[Caml-list] Distributing programs

[Caml-list] Distributing programs

[Johann Spies]

I have developed a program on Debian Sarge Linux using pcre and
ocaml-tools.  I thought that a static (ocamlopt) compilation of the
program would allow me to run it on other Linux systems without having
to install ocaml (or pcre-ocaml) on them.  But this seems not to be
the case.

Trying to run the program on a Redhat 7.2 system firstly complained
about a missing libpcre.so.3 file.  After copying a libcpre.so.3 from
another system to /usr/local/lib and making a symlink to /usr/lib/ the
next complaint was 

zsh % sncd
sncd: /lib/i686/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.3' not found (required by
sncd)

I then installed ocaml-3.06-1.src.rpm on the system and did a rpm -ba,
installed the binary package, converted Debian libpcre-ocaml-packages
to rpm's, installed it and recompiled my program (sncd) and ... at
last I have sncd running.

Is there an easier way distribute a binary program?

Regards.
Johann
-- 
Johann Spies          Telefoon: 021-808 4036
Informasietegnologie, Universiteit van Stellenbosch

     "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
      heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the
      things which God hath prepared for them that love 
      him."      I Corinthians 2:9 

-------------------
To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr
Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/
Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners

Re: [Caml-list] Distributing programs

[Gerd Stolpmann]

Am Mon, 2003-05-19 um 15.37 schrieb Johann Spies:
> I have developed a program on Debian Sarge Linux using pcre and
> ocaml-tools.  I thought that a static (ocamlopt) compilation of the
> program would allow me to run it on other Linux systems without having
> to install ocaml (or pcre-ocaml) on them.  But this seems not to be
> the case.

The ocamlopt executables are not fully static. Only the compiled O'Caml
code is static, the system libraries are dynamically linked.

Add -ccopt -static to the ocamlopt call to produce a fully static
executable.

> Trying to run the program on a Redhat 7.2 system firstly complained
> about a missing libpcre.so.3 file.  After copying a libcpre.so.3 from
> another system to /usr/local/lib and making a symlink to /usr/lib/ the
> next complaint was 
> 
> zsh % sncd
> sncd: /lib/i686/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.3' not found (required by
> sncd)

It is not possible to compile a program on a glibc-2.3 system and run it
on a glibc-2.2 system. The reverse way should work, though. (You can 
find out the glibc version number by _running_ /lib/libc.so.6. The
library prints a nice summary of its features.)

Regarding libpcre.so.3: There seems to be no standard for the versions
attached to so files. libpcre.so.3 is often called libpcre.so.0 because
the author of pcre does not add a version number, and the Linux
distributors often follow this decision. Not nice.

> I then installed ocaml-3.06-1.src.rpm on the system and did a rpm -ba,
> installed the binary package, converted Debian libpcre-ocaml-packages
> to rpm's, installed it and recompiled my program (sncd) and ... at
> last I have sncd running.
> 
> Is there an easier way distribute a binary program?

Unfortunately, this is still a major problem for Linux. Static
executables are no real solution, and especially glibc should be
dynamically linked to enable all the special configurations of the
system (e.g. special login modules and all that).

Gerd
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------
Gerd Stolpmann * Viktoriastr. 45 * 64293 Darmstadt * Germany 
gerd@gerd-stolpmann.de          http://www.gerd-stolpmann.de
------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------
To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr
Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/
Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners