Linker error related to atan and ntdll on 32-bit Windows

That's a somewhat confusing title, so let me explain in more detail what I mean.

I first noticed this issue when someone couldn't build Idris on 32-bit Windows (using GHC 7.8, 7.10, or 8.0). Trying to link the Idris executable resulted in this cryptic linker error:

Preprocessing executable 'idris' for idris-0.99.1...
[1 of 1] Compiling Main             ( main\Main.hs, dist\build\idris\idris-tmp\Main.o )
Linking dist\build\idris\idris.exe ...
C:/Users/RyanGlScott/Software/ghc-8.0.1-x86/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/5.2.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libmsvcrt.a(dohds01059.o):(.idata$5+0x0): multiple definition of `_imp__atan'
C:/Users/RyanGlScott/Software/ghc-8.0.1-x86/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/5.2.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libntdll.a(dgjjs01967.o):(.idata$5+0x0): first defined here
collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status
`gcc.exe' failed in phase `Linker'. (Exit code: 1)

The culprit was apparently Idris's dependency on the mintty package. The important bit was that mintty lists ntdll as in the extra-libraries stanza of its .cabal file. As it turns out, you can also reproduce this with a more recent version of Win32, which also depends on ntdll. First, run these steps:

$ cabal get Win32
$ cd Win32-2.5.2.0/
$ cabal sandbox init
$ cabal install . -w $(pwd)/../../../../Software/ghc-8.0.1-x86/bin/ghc

This will install the recent Win32-2.5.2.0 in a sandbox (NB: I'm using 32-bit Windows GHC 8.0.1 here). Now create this file (which I named Bug.hs):

module Main (main) where

main :: IO ()
main = print (atan 0.5 :: Double)

And you can reproduce the linker error like so:

$ ../../../../Software/ghc-8.0.1-x86/bin/ghc Bug.hs -package-db .cabal-sandbox/i386-windows-ghc-8.0.1-packages.conf.d/ -package Win32 -fforce-recomp
[1 of 1] Compiling Main             ( Bug.hs, Bug.o )
Linking Bug.exe ...
C:/Users/RyanGlScott/Software/ghc-8.0.1-x86/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/5.2.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libmsvcrt.a(dohds01059.o):(.idata$5+0x0): multiple definition of `_imp__atan'
C:/Users/RyanGlScott/Software/ghc-8.0.1-x86/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/i686-w64-mingw32/5.2.0/../../../../i686-w64-mingw32/lib/../lib/libntdll.a(dgjjs01967.o):(.idata$5+0x0): first defined here
collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status
`gcc.exe' failed in phase `Linker'. (Exit code: 1)

It's important to use 32-bit Windows GHC here, since I am unable to reproduce this with 64-bit Windows GHC.

Trac metadata

Trac field	Value
Version	8.0.1
Type	Bug
TypeOfFailure	OtherFailure
Priority	normal
Resolution	Unresolved
Component	Compiler
Test case
Differential revisions
BlockedBy
Related
Blocking
CC	Phyx-
Operating system
Architecture	x86