Re: ELF-Linux

[turnbull@example.com (Stephen J. Turnbull)]

>>>>> "Venkatesh" == Venkatesh RAGHAVAN <raghavan@example.com> writes:

    Venkatesh> Thanks for your help. The distribution of GRASS
    Venkatesh> Geographic Information system also says that the system
    Venkatesh> should be

    Venkatesh> Slackware 3.0

Slackware is probably irrelevant, although Slackware 3.0 would have
sufficiently recent versions of the kernel and programs.

    Venkatesh> kernel 1.2.13
    Venkatesh> gcc 2.7.0
    Venkatesh> libc 5.0.9
                    ^^^^^
This is definitely an ELF library, and GCC 2.7.0 was released only in
ELF form I believe.

    Venkatesh> flex 3.5.2

    Venkatesh> Does this mean that it is better that I upgrade my
    Venkatesh> system with the most recent version of Linux.

I think so, yes.  I take it from the requirement for GCC and FLEX that
GRASS is distributed as source code, not binaries.  Run "gcc -v" and
"/sbin/ldconfig -p | fgrep libc".  If your versions of GCC and libc
are not at least 2.7.0 and 5.0.9, then you should replace them.  It is
probably easiest to upgrade the whole system, as there are a number of
hidden dependencies for the compiler and library system.

If possible, I suggest installing the new system into an empty hard
drive or partition.  Older versions of Slackware were not very good
about removing packages.  (According to Jim T, this is a big advantage 
of the Redhat distribution, the package management is very good.)  I
hear the recent versions are better, but I don't know since I haven't
used them.  Having old libraries and systems lying around can cause
very difficult bugs.

Then you can mount your old partition somewhere, and get data from
that.

I strongly suggest a multiple partition architecture, where different
parts of your system reside in different partitions.  This makes it a
lot easier to upgrade and to test different systems, without messing
up your personal data files and so on.  You should take a look at the
Linux File System Standard to understand some of the issues.

-- 
                            Stephen J. Turnbull
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences                    Yaseppochi-Gumi
University of Tsukuba                      http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/
Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305 JAPAN                 turnbull@example.com