Re: Code from installed libtexinfo.so.0 run for non-installed texi2any

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2023 09:20:37 +0100
> From: pertusus@free.fr
> Cc: Gavin Smith <gavinsmith0123@gmail.com>, bug-texinfo@gnu.org
> 
> On Sun, Nov 05, 2023 at 09:59:44PM +0200, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > 
> > I don't have any libtexinfo shared library here, and I don't see one
> > being built, let alone installed, as part of Texinfo.  is this
> > something new in the development sources?  If so, what code is linked
> > into libtexinfo?
> 
> Yes, it is new.  In Texinfo we use a lot XS objects, which are C code
> with a specific interface that allows them to be loaded (dlopen'ed) by
> perl to replace pure perl functions by C functions.  This allows to use
> perl as a high level language, and C for speed.
> 
> libtexinfo corresponds to the 'pure' C common code that performs the
> computations needed for texi2any, working on C data only (no direct use
> of any perl data).  It is used by many XS objects, it is an internal
> library to be used, for now, only by those XS objects.
> 
> There is another new library, libtexinfoxs, for the 'perl C' common code
> used by those XS objects, that does the interface between C data and
> perl data.  This code is even more tied to the XS objects.  The two
> libraries are separate to clearly separate the code that does the
> computations (libtexinfo), that is not related to perl at all and the
> code used to interface C data and perl (libtexinfoxs).

Do these two replace the several *XS shared libraries we had until
Texinfo 7.1, or are they in addition to them?

In any case, it sounds like these libraries should be installed where
we were installing the *XS shared libraries till now.