[Insight-users] Debian/Linux linking

[Neil Killeen]

On Tue, 4 Feb 2003, Luis Ibanez wrote:

>
> Hi Neil,
>
> That may well be the reason of the libraries
> intermixing.
>
> RedHat and Debian have diffrent directory
> structures.
>
> Whenever you have the choice,  it is probably
> better to install a machine from scratch than
> trying to patch a previous installation.
>
> In particular with Linux you can get a machine
> ready in about two hours if not special drivers
> are required.
>

Our problem is that we use Linux like we use
Solaris.  That is, we create an equivalent
to /usr/local/...

which is then NFS mounted by many other machines.
This enables us to build infrastructure  just
once and then distribute it,m just like we do Solaris

So what happened was we used to be all redHat.
A server was chnaged to Debian (as thats where
we think we are going in the long run)
but there are still client RedHat machines.

Not all of the applications infrastructure (e.g.
compilers) was rebuilt.

Now we are finding that RedHat and Debian are
not fully compatible.

This just means we have not sensibly managed this
partial move to Debian !!  Grrrr.

> Another healthy practice is to let die the older
> versions...
>
> That is, once you start using gcc3.2, you better
> say some words of appreciation to your older 2.95
> and...  remove it from the disk.
>

we would if we could, but we can't do that so easily.  We actually have
some applications that are failing to build
with the new compiler for rather pererse reasons (eventually they must and
will).  We maintain an awful lot of third party 'support' software
and its not a straightforward thing to get it all rebuilt.
We also have a very nasty problem with Solaris/gcc3.1.1 where the Linker
times are enormous, so 2.95.3 is kept around for that too.
Nobody understands this one.



> Good luck with the reinstallation.
>
>
>    Luis
>

yah, i think we need it !

cheers
Neil