faq index

  • build

    1. packge make produced a load of compiler diagnostics. Should I be concerned?
    2. Is there an easy way to build debug (cc -g) binaries?
    3. Is package make the only way to build?
    4. Is there an easy way to build the binaries on all my machines?
    5. Why is there an $INSTALLROOT/bin/cc command?
    6. The package command generates the wrong HOSTTYPE.
    7. How do I cross compile a source package?
    8. My cc(1) supports many binary HOSTTYPEs and/or I would like to build for one HOSTTYPE using a few different cc(1) implementations; can these be handled under one $PACKAGEROOT?
    9. I followed all of the source installation instructions and it still crashed and burned; what now?
    10. I made the binaries; how do I distribute them to other hosts?
    11. How long does it take to build the ast-open source package?
    12. foo didn't build because the bar headers and libraries were not found; what now?
    13. I installed the sol8.* binaries and all commands fail at runtime with a diagnostic like ld.so.1: fatal: relocation error: symbol _libc_register_forkhandler: referenced symbol not found.
    14. I installed the ast version of libz.so in the system standard directory and a bunch of commands began to fail.
    15. The build on our sun4 museum piece failed with a bunch of errors.

  • download

    1. I downloaded the foo.bar binary package and didn't find any source. Where do I get the foo.bar source?
    2. Why don't you post binaries for the foo.bar architecture.
    3. Why don't you have an ftp download site like everyone else?
    4. gunzip says the archive files I downloaded are corrupt.

  • Common Public License Version 1.0

    1. Is the software ``Open Source?''
    2. You didn't give me a name and password to download the software.
    3. Why are the downloads password protected? GNU doesn't do that.
    4. This name/password nonsense will never catch on with my user base.

  • nmake

    1. Is nmake(1) really the greatest thing since sliced bread?
    2. Is there any online documentation?
    3. Isn't recursive make considered harmful?
    4. Is there an easy way to build debug (cc -g) binaries?
    5. Are there any other nmake(1) debugging tips?
    6. Why does nmake(1) provide its own cpp(1)?
    7. What is a mamfile?
    8. The probe(1) information is wrong for my compiler; how can I fix it?

  • packaging

    1. What does AST stand for?
    2. Is there a recommended installation directory?
    3. How do I read packages on an EBCDIC machine?
    4. Why does package read fail even though there are unread packages in lib/package/tgz?
    5. Why don't you use rpm(1) for packaging?
    6. Can you generate rpm(1) packages?
    7. I just want ksh(1); why isn't there a ksh tarball?
    8. Why do you require more than one package in some cases?

  • software issues

    1. I included <ast_foo.h> and it failed miserably.
    2. Are any of the libraries thread-safe?
    3. Do I need to run package(1) and export a bazillion environment vars just to run ksh(1)?
    4. packge test produced a lot of failures. Should I be concerned?
    5. I'd rather not install setuid commands; why is probe(1) setuid?
    6. ast commands fail with libast shared library not found when run setuid -- is there a workaround?
    7. Why do 3d(1), ie(1) and warp(1) fail on my system?
    8. Why do you have a foo command when the GNU one is available?
    9. Will you track non-standard GNU additions to standard interfaces?
    10. I don't see a sign of perl or C++ anywhere; are you guys in the dark ages?
    11. I installed ksh in /bin/ksh and made it my login shell, and now I can't ftp(1) into my machine.
    12. The ast foo man page claims that it accepts options, but no options are listed.
    13. ast commands on { cygwin EMX winix } don't handle DOS format paths and path lists like { pdksh bash foo }. Why don't you change your commands to do that?

February 17, 2005