Subject: Binutils, once more ...

From: Ralf Baechle <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999 23:56:34 +0200

Another binutils status report - as of now I still have two open bugs:

 - ld doesn't fill the .got entries for non-dynamic binaries.
 - binutils-current are so extremly wastefull with .got space that we run
   out of got space for building relativly simple programs like vim.
   There is a workaround for this problem which is using compiling things
   with the -Wa,-xgot option.  Not really a good idea because it requires
   recompilation of several packages with that option but at least it
   works ...

Btw, binutils 2.8.1 died the SIGSEGV death when trying to link vim ...

  Ralf

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From: Ralf Baechle <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 02:16:33 +0200

>    recompilation of several packages with that option but at least it

Add another bug - binutils 2.8.1 had a bug which was compensated by
another bug in ld.so.  So if we fix either one we break binary
compatibility.

Grrr,

  Ralf

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From: Ralf Baechle <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 15:51:24 +0200

> another bug in ld.so.  So if we fix either one we break binary

I now have implemented a workaround for this problem.  The fix consists of
two parts, a patch to binutils which will tag all newly generated binaries
and patch to libc which modifies the dynamic linker to do the right thing
for the old and the new binary flavour.

There are still victims of the problem, all binaries which have been linked
statically against libdl, most important rpm.  Since they incorporate the
old broken dynamic linker which doesn't know how to handle correct ELF
binaries they have to be rebuilt.

For those installing their binaries the recommend upgrade procedure is:

 - upgrade rpm
 - upgrade glibc
 - upgrade binutils, if installed
 - install/upgrade any other binaries you wish to install/upgrade.

The order is important!

Note that I haven't produced any new binary packages yet since the above
mentioned two problems with static linked binaries and the got bloatage
still aren't fixed so this is just to keep you uptodate.

  Ralf