Re: g++ version for HPUX

Rene Brun (Rene.Brun@cern.ch)
Mon, 16 Feb 1998 15:33:35 +0100


As indicated by Matt Langston, it is our intention to provide
Makefiles with the standard Root source distribution. We hope
that this Autoconf facility will be ready for the next release.
However, porting Root on a new architecture or compiler is in general
more than just a "recompile" operation. Some flags must be defined
in RConfig.h and modifications (even minor) must be introduced
in a few classes such as TUnixSystem.
For example, we are currently porting Root on Alpha/Linux with g++
and SGI with the KAI compiler.
The Alpha/Linux port requires a new flag and selection of existing
flags (64 bits for example).
The KAI compiler (a very nice compiler by the way) is more strict
on the C++ standard. It requires some changes in the existing
source code.

Rene Brun

Matthew D. Langston wrote:
>
> Hi Stephane,
>
> Stephane Basa wrote:
> >
> > Hi Rooters,
> >
> > Is it possible to obtain a g++ compiled version of the ROOT
> > libraries for HP-UX 10.
>
> I have added GNU Autoconf/automake/libtool support to ROOT 1.03/09.
> The `autoconf patch' will hopefully be integrated into ROOT in a
> future release, but the ROOT developers and I need to discuss exactly
> how this will be done. To date, the ROOT developers and I have had
> only preliminary discussions about my proposed additions.
>
> Adding GNU Autoconf/automake/libtool support to ROOT solves exactly
> the problem you are having, namely that you currently don't have a
> version of ROOT for the OS/compiler pair that you want to use ROOT on.
>
> For those of you unfamiliar with GNU Autoconf/automake/libtool, these
> three tools are intended to facilitate porting a software package to
> different platforms. Once a software package has been converted to
> GNU Autoconf/automake/libtool, then users can download the source code
> for the software package and easily (emphasize easily) build/install
> it for their particular system and compiler of choice.
>
> This is extremely important for ROOT, because currently the ROOT
> developers must create a separate binary distribution for each
> OS/compiler pair that they support. I have seen numerous posts to the
> roottalk list asking the ROOT developers for a particular version of
> ROOT for a currently unsupported OS/compiler pair. Providing these
> binary distributions is a major waste of a developers time, because
> the majority of the process can be automated.
>
> The `autoconf patch' is intended to relieve the ROOT developers of
> this burden so that they can focus on ROOT development instead of
> porting issues. It will also make ROOT available on a wider variety
> of computers, and hence to a wider audience (a good thing, IMHO).
>
> I need volunteers to help me alpha test the `autoconf patch'. It
> would involve obtaining a patch from me for ROOT 1.03/09 and
> attempting to build/install ROOT on your system.
>
> Please note that if you decide to volunteer, the version of ROOT you
> will be building and installing will not be an official version of
> ROOT sanctioned by the ROOT developers. It is based on the 1.03/09
> sources and should be considered alpha code. It is probably buggy,
> which is why I am asking for volunteers.
>
> I need feedback for multiple OS/compiler pairs so that I can provide
> the ROOT developers with a patch that we have demonstrated will work
> on ALL currently supported ROOT platforms. If you want to test the
> `autoconf patch' on an unsupported ROOT platform , great! I need all
> of the feedback I can get. However, it is important to demonstrate
> that the `autoconf patch' will work on the following OS/compiler pairs
> before I can submit my patch to the ROOT developers:
>
> * Linux (g++)
> * HP-UX 9.x and 10.x (HP CC and aCC C++ compilers)
> * IBM AIX 4.1 (xlc compiler)
> * Sun/Solaris for SPARC (SUN C++ compiler)
> * Sun/Solaris for Intel PCs (SUN C++ compiler)
> * DEC/Alpha/Unix (g++ and DEC/CXX)
> * SGI/Irix (g++ and SGI C++ compiler)
> * Windows NT and Windows95 (Visual C++ compiler)
> * Mac under MkLinux (g++)
> * MacOS (CodeWarrior, no graphics)
>
> Please E-mail me if you are interested and I will make the `autoconf
> patch' available to you.
>
> --
> Matthew D. Langston
> SLD, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
> langston@SLAC.Stanford.EDU