SUMMARY: Compiling SSH on Solaris 2.4

From: Colin J. Wynne (cwynne@brutus.mts.jhu.edu)
Date: Tue Mar 17 1998 - 13:09:35 CST


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

The original problem had to do with unresolved symbols when trying to
link the ssh executables during a build on a Solaris 2.4 machine,
using the gcc v2.7.2.1 package (for Solaris 2.5) available on sunsite.

My solution was to use the aforementioned gcc to compile a native
egcs, and then the ssh executables built just fine. By the way, egcs
is, to my understanding, an independent implementation of the gcc
compiler. It is avilable from www.cygnus.com. As it was explained to
me, egcs was started by a bunch of people who thought GNU was pretty
unresponsive about upgrading and patching their compiler, or
introducing platform specific stuff... I guess it was primarily
intended for Linux, but it builds on a number of platforms. My
immediate impression is that it is as good a compiler as GNU gcc, but
the build process is a heck of a lot easier. I recommend it.

Anyway, thanks to those who responded:

o Josee Robichaud <josee@riq.qc.ca> gave a URL

        ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/pub/security/sshbin/solaris/

  for precompiled stuff, but I was unable to get into that FTP server.

o Jason Axley <jason.axley@attws.com> pointed out that getting
  precompiled binaries of cryptographic software may not be the best
  idea in the world...and I agree. I would have settled for binaries
  from a canonical distribution site if nothing else worked, but it
  would be counter-productive to accept non-trusted binaries of
  security software.

  When Jason faced a similar problem, he just upgraded the OS. This
  was not an option for me, as originally pointed out, because the
  machine in question is independent of my authority.

o Mike D. Kail <mdkail@fv.com> suggested throwing a `make distclean'
  into the build process. I didn't try this. I find myself wondering
  what difference it could make, but am far beyond believing I can
  truly grasp cause and effect when building or debugging software. :)
  Scott McDermott <scottm@kcls.org> also suggested the distclean step.

o Daniel J. Gregor Jr. <dj@gregor.com> gave a suggestion from the SSH
  mailing list on the problem. (I tried looking at the SSH list
  archives, but the link didn't go anywhere useful...) He says that
  after running ./configure [...] to cd into the gmp* directory and do
  an explicit configure there. Again, I didn't try this, but it comes
  from the SSH list, so what the hey...

o Brian T. Wightman <wightman@acm.org> suggested, in fact,
  bootstrapping a native compiler. I did this before getting his
  mail, but it was still the right answer for me.

Thanks to all the respondents (including the few that will get to me
after this summary), and to the list in general for being as
responsive and useful as I have come to expect.

CJW

- --
**********************************************************************
    /\ Colin J. Wynne Johns Hopkins University
   (()) Dep't of Mathematical Sciences
  /____\ ``Lunatic-at-Large'' E-Mail: cwynne@mts.jhu.edu
 /______\
/________\ ``Work is the curse of the drinking class.''
                                                         ---Ogden Nash
**********************************************************************

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.2
Comment: http://www.mts.jhu.edu/~cwynne/

iQCVAwUBNQ7KcnEHfObrVHptAQEkSgP/RQC9WRwGLAazVcCB5AXZGp1bUFaAN8NS
IvzUOP7Ajj54sqV/7SZF0YPk1fzMhhoW/OmP1/dLHeWB44oh5nn3BrbBuMO3F1DY
Q3o4UX3RsmccVhfLF3V9U+Eo1GWE57y68ZcNvb2Sqd+Za9jGkzTlDM6hnYv3wQoE
KWeUy0rIUrs=
=Eawn
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:12:33 CDT