VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Thu Jan 14 2010 - 23:27:51 CST

Rich,
  You might try using the same version of Tcl I'm using and
see if that has any impact. I had no trouble once I used the
flags I sent along to you. Either way, I do strongly suggest
reporting the problem to the Tcl developers on their bug tracking
site. They are usually pretty responsive, but I don't know how much
testing they do on AIX or if they've even got regular access to an
AIX host machine.

Cheers,
  John

On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 05:03:21PM -0800, Rich Cook wrote:
> Well, that's interesting. Your flags do not help, but I looked at
> that thread and the original poster mentioned that make test failed.
> I tried to do a make test in the Tcl source directory and it fails
> exactly as VMD does. The problem is with Tcl therefore. Sigh.
> I guess I'm going to have to figure out how to make Tcl work on AIX
> here. This is the joy of my job! :-)
>
> On Jan 14, 2010, at 2:44 PM, John Stone wrote:
>
> >
> >Rich,
> > My AIX builds are based on AIX 6.1 on the NCSA "BluePrint" Blue
> >Waters
> >software testbed machine here at Illinois. I'm using Tcl 8.5.6 and I
> >compiled everything from source myself. When I compiled Tcl from
> >source, I had to workaround a bug in the Tcl stack space checking
> >that causes problems on AIX, documented here:
> > http://*old.nabble.com/--tcl-Bugs-1889719---Stack-space-check-fails-
> >on-AIX-td18235084.html
> >
> >For both VMD and NAMD, we compiled Tcl on this AIX 6.x box
> >using configure flags (approximately) like these:
> >
> >define CFLAGS="-DTCL_NO_STACK_CHECK=1" at configure time, or edit the
> >makefile to add that definition.
> >
> >env CC=xlc CFLAGS="-DTCL_NO_STACK_CHECK=1" --prefix=$HOME/tcl85
> >--disable-threads --disable-shared
> >
> >I don't know if using xlc_r matters if you're just linking the
> >library to
> >code that could use pthreadds.
> >
> >More info on AIX stacks: https://*computing.llnl.gov/mpi/
> >aix_stack.html
> >
> >You may want "-bmaxdata:0x80000000" at link time.
> >
> >Cheers,
> > John Stone
> > vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> >
> >On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 01:02:33PM -0800, Rich Cook wrote:
> >>We can also turn this around and let me ask you, what version of Tcl/
> >>Tk did you build against? I don't know what difference the AIX
> >>version would make.
> >>
> >>On Jan 11, 2010, at 5:24 PM, Rich Cook wrote:
> >>
> >>>Hello,
> >>>I have been on the injured list for a bit and am just getting back
> >>>to you. It would be cool to meet you sometime if you ever do drop
> >>>by.
> >>>Here is I think the info you need. I have forgotton how to get the
> >>>AIX version information.
> >>>
> >>>rcook_at_up041 (src): uname -a
> >>>AIX up041 3 5 00C5D6DD4C00
> >>>It's AIX 5.something
> >>>
> >>>Tcl and Tk are both 8.5.8
> >>>
> >>>On Dec 30, 2009, at 11:03 AM, John Stone wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>>Hi Rich,
> >>>>I just got back from your neck of the woods. I passed
> >>>>through Livermore twice last week while I was out in California
> >>>>visiting relatives. Someday I'll have to make a point to visit
> >>>>the lab and some of the people I know there when I'm out that way.
> >>>>
> >>>>Which version of AIX is your machine using? My builds on an AIX
> >>>>6.x
> >>>>test machine at NCSA didn't have any of these problems. I compiled
> >>>>the Tcl/Tk libraries for myself, but I didn't use any particularly
> >>>>unusual build flags for those compiles. In the past with certain
> >>>>versions
> >>>>of AIX and xlc I have had to do things like override the
> >>>>compilation flags
> >>>>to reduce optimization in order to get a stable build, but in my
> >>>>recent
> >>>>builds on the AIX 6.x machine at NCSA I didn't need to do this.
> >>>>If you can tell me which exact Tcl/Tk minor version you're using,
> >>>>I can try doing a build of the same rev and see if this is a
> >>>>problem
> >>>>with Tcl itself or an interaction with VMD and Tcl.
> >>>>
> >>>>Cheers,
> >>>>John Stone
> >>>>vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> >>>>
> >>>>On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 06:08:08PM -0800, Rich Cook wrote:
> >>>>>Yes, I have already done that and can give you any info you need.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>On Dec 17, 2009, at 5:52 PM, John Stone wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>Rich,
> >>>>>>I thought it was crashing in a Tk call, but I don't have your
> >>>>>>traceback in front of me, so that was my vague recollection.
> >>>>>>If it
> >>>>>>is dying in Tcl itself, then we're going to have to figure out
> >>>>>>what
> >>>>>>is actually going on there. Can you recompile your Tcl/Tk
> >>>>>>library
> >>>>>>with
> >>>>>>debugging symbols enabled (i.e. by adding -g to the compilation
> >>>>>>flags)?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>Cheers,
> >>>>>>John
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 05:35:12PM -0800, Rich Cook wrote:
> >>>>>>>It crashes when I disable Tk in the same place as before. I'm
> >>>>>>>confused, because you are telling me to disable Tk but it is
> >>>>>>>crashing
> >>>>>>>in a Tcl call. Is that intentional? I'm recompiling without
> >>>>>>>Tcl
> >>>>>>>and
> >>>>>>>without Tk just to see what happens...
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>--
> >>>>>>NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
> >>>>>>Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
> >>>>>>University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> >>>>>>Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3349
> >>>>>>WWW: http://***www.***ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ Fax: 217-244-6078
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>/* A function that takes a single integer argument and returns
> >>>>>a pointer to a function that takes two integer arguments and
> >>>>>returns a floating-point number. */
> >>>>>float (*func2(int a))(int, int);
> >>>>>Rich Cook
> >>>>>rcook_at_llnl.gov
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>--
> >>>>NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
> >>>>Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
> >>>>University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> >>>>Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3349
> >>>>WWW: http://**www.**ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ Fax: 217-244-6078
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>/* A function that takes a single integer argument and returns
> >>>a pointer to a function that takes two integer arguments and
> >>>returns a floating-point number. */
> >>>float (*func2(int a))(int, int);
> >>>Rich Cook
> >>>rcook_at_llnl.gov
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>/* A function that takes a single integer argument and returns
> >> a pointer to a function that takes two integer arguments and
> >> returns a floating-point number. */
> >>float (*func2(int a))(int, int);
> >>Rich Cook
> >>rcook_at_llnl.gov
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >--
> >NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
> >Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
> >University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> >Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3349
> > WWW: http://*www.*ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ Fax: 217-244-6078
> >
>
>
> /* A function that takes a single integer argument and returns
> a pointer to a function that takes two integer arguments and
> returns a floating-point number. */
> float (*func2(int a))(int, int);
> Rich Cook
> rcook_at_llnl.gov
>
>
> 

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu                 Phone: 217-244-3349
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078