[Python-Dev] Updating to autoconf 2.5x

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
> 
> > Side note: I recently found that the socket module is using
> > bleeding edge glibc APIs as well, in fact it was the only
> > module that needed the most recent glibc version installed
> > on my machine (2.1.2).
> 
> Which API?

Rechecking the .so file with ldd and nm showed that the
problem was due to the linker using a more current
version of gethostbyname_r it found in GLIBC 2.1.2 rather
than the one in GLIBC 2.1.
 
> > All other modules were happy with plain glibc 2.1. I found
> > out about this when installing an application on RedHat which
> > didn't have glibc 2.1.2 installed.
> >
> > This may be a marginal problem, but do we really need to
> > live on the bleeding edge of C libraries ? And if so, is
> > there a way to configure Python to only use, say, glibc 2.1
> > APIs (to enhance binary compatibility) ?
> 
> If we're using bleeding edge APIs, they should be properly tested for
> in configure.in and the code should use #ifdef.

Agreed.

In this case, I think, it was a false alarm though, since
AFAIK, we can't tell the linker to only use one GLIBC 
version (_socket.so links to APIs from three different versions on 
my machine: GLIBC 2.0, 2.1 and 2.1.2).

BTW, the man-page for ld mentions an optimization option
-On -- does anyone know what the affect of this option
is and whether its GNU specific ?

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
______________________________________________________________________
Company & Consulting:                           http://www.egenix.com/
Python Software:                   http://www.egenix.com/files/python/