Re: Failure to use -lnsl on Solaris with AC_CHECK_LIB

[Warren Young]

Russ Allbery wrote:
> Well, Autoconf has never handled this automatically for anyone else.  :)

I don't do any specific checks for libnsl currently, yet it gets linked 
automatically when build the program on Linux, at least.  How is that 
need discovered, if not automatically by autoconf?  I also see it 
picking up other libraries, too, like zlib.  Is it somehow chasing 
library dependencies?

> dnl The rat's nest of networking libraries.  The common cases are not to
> dnl need any extra libraries, or to need -lsocket -lnsl.  We need to avoid
> dnl linking with libnsl unless we need it, though, since on some OSes where
> dnl it isn't necessary it will totally break networking.  Unisys also
> dnl includes gethostbyname in libsocket but needs libnsl for socket().

That comment alone is very reassuring.  Seriously: I've used some of 
those platforms, and you're right.  :)

Thanks for this.  I'll have the person who reported the problem try it.