Re: Why does solib_open do what it does?

[Michael Snyder <msnyder at redhat dot com>]

Kevin Buettner wrote:
> On Jun 17,  4:15pm, Kris Warkentin wrote:
>
>
> > > > That's what I was thinking too.  A customer reported that when they
> > don't
> >
> > > > set solib-search-path, all of a sudden gdb isn't finding solibs that
> > used to
> >
> > > > be found in LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
> > >
> > > It sounds to me like the solibs in question were actually being found via
> > > solib-search-path, not LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
> > >
> > > I think the problem with using LD_LIBRARY_PATH is that the paths
> > > won't be correct without some sort of adjustment.  I.e, the paths
> > > provided by LD_LIBRARY_PATH are target filesystem paths, not host
> > > paths.
> >
> > Well, I've always considered searching LD_LIBRARY_PATH at all to be wrong
> > since the only util that should be concerned with that is the runtime
> > loader.  Ideally, ld should be filling in the path where it found the lib
> > which can then be used with solib-absolute-prefix or some such.
>
>
> Right.
>
> I think Michael added the searches on $PATH and $LD_LIBRARY_PATH for
> native ports, but it's not clear to me that these searches are actually
> needed.
>
> Michael, any comments?

I don't remember.  ;-(
I'll just remark that ld puts full paths in for some libs, and not for others.
That's why there are two variables, SOLIB-SEARCH-PATH and 
SOLIB-ABSOLUTE-PREFIX.  One is the prefix that goes before everything
(even rooted filespecs), and the other is the additional prefix that
goes before an un-rooted filespec.