JS Frequently Asked Questions

• The configure script fails because it can't find some AM_ macros. What should I do?

  The missing macros are distributed in the package. You must just uncomment the following line from the top-level Makefile.am file:

  After this, the aclocal will lookup the automake macros also from the `am' sub-directory.

• The configure script says `warning: the interpreter is not re-entrant'. What does it mean?

  The interpreter uses some system functions that are not re-entrant and they can't be easily make re-entrant. These functions are, for example, drand48(), localtime(), gmtime(). The interpreter uses these functions through the interface, that is defined in the `rentrant.h' file.

  When the interpreter is build against the standard C-library, these functions are fetched from the system library and the resulting interpreter library will not be re-entrant. However, this is not problem, since you shouldn't be using this library - built with normal C-compiler - in multi-threaded programs.

  If you are using threads, you normally notify your C-compiler that it should use the thread versions of some system functions. Likewise, you should tell the JS interpreter that it should replace the non re-entrant functions from the support file of the used thread package. The current version supports Posix threads. The Posix versions of the functions, defined in the `rentrant.h' file, are defined in the `r_pthr.c' file. When the interpreter is configured with the `--with-pthreads' option, the `r_std.c' file is replace with the `r_pthr.c'.

• The interpreter crashes on my Linux box. Strange, isn't it?

  In fact, the jumps byte-code instruction dispatch method fails on your environment. This is probably a bug in you system's C-compiler (gcc). You can fix this by giving option `--disable-jumps' to the configure script:

  $ ./configure --disable-jumps
  

• Why the documentation is so incomplete?

  I (mtr) just haven't had time to finish it. I'll update the documentation in the near future. Plese, just give me a little time to do it.