Solaris core dump with McMillan Installer

[Gordon McMillan]

[posted and mailed]

Jedi Master Yoda wrote:

> I'm trying to package a little application for Solaris using the superb
> McMillan Installer. However, though trivial scripts seem to work, any
> attempt to import a module results in a bus error and core dump.

[snip]

> for /usr/platform/SUNW,Ultra-60/lib/libc_psr.so.1 #0  0x17634 in main
> (argc=569062, argv=0xffbef8b4, envp=0x84000) at frozen.c:148
> 148                         if (toc->typcd == 'b') {
> 
> Is this an installer issue, a zlib issue, a Solaris issue, or user
> stupidity? Any help appreciated.

First off, argc looks a tad suspicious. Second, to crash there, 
toc must be pointing to never-never land. Which most likely happened
when the toc pointer was incremented, most likely caused by alignment
issues (the TOC structures are not aligned at all).

I only have easy access to Linux / Windows, both on Intel or Intel-like 
processors, where alignment is a non-issue. Those TOC structures are 
written in Python and read in C. I vaguely recall writing some very 
ugly code to read non-aligned structures on HP-UX - I think I'd prefer to 
write them aligned.

So does anyone know what the worst case alignment rule is for 
structs?

- Gordon