is not quite
the same as using the GNU Linker,
arm-elf-ld, yourself. The reason is
that the GNU Compiler automatically
links a number of standard system
libraries into your executable. These
libraries allow your program to
interact with an operating system, to
use the standard C library functions,
to use certain language features and
operations (such as division), and so
on. If you wish to see exactly which
libraries are being linked into the
executable, you should pass the
verbose flag
-v to the compiler.
This has important implications for
embedded systems! Such systems do not
usually have an operating system.
This means that linking in the system
libraries is almost always
meaningless: if there is no operating
system, for example, then calling the
standard printf function does not make
much sense.
So when I get back to my dev machine later I will determine the libraries linked in with the Linux build and add them to the arm-elf-gcc build.
I'll update this when I have more information but I just want to document my findings in case any one else has these problems.

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