Configure error on ppc64le GNU/Linux

[eschnett]

I want to build boost +mpi %gcc @10.2.0 via Spack https://github.com/spack/spack on Summit, which is a ppc64le GNU/Linux system. This fails due to a configure error in Boost.

Although Spack calls Boost's bootstrap.sh as expected with --with-toolset=gcc, bootstrap.sh tries to use the xlcc toolset internally. The problem is that bootstrap.sh does not pass the TOOLSET variable as argument to the build.sh script.

This patch solves the problem for me:

diff -u bootstrap.sh.orig bootstrap.sh
--- a/bootstrap.sh.orig	2020-12-03 00:00:59.000000000 -0500
+++ a/bootstrap.sh	2021-01-08 13:38:30.000000000 -0500
@@ -223,7 +223,7 @@
 if test "x$BJAM" = x; then
   $ECHO "Building B2 engine.."
   pwd=`pwd`
-  (cd "$my_dir/tools/build/src/engine" && ./build.sh)
+  (cd "$my_dir/tools/build/src/engine" && ./build.sh "$TOOLSET")
   if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
       echo
       echo "Failed to build B2 build engine"

[grafikrobot]

The behavior of the B2 build.sh not taking the $TOOLSET is intentional. The b2 build.sh determines a toolset to build itself with automatically. If it's picking xlcc it means that's what it's finding as the first available and recognized compiler command. If that's not as intended it would point towards a misconfiguration in the system. I.e. how the spack setup it put together in your case. You have the option of altering the configuration such that g++ is first in the PATH. It would help us give you better answers if you provide the following information: What Boost version are you building? How the build.sh fails? What is the environment when you run the build?

[eschnett]

I am building Boost 1.75.0.

This is how Spack calls Boost:

==> boost: Executing phase: 'install'
==> [2021-01-09-17:59:50.908972] './bootstrap.sh' '--prefix=/autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/schnett/src/CarpetX/spack/opt/spack/linux-rhel7-power9le/gcc-10.2.0/boost-1.75.0-fynzz7kaginesrsesqd44dlbgsil7ege' '--with-toolset=gcc' '--with-libraries=locale,random,wave,atomic,serialization,mpi,iostreams,regex,date_time,exception,log,thread,chrono,graph,system,timer,program_options,filesystem,test,math,graph_parallel'
Building B2 engine..

###
###
### Using 'xlcpp' toolset.
###
###

> /autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/schnett/src/CarpetX/spack/lib/spack/env/gcc/g++ -qversion
g++: error: unrecognized command-line option '-qversion'; did you mean '--version'?

Failed to build B2 build engine

This is PATH:

PATH=/autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/schnett/src/CarpetX/spack/lib/spack/env/gcc:/autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/schnett/src/CarpetX/spack/lib/spack/env/case-insensitive:/autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/schnett/src/CarpetX/spack/lib/spack/env:/autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/schnett/src/CarpetX/spack/opt/spack/linux-rhel7-power9le/gcc-10.2.0/bzip2-1.0.8-4ensukxpdhjtidub7bnogtzmm5hysisc/bin:/autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/schnett/src/CarpetX/spack/opt/spack/linux-rhel7-power9le/gcc-10.2.0/openmpi-4.0.5-iroackgonywitgb2wa5iuceegmx2rqap/bin:/autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/schnett/src/CarpetX/spack/opt/spack/linux-rhel7-power9le/gcc-10.2.0/bzip2-1.0.8-4ensukxpdhjtidub7bnogtzmm5hysisc/bin:/autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/schnett/src/CarpetX/spack/opt/spack/linux-rhel7-power9le/gcc-10.2.0/openmpi-4.0.5-iroackgonywitgb2wa5iuceegmx2rqap/bin:/ccs/home/schnett/src/CarpetX/spack/bin:/sw/sources/lsf-tools/2.0/summit/bin:/sw/summit/xalt/1.2.1/bin:/autofs/nccs-svm1_sw/summit/.swci/1-compute/opt/spack/20180914/linux-rhel7-ppc64le/gcc-4.8.5/darshan-runtime-3.1.7-cnvxicgf5j4ap64qi6v5gxp67hmrjz43/bin:/sw/sources/hpss/bin:/autofs/nccs-svm1_sw/summit/.swci/1-compute/opt/spack/20180914/linux-rhel7-ppc64le/xl-16.1.1-5/spectrum-mpi-10.3.1.2-20200121-p6nrnt6vtvkn356wqg6f74n6jspnpjd2/bin:/sw/summit/xl/16.1.1-5/xlC/16.1.1/bin:/sw/summit/xl/16.1.1-5/xlf/16.1.1/bin:/opt/ibm/spectrumcomputing/lsf/10.1.0.9/linux3.10-glibc2.17-ppc64le-csm/etc:/opt/ibm/spectrumcomputing/lsf/10.1.0.9/linux3.10-glibc2.17-ppc64le-csm/bin:/opt/ibm/csm/bin:/ccs/home/schnett/bin:/ccs/home/schnett/src/spack-tmux/bin:/autofs/nccs-svm1_sw/summit/.swci/0-core/opt/spack/20180914/linux-rhel7-ppc64le/gcc-4.8.5/tmux-2.2-z2cgytxdo3rzw643uj2fiwp7iwqbbbwp/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/opt/ibm/flightlog/bin:/opt/ibutils/bin:/opt/ibm/spectrum_mpi/jsm_pmix/bin:/opt/puppetlabs/bin:/usr/lpp/mmfs/bin

Spack adds GCC to the front of the path, offering both the names c++ and g++. Spack also sets the environment variable CXX to the path of this c++:

CXX=/autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/schnett/src/CarpetX/spack/lib/spack/env/gcc/g++

I assume the following happens:

• The script build.sh is indeed using the GNU compiler. I assume this is so because the environment variable CXX is set.
• The script also decides that it wants to use the xlcpp toolset. I assume this is because the function guess_toolset doesn't look at CXX; instead, the condition is test_uname Linux && test_path xlC_r, i.e. it checks whether xlC_r is present. It is, but later in PATH than GCC.
• Later, the script then passes the argument -qversion to the GNU compiler, which fails, aborting the build.

[grafikrobot]

Indeed that's likely what happens. You can likely resolve it by clearing CXX and CXFLAGS before running bootstrap.sh.

[Rashika101]

Hey!! are you willing to accept new contributors? I am interested into contributing to this repository so, if you could explain a bit more this feature request, it would be great. Thanks