readline and bfd libraries?

[Bdale Garbee <bdale@gag.com>]

We're working on code for ground support of the AMSAT Phase-3D satellite that
needs to use the readline and bfd libraries.  We in this context is one other
member of the development team I support cross-development tools for, and 
myself.  John's running 0.93R6, I'm running something closer to in sync with
the development tree.

We're a bit confused.  For readline, it looks as though there are three 
packages on the ftp server under the development tree.  These are devel/librl,
devel/libreadline, and devel/aout-librl.  I presume from this that the librl
package is the one we want for ELF development?  If so, it appears to me that
only a shared library is being provided, which both shared and archive libs
are present for aout-librl.  Am I correct, and if so, why?  I gather that we
need to use a static link to get debugging to work?  I get the feeling here
that we're victims of work in progress, since I don't understand why both
libreadline and librl packages are out there.

For libbfd, it appears that a shared library is provided as part of the
devel/binutils package.  However, the info pages are not provide, nor is an
archive lib.  Why not?  Are we just the first folks to write code outside the
binutils package that cries out for the bfd library?  I can (and have already)
pull the required pieces from one of my cross-development build trees, but
that seems like a bogus approach.

If we're missing something simple, I hope someone "in the know" can help
clarify the situation.  We'd really like to see the readline and bfd libraries
available as useful pieces of the devel set, since we have strong 
dependencies on both.

Bdale