Prashant's Perceptions

Compiling Ruby 1.8.6 on Solaris Nevada (or OpenSolaris, or Solaris Express ) using Sun Studio 12

One doesn't need to compile their Ruby from source on Solaris Nevada / OpenSolaris / Solaris Express (SX). It can be downloaded from Blastwave, Sunfreeware, or Cooltools.
sunfreeware.com happens to have the latest stable version(1.8.6) available.

However, if you want an optimized build for your setup, or just like to compile your programs from source, there's a problem to be aware of and avoid while building.

Assuming Sun Studio 12 is installed in /opt/SUNWspro (the dafault location), here's what happens when a compile is attempted:

bash-3.00# pwd
/export/ruby/ruby-1.8.6

bash-3.00# echo $PATH
/usr/ccs/bin:/opt/SUNWspro/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

bash-3.00# ./configure --without-gcc
checking build system type... i386-pc-solaris2.11
checking host system type... i386-pc-solaris2.11
checking target system type... i386-pc-solaris2.11

[ . . . lots more output snipped . . .]

configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile

bash-3.00# make
make: Warning: Illegal dependency list for target `.DEFAULT'
cc -g  -DRUBY_EXPORT -I. -I. -c array.c

[ . . . lots more output snipped . . .]

cc -g  -DRUBY_EXPORT -I. -I. -c ./missing/isinf.c
"./missing/isinf.c", line 32: syntax error before or at: __builtin_isinf
"./missing/isinf.c", line 33: warning: old-style declaration or incorrect type for: n
"./missing/isinf.c", line 33: syntax error before or at: double
"./missing/isinf.c", line 33: identifier redeclared: n
        current : double
        previous: int : "./missing/isinf.c", line 32
"./missing/isinf.c", line 35: syntax error before or at: return
cc: acomp failed for ./missing/isinf.c
*** Error code 2
make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `isinf.o'
bash-3.00#

The Makefile trys to compile ./missing/isinf.c and fails, thus aborting with a fatal build error. The good news is that this file is not needed, on Solaris, since isinf already exists as a part of libm - isinf(3M).
Why, then is this being built with the Ruby distribution? That's because Ruby's configure.in does not account for Solaris "5.11" . It only knows Solaris 10. Hence SXDE/SXCE/Nevada/OpenSolaris will not be recognized, and running make will cause isinf.c to be built(or attempted).

It's straightforward to avoid this problem. Here's how:

(1) replace the configure.in script in ruby-1.8.6/ by this modified version. The modified version adds the below lines, for Solaris Nevada in the appropriate place.

solaris*2.11)  if test -z "$GCC"; then
                      ac_cv_func_isinf=yes
              fi
               LIBS="-lm $LIBS"
              ;;

(2) set your PATH,
export PATH=/usr/ccs/bin:/opt/SUNWspro/bin:/usr/sfw/bin:$PATH
/usr/ccs/bin is needed for make, /opt/SUNWspro/bin is the location of the studio 12 compiler, and /usr/sfw/bin is the free software directory, and has GNU Autoconf.

(3) Next, run the configure script.
./configure --without-gcc

(4) Next, run make.

 make

(make will run Autoconf again, and will throw an error and ask itself to be run again, this is normal). The error is:

config.status: creating Makefile
Makefile updated, restart.
*** Error code 1
The following command caused the error:
{ \
            echo "all:; -@rm -f conftest.mk"; \
            echo "conftest.mk: .force; @echo AUTO_REMAKE"; \
            echo ".force:"; \
        } > conftest.mk || exit 1; \
        make -f conftest.mk | grep '^AUTO_REMAKE$' >/dev/null 2>&1 || \
        { echo "Makefile updated, restart."; exit 1; }
make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `Makefile'

(5) Run make again.
make
(/usr/ccs/bin/make is okay - GNU Make is not necessary). The warning "make: Warning: Illegal dependency list for target `.DEFAULT'" warning can be ignored.

(6) Finally, run "make install" - and ruby, rdoc, and irb will be installed into /usr/local/bin (or whatever prefix you specified to ./configure). Also run "make install-doc" to compile the documentation for viewing through ri.

Posted at 03:55AM Aug 04, 2007 by prashant in Ruby  |  Comments[3]