Date: Tue, 3 Dec 1996 18:26:31 -0600 (CST) From: Dave Bodenstab <imdave@synet.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Net access to motif? Is this a goofy idea or what? Message-ID: <199612040026.SAA12232@base486.synet.net>
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I noticed that someone else brought up the question of linking motif applications without having to buy motif... Unfortunately, lesstif is not yet near enough to completion. I am not really interested as a developer in using motif -- I just want to link various public software packages to create static binaries -- so it's not worth the money (at least for now) to buy the libraries. But I, too, would like to link using the motif libraries. Let me float this idea... Wouldn't it be neat if there were some way to do a static link of the objects referencing a copy of the motif libraries without actually having the motif libraries? Of course, if I could reference the libraries over the Internet, I could just steal them -- and that would be bad. However, since static binaries seem to be OK to distribute, then the problem becomes how to do the link without having the libraries directly accessible. If I were to put the objects and libraries I need (including my local version of libc, etc.) in a directory that is mountable via NFS, and put together a file (named "OBJECTS", say) listing the objects and libraries needed for the link such as: OBJECTS: obj1.o obj2.o ... -L. -lmylib1 ... -lXm ... (for C++ use "OBJECTS++") then someone having the motif libraries could issue the commands: mount -t nfs myhostname:mypath /mnt/mr_nice_guy cd /mnt/mr_nice_guy /bin/test -f crt0.o || /bin/cp /usr/lib/crt0.o . /bin/test -f libgcc.a || /bin/cp /usr/lib/libgcc.a . /usr/bin/ld -e start -dc -dp -Bstatic crt0.o -L<motifpath> `/bin/cat OBJECTS` \ libgcc.a -lc libgcc.a >MR_NICE_GUY.log 2>&1 cd / umount /mnt/mr_nice_guy (add -lg++ if "OBJECTS++" were found instead of "OBJECTS") and POOF! I'd have my static binary! Even better would be the ability to fill in a form on a WEB page with my machine's hostname and the path for the NFS-mountable directory and just click `submit'. I think this is secure... I can't think of a way for me to embed a command that would be executed (and thus either stealing the libraries or doing something nasty.) The "ld" program needs to be run instead of using "cc" so that I couldn't embed a -B./ option and provide a counterfeit "ld" command... [I used "cc -v" to see how the linker was being run in order to come up with the above "ld" command] I don't know if this would violate the licensing terms of the motif libraries, but it seems that it would prevent outright theft. I'm also assuming that the lesstif versions of the motif header files are compatible enough to allow me to do the actual compiles to create the object files -- doing the link is nice enough, I wouldn't expect someone to turn their machine into a public development machine. Cool idea, right? ;-) Am I nuts, or could this work? Could this be used to let folks build static motif binaries for FreeBSD packages? Dave Bodenstab imdave@synet.net PS. I, of course, don't have the motif libraries or the machine with the net access to host such a service :-( I would be one of the first to use such a service, though... I'd like to try out: ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/financial/xfinans-5.9.tar.gz ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications/xinvest-2.2.tar.gz
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