{lib} libreadline: Fails with missing 'UP' symbol on Debian 7

[wpoely86]

On Debian 7, software using libreadline fails with a missing symbol UP. This fixes that.

[wpoely86]

The same issues as in #1315

[hpcugentbot]

Refer to this link for build results (access rights to CI server needed):
https://jenkins1.ugent.be/job/easybuild-easyconfigs-pr-builder/3411/
Easyconfigs unit test suite PASSed (see https://jenkins1.ugent.be/job/easybuild-easyconfigs-pr-builder/3411/console for more details).

This pull request is now ready for review/testing.

Please try and find someone who can tackle this; contact @boegel if you're not sure what to do.

[boegel]

Do you have an easy test that verifies whether this occurs (which passes with this in place, and fails without)?

[wpoely86]

$ ld --trace-symbol=UP $EBROOTLIBREADLINE/lib/libreadline.so
/home/opt/easybuild/software/libreadline/6.3-intel-2015a/lib/libreadline.so: reference to UP
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.5: definition of UP
ld: warning: cannot find entry symbol _start; not setting start address

[wpoely86]

Versus:

$ ld --trace-symbol=UP libreadline.so
libreadline.so: reference to UP
ld: warning: cannot find entry symbol _start; not setting start address
libreadline.so: undefined reference to `tputs'
libreadline.so: undefined reference to `tgoto'
libreadline.so: undefined reference to `tgetflag'
libreadline.so: undefined reference to `UP'
libreadline.so: undefined reference to `tgetent'
libreadline.so: undefined reference to `tgetnum'
libreadline.so: undefined reference to `PC'
libreadline.so: undefined reference to `tgetstr'
libreadline.so: undefined reference to `BC'

[boegel]

@wpoely86: does the latter exit with a non-zero exit code, i.e. can we use it as a sanity check command?

BTW, I'm seeing the same output as you on SL6:

-bash-4.1$ ld --trace-symbol=UP $EBROOTLIBREADLINE/lib/libreadline.so
/user/scratch/gent/vsc400/vsc40023/easybuild_REGTEST/SL6/sandybridge/software/libreadline/6.3-intel-2015a/lib/libreadline.so: reference to UP
ld: warning: cannot find entry symbol _start; not setting start address
/user/scratch/gent/vsc400/vsc40023/easybuild_REGTEST/SL6/sandybridge/software/libreadline/6.3-intel-2015a/lib/libreadline.so: undefined reference to `PC'
/user/scratch/gent/vsc400/vsc40023/easybuild_REGTEST/SL6/sandybridge/software/libreadline/6.3-intel-2015a/lib/libreadline.so: undefined reference to `tgetflag'
/user/scratch/gent/vsc400/vsc40023/easybuild_REGTEST/SL6/sandybridge/software/libreadline/6.3-intel-2015a/lib/libreadline.so: undefined reference to `tgetent'
/user/scratch/gent/vsc400/vsc40023/easybuild_REGTEST/SL6/sandybridge/software/libreadline/6.3-intel-2015a/lib/libreadline.so: undefined reference to `UP'
/user/scratch/gent/vsc400/vsc40023/easybuild_REGTEST/SL6/sandybridge/software/libreadline/6.3-intel-2015a/lib/libreadline.so: undefined reference to `tputs'
/user/scratch/gent/vsc400/vsc40023/easybuild_REGTEST/SL6/sandybridge/software/libreadline/6.3-intel-2015a/lib/libreadline.so: undefined reference to `tgoto'
/user/scratch/gent/vsc400/vsc40023/easybuild_REGTEST/SL6/sandybridge/software/libreadline/6.3-intel-2015a/lib/libreadline.so: undefined reference to `tgetnum'
/user/scratch/gent/vsc400/vsc40023/easybuild_REGTEST/SL6/sandybridge/software/libreadline/6.3-intel-2015a/lib/libreadline.so: undefined reference to `BC'
/user/scratch/gent/vsc400/vsc40023/easybuild_REGTEST/SL6/sandybridge/software/libreadline/6.3-intel-2015a/lib/libreadline.so: undefined reference to `tgetstr'

[wpoely86]

@boegel it returns 1 when not finding the symbol.

[wpoely86]

@boegel can you check that the UP symbol is in the libtinfo.so library on SL6-7?

[boegel]

This?

-bash-4.1$ rpm -q --whatprovides /usr/lib64/libtinfo.so
ncurses-devel-5.7-4.20090207.el6.x86_64
-bash-4.1$ nm /usr/lib64/libtinfo.so | grep UP
nm: /usr/lib64/libtinfo.so: no symbols             
-bash-4.1$ ld --trace-symbol=UP /usr/lib64/libtinfo.so 
/usr/lib64/libtinfo.so: definition of UP
ld: warning: cannot find entry symbol _start; not setting start address
-bash-4.1$ echo $?
0

[wpoely86]

Okay, that's the system lib. But this is actually wrong. It should be:

$ nm $EBROOTNCURSES/lib/libncurses.so | grep UP
0000000000250820 B UP

[boegel]

Well, I couldn't find a libtinfo.sh in $EBROOTNCURSES...

[boegel]

@wpoely86: thoughts on this? I lost track...

[boegel]

@wpoely86: have we already figured out whether this fix causes harm on other OSs?

[fgeorgatos]

not sure if this is relevant, let me shoot it anyway: libreadline routinely has issues when it is not build with a corresponding ncurses; this looks alike issue, if it is you will find similar bugfixes in the past (fi. Jul'13).

[boegel]

Test report by @boegel
SUCCESS
Build succeeded for 1 out of 1 (1 easyconfigs in this PR)
Linux centos linux 7.1.1503, Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v3 @ 2.50GHz, Python 2.7.5
See https://gist.github.com/be8ca7aa845947277724 for a full test report.

[boegel]

Test report by @boegel
SUCCESS
Build succeeded for 1 out of 1 (1 easyconfigs in this PR)
Linux SL 6.7, Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2670 0 @ 2.60GHz, Python 2.6.6
See https://gist.github.com/810867d71e6722a6e089 for a full test report.

[boegel]

@wpoely86: what would you say is an easy way to check whether a libreadline built with this included works as expected?

[wpoely86]

I'm gonna close this and we follow up in #1315

[boegel]

replaced with better solution in #2206