Disable rpathing on build

[Flamefire]

It seems that OpenMPIs build process adds rpath entries for all libraries linked.

This leads to problems when custom libraries from different locations are used.
See ofiwg/libfabric#11021 for details of the same issue

Are there any options to disable rpathing the libraries or at least exclude specific paths? E.g. for us it would be enough to exclude /usr/lib64

[jsquyres]

Are you asking about Open MPI's build process or the wrapper compilers?

If you're asking about the wrapper compilers, you should be able to specify --disable-wrapper-rpath when building Open MPI. This affects the behavior of Open MPI's wrapper compilers. You can also edit the text config files of Open MPI's wrapper compilers, too.

If you're asking about Open MPI's build process, can you double check that Open MPI is adding -rpath for /usr/lib64? I could be wrong, but I thought that GNU Libtool only adds -rpath for directories that are not in default library search paths.

More specifically: IIRC, Libtool is who adds the -rpath entries -- Open MPI's build logic doesn't do anything specific there.

[Flamefire]

This is about OpenMPIs build process. And it might indeed be libtool adding that.

GNU Libtool only adds -rpath for directories that are not in default library search paths.

I'd like to verify that. Do you have any further information on that like docs and what is considered "default library search paths"?

[jsquyres]

You can run make V=1 and see the full build commands that Open MPI invokes. You can search through there for -rpath instances.

I did a quick build myself on an Alma 9 VM:

./configure --prefix=$HOME/bogus ...
make V=1 -j 32 |& tee out.txt

Looking in out.txt, I only saw rpath references to $HOME/bogus/lib, even though Open MPI's shared libraries were also linked against shared libraries in system-default locations (/usr/lib and the like).

Worst case, if Open MPI and/or libfabric's build processes put in rpath entries that aren't workable for you, you might try using chrpath(1) to change them after the fact.

[Flamefire]

Yes I see it in the output. It looks like
libtool: link: gcc -Wall -O2 -DNDEBUG ... -pthread -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/lib64

What might be relevant: I have a libxpmem.la file in /usr/lib64

[jsquyres]

What might be relevant: I have a libxpmem.la file in /usr/lib64

That may very well be what's doing it. A .la file is a Libtool Archive, so Libtool may be reading that metadata file and adding an rpath to /usr/lib64.

There's not a lot we can do from the Open MPI side. Some options for you:

1. Try chrpath(1).
2. Remove libxpmem from /usr/lib64 (and presumably install it elsewhere).
3. Or, if xpmem is not the problem, remove other inbox outdated software from /usr/lib64 (and only have newer versions installed elsewhere)
4. Try removing /usr/lib64/libxpmem.la to see if Libtool then doesn't add an rpath for it.

Taking a step back: the real problem may be that you have both old and new versions of library X in multiple different directories. If you have other shared libraries that you're using in this process in the same directory as the old version of library X, then the linker may still end up finding the old version of library X regardless of rpath (based on other factors that you can't control, or would take a bunch of effort for you to control).

Remember: the linker in incredibly complicated. Every time I think I understand the linker, I ultimately discover that I apparently don't know jack about the linker...

[ggouaillardet]

@Flamefire Is there a -L/usr/lib64 in the command line?

[Flamefire]

@ggouaillardet No there is no such flag. But there is -L/usr/lib and IIRC the linker automatically searches the lib64 folder for any lib folder. The resulting command looks like:

gcc -DNDEBUG -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/PMIx/lib -Wl,--enable-new-dtags -o .libs/test_pvar_access test_pvar_access.o -L/software/UCC/lib64 -L/software/UCC/lib -L/software/PRRTE/lib64 -L/software/PRRTE/lib -L/software/PMIx/lib64 -L/software/PMIx/lib -L/software/libfabric/lib64 -L/software/libfabric/lib -L/software/UCX/lib64 -L/software/UCX/lib -L/software/libevent/lib64 -L/software/libevent/lib -L/software/hwloc/lib64 -L/software/hwloc/lib -L/software/zlib/lib64 -L/software/zlib/lib -L/software/pkgconf/lib64 -L/software/pkgconf/lib -L/software/GCCcore/lib64 -L/software/GCCcore/lib ../../ompi/.libs/libmpi.so -L/software/OpenSSL/lib64 -L/software/OpenSSL/lib -L/software/binutils/lib64 -L/software/binutils/lib -L/software/XZ/lib64 -L/software/XZ/lib -L/software/gettext/lib64 -L/software/gettext/lib -L/software/libpciaccess/lib64 -L/software/libpciaccess/lib -L/software/libxml2/lib64 -L/software/libxml2/lib -L/software/numactl/lib64 -L/software/numactl/lib -L/software/Bison/lib64 -L/software/Bison/lib -L/software/flex/lib64 -L/software/flex/lib -L/usr/lib /software/UCC/lib/libucc.so /build>/openmpi-5.0.3/opal/.libs/libopen-pal.so ../../opal/.libs/libopen-pal.so /software/libfabric/lib/libfabric.so -lrdmacm -libverbs -luuid /software/numactl/lib/libnuma.so /software/GCCcore/lib/../lib64/libatomic.so /software/UCX/lib/libucp.so /software/UCX/lib/libuct.so /software/UCX/lib/libucs.so /software/UCX/lib/libucm.so /software/binutils/lib/libbfd.so -liberty -lzstd /software/binutils/lib/libsframe.so /usr/lib64/libxpmem.so -lrt /software/PMIx/lib/libpmix.so -lmunge -lutil /software/libevent/lib/libevent_core.so /software/libevent/lib/libevent_pthreads.so /software/hwloc/lib/libhwloc.so -lpciaccess /software/libxml2/lib/libxml2.so -ldl -lz /software/XZ/lib/liblzma.so -lm -lpthread -pthread -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/OpenMPI/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/UCC/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/libfabric/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/hwloc/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/numactl/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/GCCcore/lib/../lib64 -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/UCX/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/binutils/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/usr/lib64 -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/libevent/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/PMIx/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/libxml2/lib -Wl,-rpath -Wl,/software/XZ/lib