On May 4 2010, Terry Dontje wrote:
Ralph Castain wrote:
Is a configure-time test good enough? For example, are all Linuxes
the same in this regard. That is if you built OMPI on RH and it
configured in the new SysV SM will those bits actually run on other
Linux systems correctly? I think Jeff had hinted to this similarly
when suggesting this may need to be a runtime test.
I don't think we have ever enforced that requirement, nor am I sure
the current code would meet it. We have a number of components that
test for ability to build, but don't check again at run-time.
Generally, the project has followed the philosophy of "build on the
system you intend to run on".
There is at least one binary distribution that does build on one linux
and allows to be installed on several others. That is the reason I
bring up the above. The community can make a stance that that one
distribution does not matter for this case or needs to handle it on its
own. In the grand scheme of things it might not matter but I wanted to
at least stand up and be heard.
There is a gradation involved. Building on one distribution and using
on another is one thing. But the same distribution can use differently
built kernels, and the same system can be reconfigured (including both
package updating and parameter changing). It is highly undesirable to
use volatile parameters in non-volatile context.
A lot of applications need rebuilding when the administrator updates
packages or makes configuration changes; that's not good and should be
avoided if at all possible. Given the way that systems are currently
configured, and the design of the autoconfigure mechanism, it's probably
not wholly avoidable. But it's still a very nasty gotcha.
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
