Re: Xaw3d struct size bogosity [was: Subwindow clipping]

SJT> `ln -sf libXaw3d.so.6.1 libXaw.so' and bingo! no errors. But I SJT> don't think I want to do this permanently. SJT> Or do I? (Advice, please.) Maybe. Here's how dynamic linking and shared objects are supposed to work: Dynamic ELF applications have a .dynamic section which has a number of fields containing information about the dynamic requirements of the app. In particular, for this discussion, there is one or more NEEDED members which describe the shared objects that the binary needs to run (such as libc.so.1). You'll note that these are versioned names. On Solaris, you can look at the .dynamic section with dump -Lv <binary>. Now, when shared objects are created, ld takes its -h "name" argument (or the -o "name" in -h's absence) and records that name into the resulting object. So, libc is built with a "-h libc.so.1". This name appears in the SONAME member of the .dynamic section. When creating a dynamic executable, the link editor (ld, usually invoked under the covers by the compiler) takes arguments in the form -lc and translates them to "libc.so" and looks in each of the directories defined by "-L" options or $LD_LIBRARY_PATH or any default path such as /usr/lib. Note: ld will NOT find /usr/lib/libc.so.1 So, in the case of a simple app linking with libc, ld simply opens /usr/lib/libc.so and as part of its work, it takes the SONAME from libc.so and writes it out again as a NEEDED in the app. ld doesn't know or care that libc.so is a symlink... Now, at some point, somebody decides that libc needs upgrading in a manner that renders it incompatible with libc.so.1. Thus libc.so.2 is born. It is further decided that all NEW applications should link to this, so the symlink libc.so is revectored to libc.so.2. libc.so.1 will continue to exist and be available to applications that have been linked against it. Pretty simple really. But there are many ways to screw this up and I suspect that in your installation that is exactly what has happened. Hope I've helped you decide on the correct course...