Build fails on Ubuntu with Nonrepresentable section on output

[josefsachs]

With a fresh clone of master. End of make output follows.

/usr/bin/ld: libuv_la-uv-common.o: access beyond end of merged section (6837)
/usr/bin/ld: libuv_la-uv-common.o: access beyond end of merged section (4256)
/usr/bin/ld: libuv_la-uv-common.o: access beyond end of merged section (5638)
/usr/bin/ld: /home/sachs/src/julia-master/usr/lib/libuv.a(libuv_la-uv-common.o)(.debug_info+0x10d7): reloc against `.debug_str': error 2
/usr/bin/ld: final link failed: Nonrepresentable section on output
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [/home/sachs/src/julia-master/src/flisp/flisp] Error 1
make[1]: *** [flisp/libflisp.a] Error 2
make: *** [julia_flisp.boot.inc.phony] Error 2

[vchuravy]

Also recently seen on https://travis-ci.org/JuliaLang/julia/jobs/513419893

cc: @staticfloat since this might be due to #31441

[staticfloat]

@josefsachs what kind of system are you running on (OS, architecture, etc...)? What version of binutils (ld --version)? What is the linker invocation that caused that error?

[josefsachs]

$ ld --version
GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.24
Copyright 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This program is free software; you may redistribute it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License version 3 or (at your option) a later version.
This program has absolutely no warranty.
$ uname -a
Linux sojaks.com 3.13.0-48-generic #80-Ubuntu SMP Thu Mar 12 11:16:15 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS
Release:        14.04
Codename:       trusty

[staticfloat]

This appears to be a bug in old ld (version 2.24). You have two options:

• Install the binutils-2.26 package on Ubuntu 14.04, which will provide ld-2.26, then just copy ld-2.26 over your /usr/bin/ld executable. (Note I recommend backing that original linker up before doing this). I have verified that this does indeed work, and compiles all the way through.

• Don't use BinaryBuilder LibUV, which seems to be the trouble child here triggering the ld bug. You can do this by setting the USE_BINARYBUILDER_LIBUV=0 make flag when compiling.

In case anyone is interested in reproducing, here's a Dockerfile showing the issue:

FROM ubuntu:14.04

RUN apt update && apt install -y build-essential m4 curl git tmux gfortran cmake ccache python
WORKDIR /julia
RUN git clone https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia .

# Build this `Dockerfile`, then run `make` and watch it crash and burn while trying to link `flisp`.

[vchuravy]

Can we make check the Ubuntu/ld version in the makefile and disable Libuv for that? I suspect there are still plenty of Supercomputer around that are not up to date in that regard

[josefsachs]

Works okay after upgrading to binutils-2.26. Thanks.

[owainkenwayucl]

So I've stumbled across this on RHEL 7.x and there is an issue that USE_BINARYBUILDER_LIBUV=0 doesn't work in Make.user as it seems to be ignored.

Appending it to Make.inc seems to solve the problem.

[owainkenwayucl]

I should add that all USE_BINARYBUILDER settings in Make.user are ignored.