Re: [Nasm-users] problem with installation

[Frank K. <fbk...@ve...>]

RG Nurrahmat wrote:
> Hi everyone,  
>  
> I am having problem with installing .bz2 file (NASM source) from 
> ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/software/devel/nasm/source/nasm-0.98.39.tar.bz2 
> , however, during installation with (MINGW32) MSys, I had this error  
> configure: error: NASM requires ISO C99 (specifically, "snprintf") 
> after I typed the following, 
> ./configure --prefix=/usr 
>  
> according to 
> http://arrozcru.no-ip.org/ffmpeg_wiki/tiki-index.php?page=NASM , these 
> are what I have to type 
> ./configure --prefix=/usr 
> make 
> mkdir -p /usr/man/man1 
> make install 
>  
> Thank you for your help.

Hi RG,

Yeah, Nasm requires C99 compliance - at least partial - for versions 
0.98.39 and up. The reason is that 0.98.38 and less had a potentially 
exploitable buffer overflow (more than one, I guess). Simply 
*assembling* some "malicious source code" could compromise your machine. 
(I don't think such "malicious source code" exists, besides the demo, 
but...) So reverting to 0.98.38 - which should "build anywhere" - is an 
option, but with risks.

I was under the impression that "almost any" compiler would conform to 
C99 by now, but it turns out "almost none" of 'em do. I thought Mingw 
gcc was fine... but this "bug report" suggests that C99 is a recent 
addition:

<http://www.mail-archive.com/deb...@li.../msg392485.html>

So I don't know what to make of that. If your gcc version is "old", 
updating it might help. (3.4.5 current?) Also, 0.99.04 is almost "ready 
for the world". That broke "build anywhere" even worse than 0.98.39, but 
workarounds for compilers that aren't happy with Nasm are being put in 
place. You *might* have better luck with the newer code - I wouldn't 
want to guarantee it. The "latest and greatest" - source *and* various 
executables... and docs - is available as a "nightly snapshot" at:

ftp://ftp.zytor.com/pub/nasm/snapshots/

You really *shouldn't* need the very latest compiler version to build 
Nasm, but I'm afraid perhaps you do... Probably worse with MS or Borland 
tools... Courage!

Best,
Frank