Solaris install

Ruby
1

Folks, I have a real opportunity to make a
difference here. But I need some help, and
the lack of documentation on this subject
is a major hindrance.

To do an install, I have to do a build (unlike
my PC). For that, I need a bit more assistance.

Dan B. was very helpful when he laid out
this process:

make distclean
./configure --prefix=/wherever/you/want
make
make install

That’s a good process that will probably work
decently. But then Ara Howard added this cryptic
note:

don’t forget to do both of these before compiling

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/wherever/you/want/lib
LD_RUN_PATH=/wherever/you/want/lib # most important!

if you do this all the stuff you compile it will
inter-operate nicely–e.g. ruby extensions–and other
users will be able to use it without having their
LD_LIBRARY_PATH set. They’ll only require PATH.

I sure this makes sense, but I’m missing the mental
model–the picture of what’s happening–that would
explain /why/ it makes sense. These variables aren’t
mentioned in the Makefile, so they must be important
to gcc. But why, if I’m /creating/ the lib as part
of the process??

Finally, it looks as though install-all is what I want,
because install looks seems to a documentn-free install.
I’m not conversant enough with the Ruby build to be
sure I’m reading the Makefile right, but what I see is
this:

install: install-nodoc $(RDOCTARGET)
install-all: install-nodoc install-doc

Where RDOCTARGET is defined as nil, by default.

If it’s supposed to be specified, it’s not mentioned in
the Makefile. So I’m guessing that the target I really
want is install-all. But I’d like to confirm that.

So the process that /looks/ right to me, at the moment,
is:

make distclean
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /wherever/you/want/lib
setenv LD_RUN_PATH /wherever/you/want/lib
./configure --prefix=/wherever/you/want
make
make install-all

I’ll try it, but I feel like a blind man groping in
the dark. I was hoping for confirmation and/or a bit
more enlightenment before going forward…

2

On Fri, 19 May 2006, Eric A. wrote:

inter-operate nicely–e.g. ruby extensions–and other
users will be able to use it without having their
LD_LIBRARY_PATH set. They’ll only require PATH.

I sure this makes sense, but I’m missing the mental
model–the picture of what’s happening–that would
explain /why/ it makes sense. These variables aren’t
mentioned in the Makefile, so they must be important
to gcc. But why, if I’m /creating/ the lib as part
of the process??

it has nothing to do with ruby, the Makefile, or gcc - it’s all about
your
linker:

man ld.so
man ld
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/browse_frm/thread/615935bf1489d843/dae3f2dd2fae3e1e?q=LD_RUN_PATH&rnum=6#dae3f2dd2fae3e1e
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/browse_frm/thread/b0ecc81f80082df8/f651b1d2000dd5e1?q=LD_RUN_PATH&rnum=7#f651b1d2000dd5e1
http://www.visi.com/~barr/ldpath.html

let me know if this doesn’t shed some light.

regards.

-a

3

Ah ha!! Thanks much for the additional info, Ara.

Your 5 May 2004 writeup was particularly good:

You have two good choices

a) install ruby where your system looks for stuff

b) configure your system to look where ruby puts stuff

Having LD_RUN_PATH set at compile time encodes it
in the binaries. It sets up all the bins and libs so
they know where to look for things.

You also give a good diagnostic tool:

In general, if you are having load errors do this

ruby -e ‘p $LOAD_PATH’

this tells you where ruby looks for things.

In your 32 Mar 2006 msg, you gave a really nice recipe:

If you follow these steps just about anything will work:

  • chose a common nfs location. we’ll call it /nfs

  • every single time you compile something do this

    export LD_RUN_PATH=/nfs/lib
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/nfs/lib
    ./configure --prefix=/nfs && make && make install

I set LD_LIBRARY_PATH and LD_RUN_PATH in my .bashrc
because i do this so much. the cool thing with
LD_RUN_PATH is that it encodes inter-library dependencies
(so ruby tk.so needs libtk.so needs …) , so users don’t
have to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH themselves…They just have to
add /nfs/bin to their path.

So it appears that:

LD_RUN_PATH
tells the binaries where to look for things
when they’re running

LD_LIBRARY_PATH
tells the linker where to look for things
when it is creating the binaries

The installation sequence for a non-standard location
Solaris location therefore turns out to be:

Clear out a previous build & create config.h

make distclean
./configure --prefix=/wherever/you/want

Set the values you need when compiling

sh: export LD_RUN_PATH=/wherever/you/want/lib/
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/wherever/you/want/lib/

csh: setenv LD_RUN_PATH /wherever/you/want/lib/
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /wherever/you/want/lib/

Compile without installing, then install binaries & docs

make
make install-all

Thanks again. Considering that your original post on this
subject was in 2004, I can see why your responses have
become shorter!

I greatly appreciate your help, and am glad to say that
I now have functional installation of Ruby.

P.S.
I’ll be happy to put this information on a Wiki page
somewhere. I went to RubyGarden, but only saw a small
comment box. I could stuff it in there, post at my
weblog, or put it anywhere else that will let the
community find it easily. Suggestions?