Re: libtool wants to install LIBRARY.lai, but it doesn't exist

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Marc,

* Marc Singer wrote on Thu, Mar 31, 2005 at 07:49:20PM CEST:
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2005 at 10:39:09AM +0200, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> > * Marc Singer wrote on Thu, Mar 31, 2005 at 10:10:15AM CEST:
> > 
> > Almost right.  :)
> > branch-1-5: ltmain.in -> ltmain.sh -> libtool
> > branch-2-0/HEAD: config/ltmain.m4sh -> config/ltmain.sh -> libtool.
> 
> Hmm.  On Debian, the file is called /usr/share/libtool/ltmain.m4.

What?  packages.debian.org shows no such file.

*snip*
> > This description is, umm, well, a description.  Not precise enough to do
> > anything.
> 
> Notice that I'm not asking for anything.

Sure.  But I am.  I'm asking for a decent problem description.  :)
To put it another way: I would _like_ to do something, or have something
done about these issues.  As maintainer, vague problem reports or ones
without feedback are almost like no bugreport at all.  Don't take this
personal, it's just that there are enough mails written for nothing.
(Not that I won't forget about bugs -- I'm not much better than the
other side.)

> > > By making sure that all of the .la files are proper, I've eliminated
> > > the error.  Part of the trouble is that I want to build with the
> > > prefix as /usr so that the packages can install correctly.  As yet,
> > > this may be something I have to relinquish.  It's kindofa nuisance
> > > because libtool/autotools pass an -rpath $(libdir) for the linking
> > > phase which means that the local system's libraries are always
> > > available.
> > 
> > We should look into using some DESTDIR-like information at link time to
> > override this.  Noone has volunteered for auditing libtool for this yet,
> > the patches I've seen so far have done only patchwork.
> 
> IMHO, the DESTDIR mechanism is insufficient because packages assume
> that $(prefix) is valid at build-time.  For example the .la files.  I
> think the build model needs to be augmented to split the runtime paths
> and the build-time paths.

I know.  That's why I wrote DESTDIR-like.  But point taken, I should've
noted that more clearly.

> > > The one thing that would help straight away would be a way to get the
> > > autotools to put 'set -x' in libtool.  I've been doing it by hand.
> > > It's been the only effect method of debugging.
> > 
> > Use --debug.  Set
> >   LIBTOOLFLAGS=--debug
> > when using a recent Automake.  Note that branch-2-0/HEAD Libtool have
> > slightly better `set -x' support for ksh's.
> 
> Is there some place I should have looked to find this?  This is what I
> mean about autotools being a challenge.

Hmm. --debug is mentioned in `libtool --help' and in
  info libtool Invoking libtool.
LIBTOOLFLAGS has been added to Automake only very recently, but a doc
update went in there as well.  Searching for `set -x' in libtool finds
it right away as well.  Where would you have expected it?

Regards,
Ralf