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Re: [OT] libtool .la files have absolute path's in them



On Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 08:10:15PM +0100, Gerhard Muntingh wrote:
> well I really don't like all the absolute paths in the .la files.
> I think all installed files should be location independent.

One reason for not being location independant is security.  You don't
want gpgme to run something else but /usr/bin/gnupg, even if you happen
to get the library installed in some other place.  Having one fixed
place for a program that needs to be trusted is a good thing.  So, gpgme
has the path of gnupg hardcoded in the library.

Libraries are strange beasts.  We tend to think of libraries as they are
available and managed on GNU/Linux, but there are many systems out there,
and a lot of different library systems.  For example, ld.so.conf and the
cache are specific to GNU/Linux, while GNU/Hurd relies exclusively on the
features described in the ELF standard, which says the binary should have
the library path hard coded if it isn't in the system default space.
Now Debian is against RPATH, but because it is not overridable.  The upcoming
ELF standard has RUNPATH for the same purpose, but overridable.
Portability might be the reason for libtool providing absolute pathnames
(I have not investigated this, though, so I might be completely wrong).

> RPM has locationindependant pkg's and Debian doesn't.

Debian has (potentially at least) locationindependant packages, too.
They are just not marked as such.  I doubt that all RPMs are
locationindependant, and I would even make the bold claim that the
set of locationindependant packages is basically the same on both systems,
because location independency is mostly an upstream proprty than a packaging
issue.

Although some programs from GNU, for example, can survive a different
configure prefix than a install prefix, some can't.  You could examine every
case and probably find some cases where this is laziness, and some cases
where this is better than having some other strategy.

Thanks,
Marcus

-- 
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' Debian http://www.debian.org brinkmd@debian.org
Marcus Brinkmann              GNU    http://www.gnu.org    marcus@gnu.org
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de



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