Problem with proposed fix below:

The file ext/oci8/config.m4 (version 1.18) assumes that all entries in $OCI8_DIR/lib/sysliblist and $OCI8_DIR/rdbms/lib/sysliblist begin with "-l", though this is not always the case. On an AIX 4.3.3 system running Oracle 8.0.5 (IBM C compiler 5.0), I have the following in sysliblist:

$ cat $ORACLE_HOME/lib/sysliblist
/lib/crt0_r.o -lc_r -lpthreads -lodm -lm

The OCI8 config.m4 strips any existing "-l" flags, and then passes the bare filenames to AC_ADD_LIBRARY_WITH_PATH(). As a result, a library list such as the following is generated:

-l/lib/crt0_r.o -lc_r -lpthread -lodm -lm

This generates the following error upon compiling:

ld: 0706-006 Cannot find or open library file: -l /lib/crt0_r.o
        ld:open(): A file or directory in the path name does not exist.

I fixed the problem as follows:

$ diff config.m4_1.18 config.m4_new

55c55,56
<       OCI8_SYSLIB="`cat $OCI8_DIR/lib/sysliblist | sed -e 's/-l//g'`"
---
>       AC_ADD_LIBPATH("$OCI8_DIR/lib")
>       OCI8_SYSLIB="`cat $OCI8_DIR/lib/sysliblist`"
57c58,59
<       OCI8_SYSLIB="`cat $OCI8_DIR/rdbms/lib/sysliblist | sed -e 's/-l//g'`"
---
>       AC_ADD_LIBPATH("$OCI8_DIR/rdbms/lib")
>       OCI8_SYSLIB="`cat $OCI8_DIR/rdbms/lib/sysliblist`"
60,64c62
<   if test -n "$OCI8_SYSLIB"; then
<       for oci8_slib in `echo $OCI8_SYSLIB`; do
<         AC_ADD_LIBRARY_WITH_PATH($oci8_slib, "", OCI8_SHARED_LIBADD)
<       done
<   fi
---
>   OCI8_SHARED_LIBADD="$OCI8_SHARED_LIBADD $OCI8_SYSLIB"