Compiling Linux app source code on FBSD

I've been struggling trying to compile Advanced Stock Tracker
(ast-0.3.0_pre1) on 7.1-prerelease. It appears to be a linux-centric
application as the compile was failing with "/usr/bin/ld: can't find -
ldl" errors. I think I've got that fixed by just removing all
instances of -ldl from the various Makefiles after running configure.

The build seems to get a little further but then fails with "/usr/bin/
ld: cannot find -lta_func". I could repeat the Makefile deletion
process but I don't know if *this* ta_func is a Linux thing or not. I
have devel/ta-lib installed and have symlinked its directory in /usr/
local/include to /usr/local and /usr/include. I've even symlinked
ta_func.h to a place that is successfully seen by the config script
but it's a no-go.

These sorts of failures could go on forever. I've emailed the
developer but might there be a way to get configure to look at BSD
file locations and not just Linux locations? configure is over 28k
lines and I'm not a programmer but there must be a 'look here too!'
entry I can make somewhere.

thanks,

tf

On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:54:02 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
> I've been struggling trying to compile Advanced Stock Tracker
> (ast-0.3.0_pre1) on 7.1-prerelease. It appears to be a linux-centric
> application as the compile was failing with "/usr/bin/ld: can't find -
> ldl" errors. I think I've got that fixed by just removing all
> instances of -ldl from the various Makefiles after running configure.

Unportable makefiles. FreeBSD doesn't need -ldl.

There is a better way to link with -ldl or other system-specific
libraries that provide dlopen() support.

1) In the toplevel `configure.in' or `configure.ac' script add the
following checks somewhere after `AC_PROG_CC':

if test "x$RANLIB" = x; then
AC_PROG_RANLIB
fi
AC_LIBTOOL_DLOPEN
AC_PROG_LIBTOOL

2) In the toplevel `configure.in' or `configure.ac' script add the
following checks for -ldl support libraries:

save_LIBS="${LIBS}"
LIBS=""
AC_CHECK_LIB(dl, dlopen)
DL_LIBS="${LIBS}"
LIBS="${save_LIBS}"
AC_SUBST(DL_LIBS)

3) In the `Makefile.am' file of the components that need to be
dlopen'ed (if you are writing the dlopen-based modules yourself),
make sure that `xxxxx_la_LDFLAGS' includes:

## Allow symbols to be resolved dynamically with dlopen()
xxxxx_la_LDFLAGS = -export-dynamic

4) In the `Makefile.am' file of the component that *calls* dlopen() to
load more modules (let's call it `yyyyyy' to separate it from the
dynamically loadable module `xxxxxx'), add the `xxxxxx.la' file to
the `yyyyyy_LIBS' options of the `yyyyyy' module:

yyyyyy_LIBS = \
-dlopen $(top_builddir)/path/to/xxxxxx.la \
$(DL_LIBS)

> The build seems to get a little further but then fails with "/usr/bin/
> ld: cannot find -lta_func". I could repeat the Makefile deletion
> process but I don't know if *this* ta_func is a Linux thing or not. I
> have devel/ta-lib installed and have symlinked its directory in /usr/
> local/include to /usr/local and /usr/include. I've even symlinked
> ta_func.h to a place that is successfully seen by the config script
> but it's a no-go.
>
> These sorts of failures could go on forever. I've emailed the
> developer but might there be a way to get configure to look at BSD
> file locations and not just Linux locations? configure is over 28k
> lines and I'm not a programmer but there must be a 'look here too!'
> entry I can make somewhere.

Don't edit `configure' directly. Look for a file called `configure.ac'
or `configure.in' in the same path.