Case history: Installing libstdc++ on i686-pc-linux-gnu (Red Hat)

[Avi Green <avi-nospam at sputnik7 dot com>]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my previous query about sstream.h;
it turned out to be called just "sstream", not "sstream.h", and
I retrieved that file from the mailing list archive.

So . . . given that I wanted to also install the other header and
library
files that sstream comes with, I decided to install the entire
distribution.
Unfortunately the libstdc++ RPM file I have
(libstdc++-devel-2.95.2-3.i386.rpm)
isn't complete: it doesn't have sstream, and I imagine it's missing
other
things too.  (I wonder why they call it libstdc++ 2.95 if libstdc++ is
only
up to 2.90.8?!?)

So I set out to actually build libstdc++ like everyone else :-) *

Unfortunately this didn't go very well.  I first tried building
libstdc++
the normal way, based out of the gcc source.  I installed the latest
versions
of cpp, binutils, gcc (2.95) and gcc-c++ using RPMs,* I downloaded the
source
code for GCC, configured the libstdc++ build, and ran make.  It failed
when it
tried to cd to ../../gcc (which didn't exist) looking for libgcc2.ready
(which didn't exist either).  I thought perhaps that the ../.. construct
was
assuming the build directory would be in the source tree, but the readme
file
says not to do this.

My manager told me to give up on rebuilding the gcc library and just do
the
standalone library build using --disable-namespaces and
--disable-libgcc-rebuild (which fortunately you're still supporting),
but the
"build" phase of libstdc++ failed because it couldn't find install-sh or
install.sh.  It seems that the libstdc++ configure program is expecting
to find
gcc's install.sh, which seems strange given that I'm building
standalone.*

So it seems that libstdc++ really CAN'T be built without the gcc source,
unless the configure script is hacked or something, which seems
overwhelming.
(My boss, an experienced SA, tried it and gave up too, as did one of my
coworkers, a Java programmer.)

So I gave the standard approach (with gcc rebuild) a final shot.  After
failing
once because of the "inline" bug, I removed the WERROR tag and ran "make
all"
again.  IT FINISHED!!!!

Unfortunately the "make check" command failed when it tried to run
"runtest"
(and I couldn't find that file anywhere in either my build tree or
/tmp).

But "make install" worked!  Thank you, THANK YOU!!! to everyone,
especially
PHIL and GABRIEL!

(I feel like one of those advertorials, ending every sentence with a
bang!)

--Avi

p.s.  Total user time elapsed: about five days, about half time working
on this problem.



=========  Avi Green :) (: www.sputnik7.com  =========
========     Unix S/A & System Specialist     ========
========  avi at sputnik7.com   212 217-1147  ========


* I tried to build gcc last week and gave up miserably.  Thankfully,
  there is a binary RPM for my platform, so I don't have to build it.