[issue26439] ctypes.util.find_library fails when ldconfig/glibc not available (e.g., AIX)

[Michael Felt]

Michael Felt added the comment:

it was, partly, about the technical details - but I feel I have found the key bits - /full/path/libNAME.a(libNAME.so) + dlflags RTLD_NOW + RTLD_MEMBER for "native" AIX support.

Additionally, a patch should not break what might be working for some (via google I read of suggestions for other languages, e.g., java, where .so members are extracted or installed side-by-side with the .a archive) - as the IBM run-rime loader also accepts/looks for both .a and .so. And/or for when /sbin/ldconfig is available. And when available, is this used as last case, or preferred?

Lastly, we cannot assume we will know the name of the member based on the name of the library. In many cases, e.g., libiconv.a the IBM names are shr.o, shr4.o and shr4_64.o - and these are the only member names unless GNU libiconv.a has been added (and then libconv.a also contains libiconv.so.2 (so version support is also desired!)) in both 32 and 64 bit mode.

One technical detail I have not been able to discover yet: how to determine whether in 32-bit or 64-bit mode. This will be important for libraries that have shr4.o and shr4_64.o as the members that need to be dlopened.

Lastly: about adding the "stanza": python is a new language for me. Any assistance with a patch - to keep it properly 'pythonized'

In short, I shall continue my studies/learning. Assistance from anyone wiser than me is welcome!

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<http://bugs.python.org/issue26439>
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