automake/autoconf issues on a sun

[L. D. Marks]

Togethor with a collaborator, we are putting togethor
a gnu-like package for some scientific analysis. We
have it running on Linux, HP, SGI with both gcc and native
compilers but have run in to some problems on two Sun's;
maybe someone can make suggestions.

1) One of the systems has both X11R5 and X11R6 and it
looks like AC_PATH_XTRA may be getting confused about
which one to use. Does it seach by decreasing or increasing
release? (We have had to use --x- to override. One of the
codes that we use, written by someone else, looks in Xlib.h
to find the release so chaos can ensue.) Maybe tk or tcl
has some macro's which do a more careful job (?)

2) We have some link tests to check for appropriate versions
of a couple of libraries (i.e. compiled with gcc or cc) which
look like they don't work on a sun. Does sun test for the
existence/viability of shared libraries during the link phase
or only during execution? Are there any macro's for
LD_LIBRARY_PATH? (I had configure and make run through with
no apparent problems when I did not have permissions to execute
one of the stdc++ libraries!)

3) The location of includes and executables seems to be quite
varied on the two sun's that I've looked at. Is there supposed
to be a "standard" set of directories that perhaps should be
added, or do we have to leave it to the user to ensure that things
are right?

For reference, we're using automake-1.7 and autoconf-2.57 and
libtool-1.5.

N.B. Maybe someday someone will write AC_CHECK_NUTS_SYSTEM
to look for some of the common system software misconfigurations!

-----------------------------------------------
Laurence Marks
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
MSE Rm 2036 Cook Hall
2225 N Campus Drive
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL 60201, USA
Tel: (847) 491-3996 Fax: (847) 491-7820
mailto:address@hidden
http://www.numis.nwu.edu
-----------------------------------------------