Re: `exec shield' test in configure too strict?

[Jan D.]

> > I have checked in a test that runs a program and sees if the heap start
> > address is random.  Can you try it on the Debian-with-a-Redhat-kernel
> > machine (I forgot its name)?
> 
> I think there's no point bothering with that.
> If /proc/sys/kernel/exec-shield is non-zero, there's a risk we may need
> setarch, so if setarch is available, use it.
> 
> If /proc/sys/kernel/exec-shield is non-zero and there's no setarch, we
> should just try anyway and see if it works.  If it works correctly, great.
> If it doesn't work, there's little we can do anyway, so we can just output
> a message referring the user to PROBLEMS.

That would involve detetcting that the core dump from temacs is due
to exactly this problem.  I think that is hard to do.  Or do you suggest
that any temacs core dump should give a message about etc/PROBLEMS?

> Trying to predict whether it's going to work or not doesn't seem to make
> much sense here since it doesn't allow us to resolve any problem we can't
> solve otherwise.

It is so much better to get this message at configure time rather than
very late in the build stage.

        Jan D.