[SOLVED] problems compiling mailx 12.5

After upgrading to Slackware 15.0, it included a new version of mailx 14.9.23. The new "features" break all the old scripts using mailx and introduced a much more complicated search syntax, among numerous other problems. Why a little used mail client that is at least 30 years old needed a major upgrade that is not backward compatible escapes me, but I'll spare further ranting.

I have downloaded the source files for mailx 12.5. When I try to 'make' it, I get the following errors:

/usr/bin/ld: openssl.o: in function `ssl_rand_init':
openssl.c:(.text+0x124): undefined reference to `RAND_egd'
/usr/bin/ld: openssl.o: in function `ssl_select_method':
openssl.c:(.text+0x449): undefined reference to `SSLv2_client_method'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [Makefile:92: mailx] Error 1

The download included a patch with description as follows:

Submitted By: Ken Moffat <ken at linuxfromscratch dot org>
Date: 2014-12-27
Initial Package Version: 12.5
Upstream Status: Unknown
Origin: Changes to remove SSL2 found at debian, remainder from redhat.
Description: Removes support for SSL2 (openssl no longer supports it)
and fixes CVE-2004-2771 [sic] and CVE-2014-7844.

I applied this patch:

# patch < ../heirloom-mailx-12.5-fixes-1.patch 
patching file extern.h
patching file fio.c
patching file mailx.1
patching file names.c
patching file openssl.c
patching file sendout.c

but when re-making I still get the first two errors:

/usr/bin/ld: openssl.o: in function `ssl_rand_init':
openssl.c:(.text+0x124): undefined reference to `RAND_egd'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [Makefile:92: mailx] Error 1

I don't know why I would need SSL in a text editor; could I possible NOT call RAND_egd?

Any ideas as to how I can fix these two errors?

Originally Posted by mfoley After upgrading to Slackware 15.0, it included a new version of mailx 14.9.23. The new "features" break all the old scripts using mailx and introduced a much more complicated search syntax, among numerous other problems. Why a little used mail client that is at least 30 years old needed a major upgrade that is not backward compatible escapes me, but I'll spare further ranting. I have downloaded the source files for mailx 12.5. When I try to 'make' it, I get the following errors: /usr/bin/ld: openssl.o: in function `ssl_rand_init': openssl.c:(.text+0x124): undefined reference to `RAND_egd' /usr/bin/ld: openssl.o: in function `ssl_select_method': openssl.c:(.text+0x449): undefined reference to `SSLv2_client_method' collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status make: *** [Makefile:92: mailx] Error 1 The download included a patch with description as follows: Submitted By: Ken Moffat <ken at linuxfromscratch dot org> Date: 2014-12-27 Initial Package Version: 12.5 Upstream Status: Unknown Origin: Changes to remove SSL2 found at debian, remainder from redhat. Description: Removes support for SSL2 (openssl no longer supports it) and fixes CVE-2004-2771 [sic] and CVE-2014-7844. I applied this patch: # patch < ../heirloom-mailx-12.5-fixes-1.patch patching file extern.h patching file fio.c patching file mailx.1 patching file names.c patching file openssl.c patching file sendout.c but when re-making I still get the first two errors: /usr/bin/ld: openssl.o: in function `ssl_rand_init': openssl.c:(.text+0x124): undefined reference to `RAND_egd' collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status make: *** [Makefile:92: mailx] Error 1 I don't know why I would need SSL in a text editor; could I possible NOT call RAND_egd? Any ideas as to how I can fix these two errors?

According to this, after patching you should use sed:

patch -Np1 -i ../heirloom-mailx-12.5-fixes-1.patch &&

sed 's@<openssl@<openssl-1.0/openssl@' \
    -i openssl.c fio.c makeconfig      &&

make -j1 LDFLAGS+="-L /usr/lib/openssl/" \
         SENDMAIL=/usr/sbin/sendmail

bathory, I will hang onto that link for future reference. I did get it running. The ssl_rand_init() function in openssl.c was the problem. I simply commented out the original function body:

static int ssl_rand_init(void)
{
    return 0;
}

So far, that seems to work. I'm not entirely sure why SSL is needed for a text editor. The commentary in this programs says:

* OpenSSL client implementation according to: John Viega, Matt Messier, * Pravir Chandra: Network Security with OpenSSL. Sebastopol, CA 2002.

which doesn't give much insight into its use. For my part, I don't see a need for SSL when edit text files on my local computer.