Dear George,

I don't see a need for static binaries.

We link the XDS package dynamically with 
ifort -static-intel -qopenmp-link=static 
on a rather old system, and this seems to work for all XDS users. One could add 
-static-libgcc but apparently this is not necessary.

best wishes,
Kay

On Tue, 8 Oct 2019 12:21:07 +0200, George Sheldrick <[email protected]> 
wrote:

>As explained in the attached email from Peter Keller, I was deliberately
>preparing the binary Linux SHELX distribution using older (2011) system
>libraries so that the programs would run on older systems that many
>users are still using. Unfortunately this means that they do not run on
>some recent cutting edge distributions including Debian 10. This can be
>fixed with 'vsyscall=emulate' when installing the OS but not all users
>may be allowed to do this. Dynamic binaries would be smaller but would
>require the user to provide the right libraries.
>
>If I prepare statically linked binaries (using the latest ifort and
>ubuntu) they appear to run on current systems but may have problems on
>older systems. I may have to offer (e.g. in CCP4 and on the SHELX
>server) two sets of Linux binaries in the future, one for 'vintage'
>systems and one for current systems. Alternatively I could provide both
>statically and dynamically linked versions. What do users think?
>
>Best wishes, George
>
>
>On 08.10.19 11:04, Peter Keller wrote:
>> HI Tim,
>>
>> On Mon, 7 Oct 2019, Tim Gruene wrote:
>>
>>> Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2019 23:04:28 +0200
>>> From: Tim Gruene <[email protected]>
>>> To: Peter Keller <[email protected]>
>>> Cc: [email protected]
>>> Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Shelx and debian 10
>>>
>>
>>
>>> @Peter: are you sure that without 'vsyscall=emulate' linux binaries
>>> need to be
>>> dynamically linked? I would be very surprised if the linux kernel would
>>> disable statically linked binaries. I rather think that the vanilla
>>> versions
>>> of shelx c/d/e (from shelx.uni-goettingen.de) are compiled with an
>>> obsolete
>>> compiler / obsolete compiler options.
>>
>> You're right, I wrote my reply to Bernhard too rapidly, and conflated
>> two separate issues. Debian 10 still supports static binaries of
>> course, but in its default configuration (without vsyscall=emulate),
>> those static binaries must be linked with a version of glibc that
>> doesn't require vsyscalls. OTOH, dynamic binaries don't suffer from
>> this problem, because they can use vDSO provided by the running
>> (rather than the build) system.
>>
>> I think that part of the problem is that traditionally when we want to
>> build portable linux binaries, we tend to build on the oldest
>> distribution that we want to support, relying on backwards
>> compatibility to provide the portability that we are after. We often
>> build statically, because it is a robust way of including all the
>> required libraries and is less fiddly and error-prone than providing
>> them as dynamic libraries. There is also no danger of breakage caused
>> by rogue values of LD_LIBRARY_PATH (which users shouldn't be setting
>> of course, but we have no way of stopping them). The drawback of this
>> approach is that when backwards compatibility is broken, there is no
>> application-level fix.
>>
>> These kinds of problems are rare, but when they do happen the onus is
>> on those of us who distribute binary applications to find solutions.
>> Some sysadmins may have good reasons for being reluctant to change
>> kernel parameters to get third-party applications to work.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Peter.
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Monday, October 7, 2019 5:53:44 PM CEST Peter Keller wrote:
>>>> Dear Bernhard,
>>>>
>>>> We had this issue drawn to our attention last year by an early adopter
>>>> of Debian 10 while it was still in testing. I thought that it was a
>>>> bug,
>>>> and submitted a report accordingly here:
>>>> <https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=889965>. I was told
>>>> that it is not a bug, but a feature ;-)
>>>>
>>>> If you are able, you could try setting the kernel parameter
>>>> vsyscall=emulate. In the longer term, SHELXC/D/E will have to be
>>>> rebuilt
>>>> to support systems where the vsyscall has been disabled. This means
>>>> they
>>>> have to be dynamic executables that include the following in the output
>>>> of 'ldd':
>>>>
>>>> % ldd /bin/bash
>>>>      linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007fff50952000)
>>>>      ....
>>>>
>>>> All current distros use vDSO, so this shouldn't cause portability
>>>> problems by itself, but handling dynamic executables can be trickier
>>>> than static ones.
>>>>
>>>> For a little more background, see <https://lwn.net/Articles/446528/>
>>>>
>>>> Finally, you have my commiserations: although this change has been a
>>>> long time coming, it hasn't attracted a lot of attention. It was bound
>>>> to catch users of static executables by surprise.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Peter.
>>>>
>>>> On 07/10/2019 16:05, Bernhard Rupp wrote:
>>>>> Hi Fellows,
>>>>>
>>>>> we updated to Debian 10 on the local workshop computers, and
>>>>> reinstalled
>>>>>
>>>>> Coot and ccp4. All fine.
>>>>>
>>>>> Problem: Shelxc/d/e/  does not run, and
>>>>>
>>>>> the call exits immediately sans any message.
>>>>>
>>>>> This holds for the binaries included in ccp4 as well as for those from
>>>>> the SHELX site.
>>>>>
>>>>> The executables from CCP4 and SHELX site – same file size, probably
>>>>> same - run fine under Debian 9.
>>>>>
>>>>> I suspect a library problem.
>>>>>
>>>>> Does some kind soul have CDE binaries for Debian 10 to share?
>>>>>
>>>>> Many thx in advance, BR
>>>>>
>>>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> --------------
>>>>>
>>>>> Bernhard Rupp
>>>>>
>>>>> Department of Genetics and Pharmacology
>>>>>
>>>>> Institute of Genetic Epidemiology
>>>>>
>>>>> Medical University Innsbruck
>>>>>
>>>>> Schöpfstrasse 41
>>>>>
>>>>> A 6020 Innsbruck – Austria
>>>>>
>>>>> +43 (676) 571-0536
>>>>>
>>>>> [email protected]
>>>>>
>>>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> --------------
>>>>>
>>>>> k.k. Hofkristallamt
>>>>>
>>>>> San Diego, CA 92084
>>>>>
>>>>> 001 (925) 209-7429
>>>>>
>>>>> [email protected]
>>>>>
>>>>> [email protected]
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.ruppweb.org/
>>>>>
>>>>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link:
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>>>
>>>
>>
>--
>Prof. George M. Sheldrick FRS
>Dept. Structural Chemistry
>University of Goettingen
>Tammannstr.  4
>D37077 Goettingen
>Germany
>Tel: +49 551 3933021 or +49 5594 227312
>
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