Re: Several questions about libtool

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Fri, 6 Jan 2012, Peter O'Gorman wrote:
> This is still an issue, libtool always adds all dependencies. Many packages 
> assume this and don't explicitly add required dependencies to Makefile.am 
> etc. I don't recall the arguments for not changing this when building shared. 
> IIRC Scott tried to include Debian's patch at some point. I'll look it up in 
> the archives later.

Some systems (e.g. GNU Linux) add library implicit dependencies at 
link time while others (e.g. Solaris) only seem to add them at 
run-time and will fail to link if the dependencies are not also 
listed.  Some systems require that no symbols remain unresolved in 
order to produce a shared library.

Libtool's mode of operation works with static builds and on systems 
where all libraries have to be supplied at link time.

> Perhaps the default should be --enable-shared --disable-static? It's worth 
> considering.

Each package has control over these defaults.  My own package defaults 
to --disable-shared --enable-static because shared libraries should 
not link with static libraries.  Since a shared build implies more 
responsibility, I defaulted to the fail-safe option.

Bob
--
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/