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Re: removal of .la files from Debian and a possible solution to the libt


From: Russ Allbery
Subject: Re: removal of .la files from Debian and a possible solution to the libtool shared libs problem
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:15:53 -0700
User-agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1 (gnu/linux)

Bob Friesenhahn <address@hidden> writes:
> On Tue, 25 Aug 2009, Russ Allbery wrote:

>>> Relying on the OS's implicit dependency features seems to be an
>>> approach which is fraught with peril.

>> Relying on the dynamic linker to resolve implicit dependencies is the
>> only way that it's really feasible to maintain a distribution the size
>> of Debian.  Otherwise, your shared library dependencies get so
>> entangled that it's extremely difficult to correctly handle
>> transitions.

> Note that program/library linkage and the dynamic linker are two
> entirely different things.  Libtool only takes care of the former,
> although it may run ldconfig to assist with the latter.

I know what the difference is.  My point is that adding an explicit
dependency on a shared library whose ABI you do not use directly simply
doesn't scale when maintaining a distribution the size of Debian.  You
have to rely on the dynamic linker to resolve transitive dependencies.  I
mention the dynamic linker because one of the reasons why libtool has this
feature is for platforms where the dynamic linker *cannot* resolve
transitive dependencies and needs the binary to be linked against all
shared libraries, including ones only used indirectly.

-- 
Russ Allbery (address@hidden)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>




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