| Michael Felt
Email aixtools@felt.demon.nl |
From: Libtool <libtool-bounces+aixtools=felt.demon.nl@gnu.org> On Behalf Of Alex Ameen
Sent: Sunday, 10 April 2022 21:47
To: libtool@gnu.org
Subject: Libtool Roadmap
Howdy, a few weeks ago I talked about sending out a road-map.
I've gotten that prepared today. This roadmap is informal, opinionated, and I encourage feedback and discussion on it. I have my own biases and opinions about things I like/dislike and want added based on my `libtool' usage over the years. However, I would be doing a disservice to users if I forced them to adopt "my way of using `libtool'" over their own. With that in mind it's important for y'all to share your own use cases and pain points so that I can address them. This might be more accurately called a "giant RFC dump" than a roadmap, because it's hard for me to imagine that this remains unchanged.
[] …
I have used libtool on AIX with xlc/xlC and generally speaking don’t have any major issues.
Feedback: based on `roadmap` text:
AFAIK – AIX loader does not understand .la or .lt – and, as the comment mentions about packagers – I delete both .la and .lt before packaging. I prefer my shared libraries in AIX archives (macOS terms – fat library), but AIX loader also accepts (default search) `libfoo.SO` as long as it is the correct ABI (32,64-bit).
As to personal preferences – because AIX supports libfoo.a with mixed ABI members I do not like lib64/libfoo.so and lib/libfoo.so solutions.
FYI: I use DESTDIR with `make install` and then package the DESTDIR.
FYI: AIX does not fall over -R, but can influence the libfoo.a(libfoo.EXT) default search path for dependent libraries. Been a while since I have had to look at that. Note: just checked. According to man page -R is only valid when -bsrv4 is also specified. I prefer not to see -bsrv4 on AIX.
For the rest – I guess I am a simple user – as I have never encounter issues with any of them (and wonder if they even have relevance on AIX).
Also, cannot say what the impact is of using the GNU ld program, rather than the (default) AIX ld program.
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LIBTOOL-ROADMAP
Alex Ameen
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Table of Contents
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1. Roadmap
.. 1. Improve `.la' libraries, or phase them out on certain platforms.
..... 1. Libtool should not use `libfoo.la' when `libfoo.EXT' are requested.
..... 2. Make installation of `.lt' libraries optional.
..... 3. Prevent over-linking of ELF binaries.
..... 4. Security
.. 2. Support `$ORIGIN' in ELF binaries’ `RPATH' and `RUNPATH' entries.
.. 3. Avoid use of wrapper scripts for `noinst_' and `nodist_' binaries.
.. 4. Refactor argument parsing, particularly parsing linker flags.
.. 5. Migrate platform, arch, and tool specific conditionals to `autoconf'.
.. 6. Expand usage of `M4SH' for creating `ltmain.sh' and `libtoolize.in'.
.. 7. Simplify `bootstrap' process.
.. 8. Make the creation of test cases more user friendly
.. 9. Create CI pipeline resources for distribution and tool maintainers
.. 10. Permit installable LTLIBRARIES to conditionally be “convenience libraries”