If the errors look something like:
cc -o db_dump185 db_dump185.o ld: Unresolved: dbopen
it means that the Berkeley DB 1.85 code was not found in the standard libraries. To build db_dump185 (the utility that converts Berkeley DB 1.85 and earlier databases to Berkeley DB version 2.X), you must have already built and installed the Berkeley DB version 1.85 code on the system. If the Berkeley DB 1.85 code is not part of the standard libraries used for loading, you will need to edit your Makefile, and change the lines:
DBE= db_dump185.o $(CLOBJS) db_dump185: $(DBE) $(CC) -o $@ $(DBE)
So that the library where the Berkeley DB 1.85 code is found is loaded, e.g.,
DBE= db_dump185.o $(CLOBJS) db_dump185: $(DBE) $(CC) -o $@ $(DBE) -ldb185
See Shared Memory Regions for more information.
Make sure that you're using the right compile-time flags and libraries. See Compiling Threaded Applications for more information.
This is a known bug in Solaris 2.5 and it is fixed by Sun patch 103187-25.