Compiling 3.x Plugins on AIX

For AIX only, plug-ins built for 3.x versions of the server must be relinked to work with 4.x and 6.x versions. The files you need, which are in the server_root/plugins/nsapi/examples/ directory, are as follows:

• The Makefile file has the -G option instead of the old -bM:SRE -berok- brtl -bnoentry options.

• A script, relink_36plugin, modifies a plug-in built for 3.x versions of the server to work with 4.x and 6.x versions. The script’s comments explain its use.

  Sun Java System Web Server 4.x and 6.x versions are built on AIX 4.2, which natively supports runtime-linking. Because of this, NSAPI plug-ins, which reference symbols in the ns-httpd main executable, must be built with the -G option, which specifies that symbols must be resolved at runtime.

  Previous versions of Sun Java System Web Server, however, were built on AIX 4.1, which did not support native runtime-linking. Sun Java System Web Server had specific additional software to enable plug-ins. No special runtime-linking directives were required to build plug-ins. Because of this, plug-ins that have been built for previous server versions on AIX will not work with Sun Java System Web Server 4.x and 6.x versions as they are.

  However, they can easily be relinked to work with Sun Java System Web Server 4.x and 6.x versions. The relink_36plugin script relinks existing plug-ins. Only the existing plug-in itself is required for the script; original source and .o files are not needed. More specific comments are in the script itself. Since all AIX versions from 4.2 onward natively support runtime-linking, no plug-ins for Sun Java System Web Server versions 4.x and later will need to be relinked.