Re: removal of .la files from Debian and a possible solution to the libtool shared libs problem

[Anssi Hannula]

Paul Wise wrote:
> Just so you know, Debian is removing all .la files where possible or
> emptying dependency_libs where not possible:
> 
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2009/08/msg00783.html
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2009/08/threads.html#00217
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2009/08/thrd2.html#00783
> 
> Would it be possible to implement dependency_libs_shared or similar in
> libtool? More information about this idea is here:
> 
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2009/08/msg00218.html
> 
> This would allow static linking to continue, but also remove many
> unneeded dependencies.

I don't understand what the proposed dependency_libs_shared would be for.

dependency_libs contains the dependencies of a library. These are needed
when linking statically. These are also needed when linking dynamically,
but only on certain systems (they are not needed on normal linux systems).

I think the proper way to solve this is to not link to dependency_libs
when linking dynamically on systems where it is not needed to link to
those. I haven't seen any correctly working patches that implement this.

-- 
Anssi Hannula