Gentoo distcc compilation error – relocation R_X86_64_32 against .rodata.str1.1 can not be used when making a shared object

In our Gentoo systems we use distcc (distributed builds for C, C++ and Objective C) to build the packages fast! But after we upgraded to GNU GCC 8.2 some of the packages we tried to build failed with:

 0:02.86 /usr/lib64/distcc/bin/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-gcc -std=gnu99 -o nsinstall_real -DXP_UNIX -O2  host_nsinstall.o host_pathsub.o
 0:02.88 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/../../../../x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/bin/ld: host_nsinstall.o: relocation R_X86_64_32 against `.rodata.str1.1' can not be used when making a shared object; recompile with -fPIC
 0:02.88 host_nsinstall.o: error adding symbols: Bad value
 0:02.88 collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
 0:02.88 distcc[528] ERROR: compile (null) on localhost failed

As you know the GNU GCC must be (same versions and) compiled with the same flags on the two systems you use it – the local machine and the distcc build server. So we were pretty sure the GNU GCC is the same version in our local machine and the build distcc server, because the USE flags were the same in /etc/portage/make.conf but executing

gcc -v

showed there is a slight difference.
The local machine

srv.local ~ # gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=/usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/8.2.0/gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/libexec/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Configured with: /var/tmp/portage/sys-devel/gcc-8.2.0-r3/work/gcc-8.2.0/configure --host=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --build=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --bindir=/usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/8.2.0 --includedir=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/include --datadir=/usr/share/gcc-data/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0 --mandir=/usr/share/gcc-data/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/man --infodir=/usr/share/gcc-data/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/info --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/include/g++-v8 --with-python-dir=/share/gcc-data/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/python --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran --enable-obsolete --enable-secureplt --disable-werror --with-system-zlib --enable-nls --without-included-gettext --enable-checking=release --with-bugurl=https://bugs.gentoo.org/ --with-pkgversion='Gentoo 8.2.0-r3 p1.4' --disable-esp --enable-libstdcxx-time --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-multilib --with-multilib-list=m32,m64 --disable-altivec --disable-fixed-point --enable-targets=all --enable-libgomp --disable-libmudflap --disable-libssp --disable-libmpx --disable-systemtap --enable-vtable-verify --enable-libvtv --enable-lto --without-isl --enable-libsanitizer --enable-default-pie --enable-default-ssp
Thread model: posix
gcc version 8.2.0 (Gentoo 8.2.0-r3 p1.4)

The distcc server:

compile ~ # gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/libexec/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Configured with: /var/tmp/portage/sys-devel/gcc-8.2.0-r3/work/gcc-8.2.0/configure --host=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --build=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --bindir=/usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/8.2.0 --includedir=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/include --datadir=/usr/share/gcc-data/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0 --mandir=/usr/share/gcc-data/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/man --infodir=/usr/share/gcc-data/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/info --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/include/g++-v8 --with-python-dir=/share/gcc-data/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.2.0/python --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran --enable-obsolete --enable-secureplt --disable-werror --with-system-zlib --enable-nls --without-included-gettext --enable-checking=release --with-bugurl=https://bugs.gentoo.org/ --with-pkgversion='Gentoo 8.2.0-r3 p1.4' --disable-esp --enable-libstdcxx-time --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-multilib --with-multilib-list=m32,m64 --disable-altivec --disable-fixed-point --enable-targets=all --enable-libgomp --disable-libmudflap --disable-libssp --disable-libmpx --disable-systemtap --enable-vtable-verify --enable-libvtv --enable-lto --without-isl --enable-libsanitizer --disable-default-pie --enable-default-ssp
Thread model: posix
gcc version 8.2.0 (Gentoo 8.2.0-r3 p1.4)

The difference is in local has –enable-default-pie and distcc server has –disable-default-pie

Investigating farther we discovered that the USE make.conf flag is “pie” – https://packages.gentoo.org/useflags/pie and this flag is for “Build programs as Position Independent Executables (a security hardening technique)”. And the problem was the default value on the local machine it was enabled by default and for the remote it was disabled by default –

SO the real problem was the different profiles set on the two servers!

The remote distcc server no one checked and switched to the new portage profile 17 so the server still used the old portage profile 13, where the flag “pie” was excluded.
So change the profile to the same as the local machine and recompile GNU GCC package:

compile ~ # eselect profile set 12
compile ~ # emerge -va gcc

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild   R    ] sys-devel/gcc-8.2.0-r3:8.2.0::gentoo  USE="cxx fortran (multilib) nls nptl openmp pch (pie*) sanitize ssp vtv (-altivec) -debug -doc (-fixed-point) -go -graphite (-hardened) (-jit) (-libssp) -mpx -objc -objc++ -objc-gc -pgo -regression-test -systemtap -vanilla" 0 KiB

Total: 1 package (1 reinstall), Size of downloads: 0 KiB

Would you like to merge these packages? [Yes/No] Yes

As you can see the new flag enabled by “(pie*)”.

So be sure when using distcc the Gentoo portage profiles should be the same on the local and the remote distcc systems or you can end up with fatal differences and compilation errors!

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