using assert (__eprintf) in shared libraries

[R. Bernstein]

First and foremost, thanks for your help! 

Your explanations make lots of sense. 

I checked the packages/applications that were failing -- the latest
releases of audiofile (audiofile-0.1.9) and Mesa OpenGL (3.1).

As you both suspected, Solaris ld rather than GNU gcc -shared was
used. I've reported the problems back to the appropriate mailing lists
and will probably suggest a patch for both distributions. 

Thanks again.