building on AIX

[Michael K. Ter Louw]

On Fri, 4 Apr 2003, Matthias Andree wrote:
> I'd guess Elrond had been using gcc to build bogofilter (autoconf tries
> gcc, then cc), not the IBM native compiler. With gcc installed, you
> therefore don't get to see issues with the native compiler. I need
> feedback whether xlc is fine or if it has to be xlc_r rather than xlc --
> I'd like to change the search order to "gcc xlc cc" or "gcc xlc_r cc" so
> that AIX can build out of the box no matter if gcc or IBM's compiler is
> installed (but the user will have to install either of these).

I think I need to clarify a couple things.

First, the information you requested is: xlc does not work, I had to use xlc_r.

Secondly, gcc *is* installed on the AIX system in question.  The problem is
that gcc cannot compile anything that links to BerkeleyDB, since
BerkeleyDB makes references to the thread stuff.  If you look at the snip
I posted of BerkeleyDB's configure, it says that *it* chooses the
compiler, not autoconf.  Supposedly autoconf "can't handle" selecting the
compiler (for whatever reason, I don't know why).  The script checks
$host_os for aix4.3.* or aix5, and if found sets the compiler to xlc_r.

The problem isn't really with Bogofilter, the problem is with BerkeleyDB.
Unfortunately since Bogofilter has to link to BerkeleyDB, it inherits the
threading dependency which (again, I don't know why) can only be resolved
by using xlc_r.  There are probably other related issues; if you look at
the code I posted it appears that BerkeleyDB's configure sets other flags
depending on the host OS, and even another compiler for bsdi3 (shlicc2).
But maybe you can leave those alone until someone can confirm that they
are necessary in order to build Bogofilter.

I hope the above makes sense.  I don't have much experience with UNIX but
I think what I wrote is reasably accurate.  If not, hopefully it will help
you get down to the source of the problem.  Please reply if there's any
more information I can provide.

Mike