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find_library broken for binutils >= 2.32 / 2.34 #84916
Description
| BPO | 40739 |
|---|---|
| Nosy | @vsajip, @amauryfa, @abalkin, @meadori, @FRidh |
Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.
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GitHub fields:
assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2020-05-23.07:41:27.686>
labels = ['type-bug', '3.8', '3.9', '3.10', 'ctypes', '3.7']
title = 'find_library broken for binutils >= 2.32 / 2.34'
updated_at = <Date 2020-05-24.08:50:11.618>
user = 'https://github.com/FRidh'bugs.python.org fields:
activity = <Date 2020-05-24.08:50:11.618>
actor = 'SilentGhost'
assignee = 'none'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['ctypes']
creation = <Date 2020-05-23.07:41:27.686>
creator = 'Frederik Rietdijk'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 40739
keywords = []
message_count = 2.0
messages = ['369699', '369701']
nosy_count = 5.0
nosy_names = ['vinay.sajip', 'amaury.forgeotdarc', 'belopolsky', 'meador.inge', 'Frederik Rietdijk']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = None
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue40739'
versions = ['Python 3.7', 'Python 3.8', 'Python 3.9', 'Python 3.10']
Activity
FRidh commentedon May 23, 2020
With binutils 2.34 Python 3 (any version) the following returns None
instead of the requested library which we think may be caused by https://sourceware.org/git/?p=binutils-gdb.git;a=commit;h=727a29badd95a68d08b86fec0b98702ce756c660
which is included in binutils 2.32 and up.
With binutils at 2.31 we got
# recent unstable
$ nix-shell --pure -p hello --run 'ld -t -o /dev/null -lc'
/nix/store/a57856fs4m8ir6vlv14h3gq3sv9aq2lb-binutils-2.31.1/bin/ld: mode elf_x86_64
/nix/store/nwsn18fysga1n5s0bj4jp4wfwvlbx8b1-glibc-2.30/lib/libc.so.6
/nix/store/nwsn18fysga1n5s0bj4jp4wfwvlbx8b1-glibc-2.30/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
/nix/store/nwsn18fysga1n5s0bj4jp4wfwvlbx8b1-glibc-2.30/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
/nix/store/a57856fs4m8ir6vlv14h3gq3sv9aq2lb-binutils-2.31.1/bin/ld: warning: cannot find entry symbol _start; not setting start address
however with 2.34 we get
# current staging
$ nix-shell --pure -p hello --run 'ld -t -o /dev/null -lc'
/nix/store/j1l6ds4mhm97nqw965w9sg07i9fric4d-glibc-2.30/lib/libc.so
/nix/store/j1l6ds4mhm97nqw965w9sg07i9fric4d-glibc-2.30/lib/libc.so.6
/nix/store/j1l6ds4mhm97nqw965w9sg07i9fric4d-glibc-2.30/lib/libc_nonshared.a
/nix/store/j1l6ds4mhm97nqw965w9sg07i9fric4d-glibc-2.30/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
/nix/store/j1l6ds4mhm97nqw965w9sg07i9fric4d-glibc-2.30/lib/libc_nonshared.a
/nix/store/j1l6ds4mhm97nqw965w9sg07i9fric4d-glibc-2.30/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
/nix/store/j284mk8hdv9ccxfdlhcdk1lg2jml4fhk-binutils-2.34/bin/ld: warning: cannot find entry symbol _start; not setting start address
The text-file libc.so is present which find_library cannot handle.
I suppose the regex needs to be fixed to exclude these references or otherwise handle them. It may be a bit late for binutils to revert their change.
Note this issue was discovered with the CFFI test suite https://foss.heptapod.net/pypy/cffi/blob/2aa5775ffdd6a911e9f40e3c2f5ba766155349c5/c/test_c.py#L60
Nixpkgs issue: NixOS/nixpkgs#86954 (comment)
FRidh commentedon May 23, 2020
I suppose this issue was not found yet because a) regression testing is done with ubuntu 18.04 LTS which uses binutils 2.30 and b) it, along with most distro's, will use ldconfig, which we in Nixpkgs have patched out.
encukou commentedon Feb 23, 2026
I'm proposing to soft-deprecate
ctypes.util.find_library: https://discuss.python.org/t/106232encukou commentedon Mar 20, 2026
It is now soft-deprecated. It cannot be made to work correctly and consistently on all platforms, and any change runs a chance to break whatever workarounds people already have in place.
I'm prioritizing stability over new features, and encourage solving this outside ctypes itself.
Also,
find_libraryis now documented to depend onldconfigand such.