Re: groff 1.23.0.rc4 on AIX

[Bruno Haible]

G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> I question whether there should in fact be any "checking for Xpm"
> configuration test in groff for the Xpm library or for the SHAPE
> extension client library interface (which is in Xext).

Indeed, adding -lXpm and -lXext to the link options makes the
creation of 'gxditview' succeed:

$ xlc -q64 -qthreaded -qtls  -g  -L/home/haible/prefix64/lib -o gxditview 
src/devices/xditview/gxditview-device.o src/devices/xditview/gxditview-draw.o 
src/devices/xditview/gxditview-Dvi.o src/devices/xditview/gxditview-font.o 
src/devices/xditview/gxditview-lex.o src/devices/xditview/gxditview-page.o 
src/devices/xditview/gxditview-parse.o 
src/devices/xditview/gxditview-xditview.o   -lSM -lICE -lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lXpm 
-lXext -lX11  -lm libxutil.a lib/libgnu.a
<succeeds>

> It sounds like one of AIX's versions of the standard X11 libraries links
> to these (my money's on Xaw, a popular site for vendor extensions since
> its defaults are so minimalistic and ugly).

You are right: The offenders are libXaw and libXmu.

$ xlc -q64 -qthreaded -qtls  -g  -L/home/haible/prefix64/lib -o gxditview 
src/devices/xditview/gxditview-device.o src/devices/xditview/gxditview-draw.o 
src/devices/xditview/gxditview-Dvi.o src/devices/xditview/gxditview-font.o 
src/devices/xditview/gxditview-lex.o src/devices/xditview/gxditview-page.o 
src/devices/xditview/gxditview-parse.o 
src/devices/xditview/gxditview-xditview.o   -lSM -lICE -lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lX11  
-lm libxutil.a lib/libgnu.a -bnoquiet
...
ld: 0711-318 ERROR: Undefined symbols were found.
        The following symbols are in error:
 Symbol                    Inpndx  TY CL Source-File(Object-File) OR 
Import-File{Shared-object}
                              RLD: Address  Section  Rld-type Referencing Symbol
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 .XpmReadFileToPixmap      [168]   ER PR 
../../../../../../../../src/gos/2d/XTOP_R7/lib/libXaw/src/Pixmap.c(/usr/lib/libXaw.a[Pixmap_64.o])
                                   00000d34 .text    R_RBR    [28]    
<.XPixmapLoader>
                                   00000e3c .text    R_RBR    [28]    
<.XPixmapLoader>
 .XShapeCombineMask        [34]    ER PR 
../../../../../../../../src/gos/2d/XTOP_R7/lib/libXmu/src/ShapeWidg.c(/usr/lib/libXmu.a[ShapeWidg_64.o])
                                   0000021c .text    R_RBR    [12]    
.XmuReshapeWidget
                                   00000244 .text    R_RBR    [12]    
.XmuReshapeWidget
                                   000003e0 .text    R_RBR    [14]    
<.ShapeOval@AF6_2>
                                   0000049c .text    R_RBR    [14]    
<.ShapeOval@AF6_2>
                                   000005d8 .text    R_RBR    [14]    
<.ShapeOval@AF6_2>
                                   0000062c .text    R_RBR    [14]    
<.ShapeOval@AF6_2>
                                   0000069c .text    R_RBR    [14]    
<.ShapeOval@AF6_2>
                                   00000894 .text    R_RBR    [16]    
<.ShapeEllipseOrRoundedRectangle@AF7_4>
                                   00000924 .text    R_RBR    [16]    
<.ShapeEllipseOrRoundedRectangle@AF7_4>
                                   000009e0 .text    R_RBR    [16]    
<.ShapeEllipseOrRoundedRectangle@AF7_4>
                                   00000a28 .text    R_RBR    [16]    
<.ShapeEllipseOrRoundedRectangle@AF7_4>
                                   00000a9c .text    R_RBR    [16]    
<.ShapeEllipseOrRoundedRectangle@AF7_4>
 .XShapeCombineMask        [206]   ER PR 
../../../../../../../../src/gos/2d/XTOP_R7/lib/libXaw/src/Pixmap.c(/usr/lib/libXaw.a[Pixmap_64.o])
                                   00001b9c .text    R_RBR    [34]    
.XawReshapeWidget
                                   00001bcc .text    R_RBR    [34]    
.XawReshapeWidget
 .XShapeQueryExtension     [182]   ER PR 
../../../../../../../../src/gos/2d/XTOP_R7/lib/libXaw/src/Command.c(/usr/lib/libXaw.a[Command_64.o])
                                   0000107c .text    R_RBR    [40]    
<.XawCommandInitialize>
ER: The return code is 8.

> I don't know anything about how linking on AIX works.  I'm vaguely aware
> that, on many Unix systems historically, shared objects and dynamic
> linking _don't_ work all that well.

Yes, in the old ages when the X libraries were created, dependencies
did not exist/work, and Makefiles had to list all relevant X libraries
explicitly.

> I gather libtool is the GNU
> solution to this problem.  But groff doesn't use libtool.

No, GNU libtool cannot help when the dependencies are not stored in the
libraries nor in .la files.

$ ls -l /usr/lib/libX*.la
ls: 0653-341 The file /usr/lib/libX*.la does not exist.
$ dump -H /usr/lib/libXaw.a
<no relevant output>

> Another solution, albeit one that is GNU/Linux-centric as far as I know,
> is pkg-config.

pkg-config is meant to solve this problem, but
  - The vendor has not shipped any .pc files in /usr/lib/pkg*, thus
    pkg-config would not have the needed dependency lists.
  - pkg-config comes with its own set of problems, see
    https://gitlab.com/ghwiki/gnow-how/-/wikis/Discussion-about-pkg-config

> Unless you have an Automake-friendly suggestion for how to easily get
> AIX to report dependencies of its own X libraries, I propose to make
> this another caveat: on AIX, you must build "--without-x".

You can just hardcode the fact that on AIX -lXpm and -lXext are needed.
Like it was done in the old days.

I see that in groff/src/devices/xditview/xditview.am you have this
definition:

gxditview_LDADD = $(X_LIBS) $(X_PRE_LIBS) -lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lX11 \
  $(X_EXTRA_LIBS) $(LIBM) libxutil.a lib/libgnu.a

I would do the following:

  - Change this rule to add a reference to $(X_AW_DEPS):

    gxditview_LDADD = $(X_LIBS) $(X_PRE_LIBS) -lXaw -lXmu $(X_AW_DEPS) -lXt 
-lX11 \
      $(X_EXTRA_LIBS) $(LIBM) libxutil.a lib/libgnu.a

  - in groff.m4, macro GROFF_X11, add:

    AC_REQUIRE([AC_CANONICAL_HOST])
    X_AW_DEPS=
    case $host_os in
      aix*) X_AW_DEPS="-lXpm -lXext" ;;
    esac
    AC_SUBST([X_AW_DEPS])

Yes, this is an ad-hoc solution, not in the "Auto" philosophy, but it's easy
enough to put in place and easy enough to understand.

Bruno