hdf5 fails to build with Xcode 15 / macOS Sonoma

[fxcoudert]

Describe the bug

Compilation with Xcode 15 (on macOS Sonoma) leads to a build error:

  ld: unknown options: -commons 
  clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
  make[1]: *** [H5detect] Error 1

Apple ships with Xcode 15 and macOS Sonoma a new linker, which does not accept the -commons option.

This commons from hdf5 configure at

hdf5/configure.ac

Line 1082 in 95907ba

H5_LDFLAGS="$H5_LDFLAGS -Wl,-commons,use_dylibs"

  ## tell libtool to do the right thing with COMMON symbols, this fixes
  ## corrupt values with COMMON and EQUIVALENCE when building shared
  ## Fortran libraries on OSX with gnu and Intel compilers (HDFFV-2772).
  case "`uname`" in
    Darwin*)
    H5_LDFLAGS="$H5_LDFLAGS -Wl,-commons,use_dylibs"
    ;;
  esac

Expected behavior
Successful install :)

Platform (please complete the following information)

• HDF5 version: 1.14.2
• OS and version: macOS 14.0 (Release Candidate)
• Compiler and version: Xcode 15
• Build system (e.g. CMake, Autotools) and version: autoconf 2.71, automake 1.66.5, libtool 2.4.7
• Any configure options you specified: ./configure --disable-dependency-tracking --disable-silent-rules --enable-build-mode=production --enable-fortran --enable-cxx --prefix=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/hdf5/1.14.2 --with-szlib=/opt/homebrew/opt/libaec
• MPI library and version (parallel HDF5): MPI is not used

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

[fxcoudert]

I've filed the bug with Apple as FB13194355

[Dave-Allured]

@fxcoudert, thank you for the report. Macports users are now running into this, unknown -commons, after updating to Xcode 15 and/or Command Line Tools 15, since 15.0 release three days ago (2023 September 18).
https://trac.macports.org/ticket/68194

[Dave-Allured]

Note: -commons is a fortran-related option. A Macports user has reported that HDF5 1.14.2 without the fortran API option builds fine with Xcode 15.0.

[Dave-Allured]

@fxcoudert, can you test with --enable-fortran removed (or replaced by --disable-fortran)?

[Dave-Allured]

History: -commons was added on 2017 May 23. It has been present in all HDF5 releases since 1.8.19 and 1.10.2. This commit:
133168d

[fxcoudert]

@Dave-Allured we build HDF5 with Fortran support in Homebrew. We've worked around the issue by forcing use of the old linker: Homebrew/homebrew-core#144559

[Dave-Allured]

@fxcoudert, thanks. I will see if that can be worked into Macports.

[brtnfld]

It also will fail with Fortran disabled but with parallel enabled. At least with mpich, since it includes the -commons in the mpicc wrapper.

[Dave-Allured]

-commons is an obscure option that is found only in Mac OS linkers. As cited above:

## ... this fixes corrupt values with COMMON and EQUIVALENCE when
## building shared Fortran libraries on OSX with gnu and Intel compilers

I searched several versions of HDF5 source code. COMMON and EQUIVALENCE were used only in fortran, and only in the 1.8 release series (and maybe earlier), lately in the single file H5f90global.f90.

I believe that -commons is now completely unnecessary for building series 1.10 forward, including fortran. Therefore I recommend removing -commons in all library patches and future releases. This is in preference to down-shifting to the old linker. I have not yet tested anywhere to see if this really works.

Would someone at HDF5 please verify this finding? Thank you.

User programs that use COMMON or EQUIVALENCE will probably still need to compile and link with -commons on Mac.

[brtnfld]

You are correct, it was overlooked when we removed the use of COMMON and EQUIVALENCE in the switch to Fortran 2003. Thanks.

[derobins]

Will also be fixed in 1.10.11 and 1.12.3