The biggest problem to my mind, is that even the latest of the ESQL/C libraries were built using GCCv5 or v6 and GCC is up to v11 or v12 with internal library changes and code migrating from one library to another since GCC v7. The GCC 5 libraries are no longer available and v6 are hard to find.
Art S. Kagel, President and Principal Consultant
ASK Database Management Corp.
Original Message:
Sent: Fri September 22, 2023 09:53 AM
From: Sebastien FLAESCH
Subject: Informix IDS system requirements regarding libncurses 5 vs 6
Andreas,
Yes that's the dilemma: Have tailored IDS packages for any supported Linux platforms, or have less or one common package, with tricky workarounds to make it work on some Linux brands/versions.
I understand it's more work, but that's the idea of shared libs versioning and Linux package dependencies.
Here we ended up with platform codes in or package names (mainly with GLIBC version deps), for a given set of "compatible" Linux brands.
https://4js.com//mirror/documentation.php?s=genero&f=fjs-genero-4.01.XX-PlatformsDb.pdf
Seb
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Sebastien FLAESCH
Original Message:
Sent: Fri September 22, 2023 08:53 AM
From: Andreas Legner
Subject: Informix IDS system requirements regarding libncurses 5 vs 6
But wouldn't this mean having multiple different 'flavors' of the same Informix version, for RHEL9+, for RHEL8-, for ..., creating even more potential confusion ("which flavor of 14.10.FC10 would I use for my particular Linux distribution and version?!?")
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Andreas Legner
Original Message:
Sent: Mon September 18, 2023 10:20 AM
From: Sebastien FLAESCH
Subject: Informix IDS system requirements regarding libncurses 5 vs 6
Hi Martin,
Thanks for the update.
IMO, the correct solution would be to have a dedicated build of Informix IDS for RHEL 9, with the dependency to libncurses.so.6 and libtinfo.so.6.
This is what we plan for our product.
Seb
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Sebastien FLAESCH
Original Message:
Sent: Mon September 18, 2023 08:40 AM
From: Martin Fuerderer
Subject: Informix IDS system requirements regarding libncurses 5 vs 6
I stand corrected regarding the symbolic link workaround for the libncurses version 5 vs. version 6 issue:
My colleagues informed me, that the libncurses compatibility package is available for RedHat Linux 8, but not for RedHat Linux 9.
And it looks like RedHat Tech Support themselves have suggested the symbolic link workaround as viable solution for this problem:
https://access.redhat.com/solutions/6907421. Click or tap if you trust this link." data-linkindex="0" style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">
https://access.redhat.com/solutions/6907421
Whether this is a really clean solution probably is debatable. But - at least for the time being - this seems to be the only solution, and somehow acceptable as well.
Sorry for the confusion!
Martin
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Original Message:
Sent: 9/11/2023 6:16:00 AM
From: Sebastien FLAESCH
Subject: Informix IDS system requirements regarding libncurses 5 vs 6
Hello,
Just seen this workaround in Informix Server System Requirements
** Following system libraries are needed for IBM Informix Dynamic Server version 14.10.FC9 and greater to run on Red Hat Linux 9. Higher versions of same libraries are installed on Red Hat Linux 9. As a workaround, symbolic links to those libraries need to be created.
Libraries needed for IDS:
libncurses.so.5
libtinfo.so.5
Libraries installed on Red Hat Linux 9:
libncurses.so.6
libtinfo.so.6
Workaround:
Run following commands as root user from /usr/lib64 directory.
ln -s libncurses.so.6 libncurses.so.5
ln -s libtinfo.so.6 libtinfo.so.5
To me, it is a dangerous practice to create such symbolic links to fake the shared lib dependencies.
The shared library version is there for a good reason. Are you sure that this is 100% safe?
Is it not better to install the libncurses V5 package when it's available or, build an Informix IDS package that uses libncurses V6?
In fact, we have a similar issue here and I wonder how you ended up with this workaround...
https://4js.com/online_documentation/fjs-fgl-manual-html/#fgl-topics/c_fgl_installation_019.html
Seb
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Sebastien FLAESCH
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