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Re: [netcdfgroup] Difficulty configuring NETCDF on Linux QEMU

  • To: Dave Allured - NOAA Affiliate <dave.allured@xxxxxxxx>
  • Subject: Re: [netcdfgroup] Difficulty configuring NETCDF on Linux QEMU
  • From: Alvaro Fernandez <afernandez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 27 May 2025 01:09:49 +0000
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Dave,

Thanks for offering to take a look at the logfile.

I'm attaching it, along with the config.cache I used.

The command used was:

./configure --disable-dap --disable-libxml2 CPPFLAGS="-I/home/root/WRF/include" 
LDFLAGS="-L/home/root/WRF/lib" --host=riscv64-linux-gnu 
--build=riscv64-linux-gnu  --cache-file=config.cache  2>&1  | tee 
configure-net.out



Alvaro


________________________________
From: Dave Allured - NOAA Affiliate <dave.allured@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2025 2:03 PM
To: Alvaro Fernandez <afernandez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: netcdfgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <netcdfgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [netcdfgroup] Difficulty configuring NETCDF on Linux QEMU

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> configure: error: cannot compute sizeof (size_t)

There is a known generic problem in configure scripts.  Internally they use a 
small C program for type checking.  Sometimes that test program fails for some 
other reason, something like library not found; and the error message does not 
report the real problem.  That is probably what is happening here.  A careful 
examination of config.log may reveal the real problem.  Feel free to post 
config.log as link or attachment, and I will take a look.

Alternatively, try building netCDF with Cmake rather than configure.  It uses 
completely different code for testing system features.


On Mon, May 26, 2025 at 11:24 AM Alvaro Fernandez 
<afernandez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:afernandez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Hi,

I'm trying to build NETCDF on (a QEMU emulation of) a RISC-V platform we're 
developing.

I've successfully built other libraries (like HDF5, zlib, etc.) on this QEMU 
with gcc 14.2.0.

However, I am having difficulty completing the configuration phase of the 
NETCDF build process.

This machine will not be accessing the web or pulling down anything, so I 
disabled DAP and XML, and am not giving it curl.

I started with this configure command:

./configure --disable-dap --disable-libxml2 CPPFLAGS="-I/home/root/WRF/include" 
LDFLAGS="-L/home/root/WRF/lib" 2>&1  | tee configure-net.out

But I get errors like:

checking size of size_t... configure: error: in 
'/home/root/repos/netcdf-c-4.9.3':
configure: error: cannot compute sizeof (size_t)
See 'config.log' for more details

I reasoned that the configure script  might be confused about the host or built 
targets, so I decided to be explicit.

Below is the latest attempt. I added the cache file:

root@qemuriscv64:~/repos/netcdf-c-4.9.3# cat config.cache
ac_cv_sizeof_off_t=8

And then I ran:

./configure --disable-dap --disable-libxml2 CPPFLAGS="-I/home/root/WRF/include" 
LDFLAGS="-L/home/root/WRF/lib" --host=riscv64-linux-gnu 
--build=riscv64-linux-gnu  --cache-file=config.cache  2>&1  | tee 
configure-net.out

It fails with the same error.

This error is detected in line 26715 of the configure script.

I see from the comments that this test serves to guard against an error in the 
HP compiler. Is this still a useful test?

I would suspect our toolchain usually, but it's built hdf5 and multiple other 
applications.

Thanks in advance,

Alvaro Fernandez, PhD
Inspire Semi

Attachment: config.cache
Description: config.cache

Attachment: config.log
Description: config.log

Attachment: configure-net.out
Description: configure-net.out