--as-needed in GNOME packages

[Loïc Minier <lool+debian@via.ecp.fr>]

        Hi,

 This is a short summary of an issue which was already brought on IRC,
 to summarize the status.

 ~40 GNOME packages use the ld flag "--as-needed" to reduce
 dependencies.  The new toolchain doesn't build such packages anymore on
 some arches, such as alpha and sparc.  This is Debian bug #320697.

 These FTBFS cause RC bugs on the GNOME packages, and hence prevent them
 from entering testing, sometimes blocking other packages.

 Fixing the toolchain seems to be the most logical thing to do.  Any
 other option imply re-uploading these packages, and to reduce
 dependencies without the flag might be achieved if:
 - we relibtoolize upstream packages with Debian's libtool which has a
   special patch to do so, this is a big effort which would happen for
   each new upstream release,
 - fix libtool upstream so that upstream developers use a fixed libtool,
   this is #320698, this would take a lot of time,
 - fix pkg-config as it seems to be responsible for pulling too many
   dependencies, however this change is unlikely to happen for reasons
   beyond my understanding (this change was attempted in the past, and
   has been reverted).

   Bye,
-- 
Loïc Minier <lool@dooz.org>