The following patches are currently in our packaging 
system.  A brief summary:

- Use 'cc -shared' to build shared libraries, as is 
strictly correct on OpenBSD.

- Use -fPIC instead of -fpic.

- Use OpenBSD threads.

- Fix the test_fcntl test.

Another patch item will be posted shortly for Python 
2.2, for similar items.

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The -shared chunk looks frightening. What is the first BSD
release where ld -Bshareable stops working? Could you
rearrange this to integrate the version numbers into the
OpenBSD* match? Also, what releases need the ELF test? Could
that be restricted to the older releases, too?

Would it be acceptable to stop supporting OpenBSD 0 and 1?

Is usage of -fPIC correct on OpenBSD 0.x? If not, what is
the first release that supports -fPIC?

It looks like that 'OpenBSD threads' are 'POSIX threads'?
Why does the existing test for Posix threads fail to detect
their presence?

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Okay, well let's comment in this bug then.  Changing the
subject and closing out 554719.  I'll put all patches on
this bug.

I am trying to verify most of this with brad@openbsd.org,
who has contributed some parts of these patches.

On cc -shared, this is my understanding:

-  All OpenBSD ELF architectures have always used cc -shared.

-  Before OpenBSD 2.8, a.out architectures used ld -Bshareable.

-  As of OpenBSD 2.8, cc -shared worked on a.out
architectures as well, and ld -Bshareable became deprecated.
On -fPIC: -fPIC has always worked.  The difference between
-fpic and -fPIC is simply that -fpic is less efficient.

On threads, I am still waiting for an answer from brad@,
this is his change.  I'll ask him again today.

Thanks.

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From brad@:

> There isn't a test for -pthread option so Python will not
correctly
> compile with threads support. Testing for libc_r is NOT
correct.

So, the answer is no, the standard POSIX threads test does
not work.

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What architectures have been using ELF before OpenBSD 2.8?
I'd still like to simplify this logic, perhaps by removing
support for systems that nobody uses anymore.

As for -pthread: the test for OpenBSD specifically should
go. Instead, I propose to integrate this with the -Kpthread
logic: there should be a sequence of options tested, and the
first one shown to enable pthreads should be used. The set
of options should be -Kpthread (for SysV), -pthread (for BSD
and Linux), -pthreads (for gcc on Solaris).

I'd be willing to accept a test-for-system for 2.1, since it
does not have the -Kpthread test, but for 2.2 and 2.3, we
should remove the set of tests used.

Also, why does it AC_DEFINE _REENTRANT and _POSIX_THREADS?
Those two should be implied by -pthread.

Also, what OpenBSD releases could be deprecated without
losing users?

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Are you still interested in this patch? If so, what are the
answers to these questions?

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I am no longer involved in OpenBSD.  Chris Humphries took
over the Python ports, he is reachable at
<chumphries@drauku.net>.  I let him know about these patches
in early July.

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Ok, closing this patch. If Chris Humphries shows any
interest, we can reopen it, or he can submit a new patch.