After much work by Jeff and myself, and quite a lot of discussion, it has become clear that we simply cannot resolve the infinite loops caused by RML-involved subsystems calling orte_output. The original rationale for the change to orte_output has also been reduced by shifting the output of XML-formatted vs human readable messages to an alternative approach.
I have globally replaced the orte_output/ORTE_OUTPUT calls in the code base, as well as the corresponding .h file name. I have test compiled and run this on the various environments within my reach, so hopefully this will prove minimally disruptive.
This commit was SVN r18619.