Ns2 Building Experiences

building ns2 in linux proves to be troublesome, especially with specific combination of the ns2 versions and os versions. more or less the problems lie in legacy issues of gcc and ns2 source. i collect here my personal experiences of building ns2 over a constantly upgrading linux systems in an "issue-with-patch" manner.

Ns2 version I used in all platforms: ns-2.1b6, tclcl-1.0b8, tcl8.0.4, tk8.0.4, otcl-1.0a4

Fedora Core 3 (gcc3.4.2):
1. compiling tclcl:
tclcl-mappings.h: In static member function `static int TclObjectHelper::dispatch_(void*, Tcl_Interp*, int, char**)':
tclcl-mappings.h:51: error: incomplete type `Tcl' used in nested name specifier
tclcl-mappings.h:52: error: invalid use of undefined type `struct Tcl'
tclcl-mappings.h:41: error: forward declaration of `struct Tcl'
tclcl-mappings.h:57: error: invalid use of undefined type `struct Tcl'
tclcl-mappings.h:41: error: forward declaration of `struct Tcl'
make: *** [Tcl.o] Error 1
[apply the following patch]

 #include "tclcl-config.h"

-#include "tclcl-mappings.h"

#include "tracedvar.h"

+// tclcl-mappings.h included below, AFTER definition of class Tcl



struct Tk_Window_;



@@ -158,6 +158,8 @@

	Tcl_HashTable objs_;

};



+#include "tclcl-mappings.h"

+

class InstVar;



class TclObject {

2. compiling ns2:
locdbase.cc: In member function `virtual int LocDbase::command(int, const char* const*)':
locdbase.cc:67: error: array bound forbidden after parenthesized type-id
locdbase.cc:67: note: try removing the parentheses around the type-id
make: *** [locdbase.o] Error 1
[patch] locdbase.cc:67: table_ = new (MobileNode *)[nn_]; --> table_ = new MobileNode *[nn_];

./arp.h:126: error: `void ARPTable::arprequest(nsaddr_t, nsaddr_t, LL*)' is private
ll.h:82: error: within this context
make: *** [trace-ip.o] Error 1
solution: make the method "public"

Red Hat Linux 8:
1. "memcpy""memset""bcopy""bzero" declarations have collision in string.h
solution: comment the declaration of "bcopy" and "bzero" in /usr/include/string.h
2. "friend declaration requires class-key"
solution: add 'class'or 'struct' after keyword 'friend'
3. rap/utilities.h:59:9: "and" cannot be used as a macro name as it is an operator in C++, rap/utilities.h:60:9: "or" cannot be used as a macro name as it is an operator in C++
solution: comment "and" and "or" macro definition in file rap/utilities.h
4. some error message may be given like this: 'default argument is given after the specification ...', which means no need to specify default argument when implementing.
solution: remove the default value specified in the function implementation part.