New Policy Topic: *.la files in */lib/
Hello!
Currently, a few packages install *.la packages in */lib directories. This
is what I have (far from complete):
root@flora:~# zgrep "lib.*\.la" /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/binutils.list:/usr/lib/libbfd.la
/var/lib/dpkg/info/binutils.list:/usr/lib/libopcodes.la
/var/lib/dpkg/info/debmake.list:/usr/lib/deb-make/etc.last.postinst
/var/lib/dpkg/info/deity.list:/usr/lib/libpkg.la
/var/lib/dpkg/info/deity.list:/usr/lib/libdeity.la
/var/lib/dpkg/info/dpkg.list:/usr/lib/libdpkg.la
Those files are produced by libtool and contain useful (?) information about
shared and static libraries.
Stephan Kulow wrote on debian-devel:
> I'm not a libtool expert, but since I have written this part of gtk--'s
> configure script, I think, I can comment ;)
> This files are not completly useless. If the library is to be dlopened,
> the .la file contains for example the filename of the library. Since this
> differes from one plattform to another, it's recommended to use this
> information.
> The other way to use this file is the way, gtk-- does it: to check, where
> a library is installed. Since gtk uses libtool, it's somehow granted, that
> there is a .la file, where the library is. This is easier than looking for
> .so, .a and .sl.
> Besides that you also can get the version number of the library out of
> this file (even for static libraries).
>
> So I really would recommend to install this files.
>
> Greets, Stephan
I assume that those files are useful to make debian packages more portable (?)
and support auto{make,conf}.
Currently, gtk uses libtool, but the *.la file is not installed. Therefore I
have to change upstream make files to be able to compile gtk--.
For this (not very strong) reasons, I want suggest to make it policy, that
*.la files are installed when libtool is used to compile the library.
Open question: In which package should this file be included, in the library
package or in the *-dev package?
Thank you,
Marcus
--
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