Re: possible freetype transition; improved library handling needed for all C/C++ packages

[Hamish Moffatt <hamish@debian.org>]

On Tue, Nov 22, 2005 at 02:37:19PM -0800, Steve Langasek wrote:
> Due to upstream ABI changes, it looks very likely that libfreetype is
> going to have to undergo a library transition in the near future[0].
> The details are still being settled, and it's possible (though unlikely)
> that the library will be fixed so that no transition is needed, but in
> the meantime I'd like to leave you all with a public service
> announcement.

[...]

> This email, therefore, is a call-to-arms for maintainers to improve
> the library handling in their packages.  The impetus for this request is
> the prospective freetype transition, but if you maintain *any* packages
> in C and C++, this mail is still addressed to you.

So, I found out that my trustedqsl package is fairly guilty in this
regard. Not in regard to freetype, but it links directly to openssl and
libexpat, even though it doesn't use them. Upstream's autoconf setup
actually does this deliberately.

I've trimmed the configure scripts to avoid this, leaving me with the
link commands for the two binaries being:

g++ -Wall `"/usr/bin/wx-config" --cxxflags` -I/usr/include -I/usr/include -I/usr/include -g -O2  -o tqsl  tqsl.o extwizard.o tqslwiz.o dxcc.o stationdial.o qsodatadialog.o tqslvalidator.o tqsl_prefs.o wxutil.o -pthread -lwx_gtk-2.4 -ltqsllib

g++ -Wall `"/usr/bin/wx-config" --cxxflags` -I/usr/include -I/usr/include -I/usr/include -g -O2  -o tqslcert  tqslcert.o crqwiz.o dxcc.o certtree.o tqslcert_prefs.o getpassword.o extwizard.o loadcertwiz.o wxutil.o -pthread -lwx_gtk-2.4 -ltqsllib

(wx-config --libs says "-pthread -lwx_gtk-2.4").

However, my built package depends on zlib1g, which it doesn't use
directly and doesn't -l during link. 

I'd welcome any suggestions on how this might be... dpkg-shlibdeps bug?

thanks

Hamish
-- 
Hamish Moffatt VK3SB <hamish@debian.org> <hamish@cloud.net.au>