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How do I build the HDF4 library so that it will link with the Hyrax HDF4 handler?

Submitted by jimg on Fri, 06/08/2012 - 11:06
Answer

To build hdf4 so that it will link with our handler you have to do several things just a little differently than a normal build.

  1. Build the jpeg library specially
  2. Build the HDF4 library specially
  3. Optionally, build hdf-eos2

Here's how:

Assumption: $prefix is the root of a shrew source checkout. If you're not using the shrew SVN project, then you should read the explanation.

The short version, without explanation:

  • For jpeg-6b: ./configure CFLAGS="-O2 -fPIC" --prefix=$prefix/deps/jpeg-6b; make; make install
  • For HDF4: ./configure --disable-fortran --enable-production --enable-shared --disable-netcdf --with-jpeg=$prefix/src/dependencies/src/jpeg-6b,$prefix/src/dependencies/src/jpeg-6b --prefix=$prefix/deps/hdf-4.2.5; make; make install
  • For hdf-eos2: ./configure CC=/$prefix/deps/hdf-4.2.5/bin/h4cc --disable-fortran --enable-production --enable-install-include --with-pic --with-hdf4=$prefix/deps/hdf-4.2.5 --prefix=$prefix/deps/hdf-eos2; make; make install

Now with more words:

  1. To build the jpeg library, get a fresh source distribution of the jpeg-6b source (later versions might work). When you configure the jpeg source, set the environment variable CFLAGS like this CFLAGS="-O2 -fPIC". You can do that all on one command line by running configure like: ./configure CFLAGS="-O2 -fPIC" --prefix=/some/special/place. The value of the --prefix option determines where the four executable programs will be installed; the library (a static library) and includes will stay in the source directory.
  2. When you build HDF4, use the following options to configure: disable-fortran, enable-production, enable-shared, disable-netcdf, with-jpeg and prefix. Of those enable-shared and with-jpeg are the ones you absolutely must have; the others are simpley a good idea. Again, this is for a copy of HDF4 that will be used only by the Hyrax server. The configure command looks like: ./configure --disable-fortran --enable-production --enable-shared --disable-netcdf --with-jpeg=/the/jpeg-6b/source/dir,/the/jpeg-6b/source/dir --prefix=$prefix.
    1. Pay special attention to the --with-jpeg option's value: It is the path to the source directory, listed twice (if instead you list just one directory, hdf4 expects to find the lib in /path/lib and the includes in /path/include, so you'll have to make those dirs and copy the library and includes by hand).
    2. Note that we don't recommend using the --with-szip option because few files use that and it will break linking with hdf-eos. Once built, install the library and you're ready to build the handler or...
  3. Build the hdf-eos2 library. For this build you will need to tell configure to use a non-standard compiler and provide a fair number of other options. You 'change compilers' using a special value for the CC environment variable. Here's how you run configure: ./configure CC=/home/jimg/src/hyrax_1.8_release/deps/hdf-4.2.5/bin/h4cc --disable-fortran --enable-production --enable-install-include --with-pic --with-hdf4=/path/to/hdf4 --prefix=/path/for/hdf-eos2