[RFC] LD_LIBRARY_PATH_64 for sparc solaris testing

[Andreas Tobler <toa at pop dot agri dot ch>]

Hi all,

during my tests on solaris 9 I failed to test with the -m64 on a 32 bit 
compiler. I was digging for a solution and found the environment 
variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH_64. Setting this one made the tests work when I 
ran the testsuites with:
make RUNTESTFLAGS="--target_board 'unix{-m64,}'" check

I then thought this would be fine and added locally this path setting 
and submitted a few patches to reflect this change.

Later I noticed that others of the solaris testers don't need this path 
setting. Now I was confused completely and I started to investigate:

I found that I set this variable initially in my tcshrc.

On the sun documentation side I found the explanation:

http://docs.sun.com/db/doc/817-1983/6mhm6r4e8?q=Solaris+Linker&a=view

Section Evironment Variables.

So, when I initially set this variable (LD_LIBRARY_PATH_64) the 
LD_LIBRARY_PATH gets overridden by it. And I need to set it everywhere 
where I want to test 64bit libs in a 32 environment. Otherwise my test 
suite doesn't find the libraries anymore.

Now my question: shall we introduce this path setting for solaris 
everywhere in the testsuite ? Or do we have to document how we treat 
LD_LIBRARY_PATH on solaris?

If we set it everywhere in the testsuite it lives as long as the test 
suite runs. Then it is no longer needed.

In case one has to set this variable in his default shell due to 
whatever reasons he will fail to run the 64 bit testsuites on solaris if 
we don't decide to add this path.

I don't have a preference, I think it does not harm if we set it. It can 
harm if we don't set it and don't document it.


Opinions?

Thanks i.a.

Andreas