GNU bug report logs - #60731
configure does not check for space behind "-l"

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Christian Weiss <Christian.Weiss <at> EMEA.NEC.COM>
To: "bug-automake <at> gnu.org" <bug-automake <at> gnu.org>
Subject: configure does not check for space behind "-l"
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2023 12:12:37 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Dear all,

I have an issue which relates to the parsing of libraries for the linking step.
To reproduce this error, I have used automake 2.71 and OpenMPI 4.1.2
Consider this configure.ac:

AC_INIT([bug_mpi], [0], [dummy])
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
AC_PROG_CC
AC_PROG_FC
AC_PROG_CXX
LT_INIT
AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile])
AC_OUTPUT

And Makefile.am:

lib_LTLIBRARIES = libtest.la
libtest_la_SOURCES = test_f.f90 test_c.c

i.e. a library is supposed to be created from a C and a Fortran source file. The explicit form of the source files is irrelevant.

I configure and build with MPI: ./configure CC=mpicc FC=mpif90 CXX=mpic++
Which leads to the following error message:

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -l-L/opt/bm/gcc-10.2.0/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/10.2.0

This is due to empty "-l" commands in the linker command. I could find out that this originates from the call of  "mpif90 -v", which configure uses to create the list of  libraries to link. Explicitly, in my case I get

mpif90 -v test.f90 2>&1 | grep Driving
Driving: /opt/bm/gcc-10.2.0/bin/gfortran -v test.f90 -I/opt/bm/hpcx-v2.10-gcc-MLNX_OFED_LINUX-5-redhat8-cuda11-gdrcopy2-nccl2.11-x86_64/hpcx-rebuild-gcc-9.2.0-mt.sh/include -pthread -I/opt/bm/hpcx-v2.10-gcc-MLNX_OFED_LINUX-5-redhat8-cuda11-gdrcopy2-nccl2.11-x86_64/hpcx-rebuild-gcc-9.2.0-mt.sh/lib -L/opt/bm/hpcx-v2.10-gcc-MLNX_OFED_LINUX-5-redhat8-cuda11-gdrcopy2-nccl2.11-x86_64/hpcx-rebuild-gcc-9.2.0-mt.sh/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/opt/bm/hpcx-v2.10-gcc-MLNX_OFED_LINUX-5-redhat8-cuda11-gdrcopy2-nccl2.11-x86_64/hpcx-rebuild-gcc-9.2.0-mt.sh/lib -Wl,--enable-new-dtags -lmpi_usempif08 -lmpi_usempi_ignore_tkr -lmpi_mpifh -lmpi -l gfortran -l m -shared-libgcc

Note the highlighted libraries which have a space between the "-l" and the library name. This string occurs in the postdeps variable of the libtool script.
I am aware that the existence of that extra space originates from OpenMPI. I have observed this with a few other OpenMPI installations, but other MPI implementations might not have it.
However, I found the following in the configure script:

  for p in `eval "$output_verbose_link_cmd"`; do
    case ${prev}${p} in

    -L* | -R* | -l*)
       # Some compilers place space between "-{L,R}" and the path.
       # Remove the space.
       if test $p = "-L" ||
          test $p = "-R"; then
         prev=$p
         continue
       fi

Here, you explicitly check for spaces within -L and -R statements. If I add "-l" to this, the build succeeds.
Maybe this check could be automatically generated, too?

Best regards,
Christian

Dr. Christian Weiss
Benchmark Analyst
Tel: +49 211 5369 126

NEC Deutschland GmbH
Geschäftsführer  Yuichi Kojima
Handelsregister Düsseldorf HRB 57941; VAT ID DE129424743

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #10 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
To: Christian.Weiss <at> EMEA.NEC.COM
Cc: bug-libtool <at> gnu.org, 60731 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#60731: configure does not check for space behind "-l"
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2023 19:11:36 -0700

Hi Christian - thanks for the report.

        -L* | -R* | -l*)
           # Some compilers place space between "-{L,R}" and the path.
           # Remove the space.
           if test $p = "-L" ||
              test $p = "-R"; then

From the case label, it seems clear that -l was intended to be
supported and simply missed from the if statement. 

However, this code is in libtool[.m4], not automake. Attempting to
reassign the bug there. I don't know if debbugs will send mail to the
new list, so explicitly cc-ing bug-libtool. (Hope we don't end up with
two bug numbers.) --best, karl.

Message #16 received at 60731 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Peter Johansson <trojkan <at> gmail.com>
To: Christian Weiss <Christian.Weiss <at> EMEA.NEC.COM>, 60731 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#60731: configure does not check for space behind "-l"
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2023 21:10:21 +1000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi Christian,

On 11/1/23 22:12, Christian Weiss wrote:
> However, I found the following in the configure script:
>
>   for p in `eval "$output_verbose_link_cmd"`; do
>
>     case ${prev}${p} in
>
>     -L* | -R* | -l*)
>
>        # Some compilers place space between "-{L,R}" and the path.
>
>        # Remove the space.
>
>        if test $p = "-L" ||
>
>           test $p = "-R"; then
>
>          prev=$p
>
>          continue
>
>        fi
>

That shell code is coming from libtool, presumably expanded from the 
LT_INIT macro. You might have better luck asking on libtool <at> gnu.org


Cheers,

Peter

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Message #21 received at 60731-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ileana Dumitrescu <ileanadumitrescu95 <at> gmail.com>
To: 60731-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: Christian.Weiss <at> EMEA.NEC.COM
Subject: Re: bug#60731: configure does not check for space behind "-l"
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2024 18:48:19 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi Christian - thanks again for the report.

I fixed it with Karl's advice.

-- 
Ileana Dumitrescu

GPG Public Key: FA26 CA78 4BE1 8892 7F22 B99F 6570 EA01 146F 7354

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