Re: Trying to get libtool not to add -rpath, since libs are only in a staging directory

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Fri, 28 Nov 2014, Gary V. Vaughan wrote:
> Also, the use of -rpath is fairly deeply ingrained into the way that
> automake generated rules call libtool, so if you want to tackle a complete
> patch, there will be at least some work there too.
>
> I suspect that there is a fairly good chance that the -rpath requirement came
> about because some supported architectures refuse to build shared libraries
> without it, but I have access to only a tiny fraction of the architectures that
> libtool supports so I can't test my hypothesis.
>
> All of that said, I do agree that it is a bug for libtool not to respect
> the value of $DESTDIR when it assembles the rpath directories.  I would think
> a patch should be relatively straight forward though - find the parts of
> ltmain.in that assemble the link line with the rpath directories, and strip
> out any $DESTDIR prefixes from those paths before handing off to the linker.
>
> > I really think libtool should be creating a wrapper script and not a
> > binary with an rpath pointing to the stage directory, am I wrong?
>
> No, I agree with you.

I am not sure what OS is being discussed here since it was never 
mentioned.

GNU ld on GNU/Linux has these options:

  -rpath PATH                 Set runtime shared library search path
  -rpath-link PATH            Set link time shared library search path

Notice that one is the path used for the installed library and the 
other is for linking.  It is more correct to use -rpath-link for 
libraries which are not in their final resting place.  However, the 
libraries do remember the -rpath-link option which was used when they 
were linked, and libraries linked with them inherit the option (to 
support cascading linkage).

Some systems hard code the linker run-time path and this may be 
necessary in order for libtool to support executing built uninstalled 
binaries for testing.  That is why libtool supports a 'finish' mode so 
make sure that finally installed executables contain the correct 
embedded path information.

I don't think that linking against libraries in DESTDIR is portable. 
DESTDIR should be considered an install/copy-only option to support 
packaging.

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