[comp.emacs] Gnu Emacs on an IBM RT running AIX

matt@violet.berkeley.edu (06/11/88)

I am trying to install the latest version of gnu emacs on an IBM RT
running AIX.  I haven't succeeded yet; if anybody out there has 
managed to bring up emacs on an AIX system, could you let me know what
I'm doing wrong?

Summary of my efforts:
 * I am using the s- and m- files recommended in MACHINES.
 * I added a line in m-ibmrt.h declaring STACK_DIRECTION to be -1.
   alloca.c wouldn't compile without that.
 * I am trying to compile it without X.  (I have X Version 10, but
   there's no need to be fancy yet.)
 * I modified xmakefile so that the bsd library would be included:
   several functions from it appear to be necessary.
 * I am using the -g compiler switch rather than -O.

The program will now compile, but it dies immediately (it thinks that
it's receiving a signal 9) when I start it up.  I can't find anything
useful with sdb.

Any advice?


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|        Matthew Austern		      matt@violet.berkeley.edu       |
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karl@cheops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) (06/11/88)

If you're getting signal 9 (SIGKILL) during startup of Emacs, it
probably means that the binary was created invalidly, which probably
suggests that the unexec() logic is screwed for RT AIX.  Sdb will tell
you nothing, because the process is being killed with extreme
prejudice by the kernel in the exec() logic when it detected (e.g.)
bad alignment of the regions needed for your file.  That is, the
process isn't even getting started; main() (er, _start) was never
called.

Try forcing fewer heroics in unexec() by stipulating NO_REMAP and
rebuilding from scratch.

--Karl

renner@uiucdcsm.cs.uiuc.edu (06/13/88)

>  I am trying to install the latest version of gnu emacs on an IBM RT
>  running AIX.  I haven't succeeded yet; if anybody out there has 
>  managed to bring up emacs on an AIX system, could you let me know what
>  I'm doing wrong?

Bob Alpern at IBM and I have each modified GNU Emacs 18.50 so that it will 
run under AIX.  His changes are better, and I'm using them now.  You can
get the modified files via anonymous ftp: get file "pub/rt-emacs.Z" from
"a.cs.uiuc.edu".  It's compressed, so use binary mode.

Scott Renner
renner@cs.uiuc.edu