openssh unix dev - Nov 2001 - FYI dsa_lib.c and dh_lib.c in openssl-0.9.6b and latest snapshot

Hello,

I am writing to comment on problems I have seen in the past that are currently
still problems with compiling OpenSSH with the Sun Forte Compiler version 6
update 2 and gcc on Solaris 8 (not suprising since the problems are actually in
the openssl code). I used the snapshot from 11/4 for this test on a brand new
system I built from the July release of Solaris 8. I have the latest linker
patches, C, C++ library patches, etc. If you want to see the ouput of showrev,
etc I can provide this. People in the past suggested that I apply the latest
linker patch in the past to fix the problem, however that is not true. The only
way I can compile openssh and have it work is to do the following suggest from
people on this list. Others should be able to replicate my problems easily. I am
reporting back now, because I finally got a chance to rejump my Ultra10 that I
used to do the compile. If nobody else has these problems then something else
must be wrong on my machine, but I don't see what.

I built the following from source with Sun Forte 6 update 2:

zlib 1.1.3
openssl 0.9.6b
tcp_wrappers
skey libraries
prngd0.9.23

(Oh and skey does not work...it fails checking for skey_keyinfo... no config
error missing s/key libraries...I was able to compile and install skey without
problems as long as I used gnu-make...but openssh snapshot from 11/4 can not
find the libraries...so I think something is wrong there as well.)

The compilation options I used for various code are documented in the Sun
Blueprint "Building and Deploying OpenSSH for the Solaris Operating
Environment"

The source changes I made are below for openssl (suggested by several here):

Please change line 69 in openssl-0.9.6b/crypto/dsa/dsa_lib.c from
  static DSA_METHOD *default_DSA_method;
to 
  static DSA_METHOD *default_DSA_method = NULL;

I just found another of these beasts in crypto/dh/dh_lib.c. Change
  static const DH_METHOD *default_DH_method;
to
  static const DH_METHOD *default_DH_method = NULL;

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> Scott Burch wrote:
[]
> The source changes I made are below for openssl (suggested by several
here):
> 
> Please change line 69 in openssl-0.9.6b/crypto/dsa/dsa_lib.c from
>   static DSA_METHOD *default_DSA_method;
> to
>   static DSA_METHOD *default_DSA_method = NULL;
Hmmm...
Such variables should be initialized by a compiler/linker/whatether.
Interesting to see if this is in some C specs or not.  Gcc with
GNU ld will definitely initialize the variable in question to
zero (NULL = 0, isn't it?).  Note for example numerous flame wars
on linux-kernel when Linus rejected a patch that contains
initializations like this -- due to resulting executable growth.
That is, without initializer, code works just like with it, but
an initializer makes resulting executable bigger.  I almost shure
this is a bug in compiler or linker and NOT in the code, but I
don't know specs that says so.  Well, those static variables can
be initialized explicitly as a work around buggy compiling
environment...

Regards,
 Michael.