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Re: Release goal: Getting rid of unneeded *.la / emptying dependency_libs



Peter Samuelson <peter@p12n.org> writes:

> As far as I know, there are 3 ways to handle static linking:
> 1) Document somehow what a real link line will look like, or let people
>    figure it out on their own;
> 2) libtool;
> 3) pkg-config.

> So, my upstream does not ship .pc files.  I've thought about creating
> my own .pc files and trying to push them upstream, but haven't got
> around to it yet.  Therefore, if I empty dependency_libs, anyone
> wanting static linking of my library will have to know, a priori, what
> its dependent libraries are.  Is this OK, or should I wait until I have
> time to produce .pc files?

It depends somewhat on the library, but for the average library these
days, I suspect no one is bothering with static linking.  There are a few
special exceptions, but it's been quite some time since anyone's asked me
about static linking for any of the libraries I maintain as upstream.

I know of upstreams that have dropped static linking entirely, including
MIT Kerberos.  That wasn't a completely uncontroversial decision, and they
may introduce it down the road, but the number of people objecting wasn't
that high and I believe it was entirely people using non-Linux systems.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>


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