http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=13710
Bug #: 13710
Summary: [Regression] .def files containing LIBRARY statement
can't be parsed any more
Product: binutils
Version: 2.23 (HEAD)
Status: NEW
Severity: normal
Priority: P2
Component: ld
AssignedTo: unassig...@sourceware.org
ReportedBy: erik-sources-redhat-bugzi...@vanpienbroek.nl
CC: ktiet...@googlemail.com
Classification: Unclassified
Target: i686-w64-mingw32, x86_64-w64-mingw32
In the last couple of days a change was applied to binutils which makes the
behaviour of the processing of .def files more strict. Due to this change some
libraries fail to compile, for example cairo.
The .def file which is used by cairo contains something along the lines of
this:
EXPORTS
my_func
LIBRARY mylib.dll
This used to work fine with binutils 2.22.51.20120113, but when using binutils
2.22.52.20120216 this results in the following error:
/usr/lib64/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/4.7.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/bin/ld:
a.def:3: syntax error
/usr/lib64/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/4.7.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/bin/ld:a.def:
file format not recognized; treating as linker script
/usr/lib64/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/4.7.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/bin/ld:a.def:2:
syntax error
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
After some discussion with Kai Tietz we came to the conclusion that these type
of .def files are invalid according to MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d91k01sh%28v=vs.80%29.aspx
This documentation indicates that .def files must start with the 'LIBRARY
xxx.dll' statement followed by the 'EXPORTS' statement, so in this regard the
more strict behaviour of binutils is correct.
So I tried fixing cairo so that it uses a .def file which looks like this:
LIBRARY mylib.dll
EXPORTS
my_func
While doing so I noticed that libtool also tries to do some funny things with
the .def file:
libtool: link: if test "x`/bin/sed 1q .libs/libcairo.def`" = xEXPORTS; then cp
.libs/libcairo.def .libs/libcairo-2.dll.def; else echo EXPORTS >
.libs/libcairo-2.dll.def; cat .libs/libcairo.def >> .libs/libcairo-2.dll.def;
fi
It looks like libtool always checks the first line of the given .def file. If
this first line isn't 'EXPORTS' then it will be automatically added to the
resulting .def file. Given the .def file above, the resulting .def file will
become:
EXPORTS
LIBRARY mylib.dll
EXPORTS
my_func
This .def file isn't accepted by binutils as well.
So to fix all this, changes have to be applied to both cairo and libtool.
However, the annoying thing with libtool is that every libtool-using piece of
software is bundling their own copy of libtool so it will take quite some time
before a patched version of libtool is really in use. While I agree that
binutils should be as compliant and strict as possible I think that the damage
here is worse than the benefits. So I would like to suggest that this change in
behaviour in binutils is reverted to the old behaviour (for now) and that we
also try to get this fixed properly in libtool, cairo and perhaps several other
pieces of software.
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