Python does not build on OpenBSD

[jribbens]

BPO	634444
Nosy	@loewis, @jribbens

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/loewis'
closed_at = <Date 2005-09-30.21:39:29.000>
created_at = <Date 2002-11-06.14:17:31.000>
labels = ['library']
title = 'Python does not build on OpenBSD'
updated_at = <Date 2005-09-30.21:39:29.000>
user = 'https://github.com/jribbens'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2005-09-30.21:39:29.000>
actor = 'chuckr11'
assignee = 'loewis'
closed = True
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2002-11-06.14:17:31.000>
creator = 'jribbens'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 634444
keywords = []
message_count = 7.0
messages = ['13108', '13109', '13110', '13111', '13112', '13113', '13114']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['loewis', 'jribbens', 'chuckr11']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'high'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue634444'
versions = ['Python 2.3']

[jribbens]

The new makedev/major/minor feature in posixmodule.c
breaks the build on OpenBSD.

These macros come from /usr/include/sys/types.h, and
are conditional on:

#if !defined(_POSIX_SOURCE) && !defined
(_XOPEN_SOURCE)

When ./configure is testing to find makedev etc, neither
of these macros is defined so it finds them in types.h.
However when posixmodule.c is compiled,
_XOPEN_SOURCE is defined, so makedev etc are not
available and the link fails.

[loewis]

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user_id=21627

On what version of OpenBSD does that happen?

Also, can you find out why _XOPEN_SOURCE is not defined when
testing for makedev? configure ought to define it while
running the tests, and does that on my system. To be
certain, you can add a line

cp confdefs.h foo.h

immediately before the test for makedev is run.

[jribbens]

Logged In: YES
user_id=76089

I am using OpenBSD 2.7, but I think the very latest OpenBSD
is just the same.

I have investigated a bit more and you are right that
_XOPEN_SOURCE is defined during configure. I *think* the
problem is that the configure test used to detect
HAVE_DEVICE_MACROS is broken. It is just trying to
compile, but not link, "makedev(major(0),minor(0))", and it is
not an error to try and compile that line even if makedev,
major and minor are not defined since the compiler assumes
they are unknown functions returning int. It is only an error at
link time, and the configure test does not try to link the test
code.

[loewis]

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Ok, I have now changed configure to link the test program,
in configure 1.353, configure.in 1.364.

Can you please confirm that this solves the problem?

[jribbens]

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Groovy, works now (in that Python builds and works, although
it doesn't have the posix.makedev/major/minor features,
which do appear to be available on OpenBSD).

[loewis]

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Thanks for the confirmation.

As for Python not exposing makedev: I consider this a
OpenBSD bug. The system should provide a mechanism to expose
extensions, even if _XOPEN_SOURCE is defined. Various such
mechanisms exist, and Python uses whatever is available:

Both _GNU_SOURCE and _OSF_SOURCE activate makedev on some
systems (Linux, Tru64), and Python defines them all. I
consider this ugly, since those extensions are neither
specific to GNU nor OSF, but it works.

The best approach in this specific case is to provide a
header <sys/mkdev.h>. This header is not specified in Posix,
so applications using it clearly request this as an
extension over Posix.

[chuckr11]

Logged In: YES
user_id=487348

This is still bad for OpenBSD3.8, and Python 2.4, testted on
9.28.05