Re: Relocatable libraries with libtool--can I do it?

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Paul Smith wrote on Thu, Nov 25, 2004 at 01:18:48AM CET:
> Hi all.  I'm having a severe problem with libtool-ized packages, of
> which there are more and more these days, in my environment.  I'm
> wondering if anyone here can suggest how I should proceed; whether
> there's something in libtool that will help me, or whether libtool needs
> enhancements, or what.

Libtool probably needs a little enhancement and some bugfixing.

> My environment involves running in an x86 host running Linux, and
> cross-compiling everything for a different target.  A few extra things
> about this are (a) that we do not use chroot or any similar technology,
> and (b) the entire thing needs to be completely relocatable at any
> time.

Only one question for now (I don't know enough about the problem space
yet), concerning notation:

_Relocatable_ IMHO is a package which can be installed (literally
copied to) in /usr or /usr/local without any difference.

You do not really need *relocatable* libraries, right?  You only do
staged installs (by using DESTDIR), and all you ever move around is the
staging area.  The place where the library will find itself at the time
it is used by ld.so is fixed from the very beginning, right?  This is a
significant simplification and required from libtool's point of view.

Can we agree on this notion of relocation and staging?  It corresponds
to what the Autotools manuals use.

Regards,
Ralf