Bug#586313: [new check] Check if package contains .la file

[Laurent Bigonville <bigon@debian.org>]

Le Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:32:55 -0800,
Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> a écrit :

> Laurent Bigonville <bigon@debian.org> writes:
> 
> > diff --git a/checks/shared-libs b/checks/shared-libs
> > index 6fb812d..4ed36cf 100644
> > --- a/checks/shared-libs
> > +++ b/checks/shared-libs
> > @@ -164,18 +164,23 @@ for my $cur_file (@{$info->sorted_index}) {
> >  	local $_;
> >  	open(LAFILE, "< unpacked/$cur_file")
> >  	    or fail("Could not open unpacked/$cur_file for
> > reading!");
> > +	tag "package-installs-la-file", $cur_file;
> 
> I disagree with this check.  There are situations in which one has to
> ship a *.la file with the package (if, for example, the library is
> loaded via libltdl in a way that uses the features of the *.la file),
> and other cases where it's desirable (if, for example, the upstream
> documentation is full of references to the *.la files for loadable
> modules, as was the case for slapd).
> 
> Even for regular libraries, I think this check is premature.  We still
> have libraries that reference *.la files from other libraries, so just
> blindly removing *.la files can cause FTBFS problems.

I've set the severity of this check as wishlist, maybe it could be
tagged as experimental or something, but still the removal of
unneeded .la files is a release goal.

The description should of course point people to documentation that
explain in which cases the .la should stay or not.

Cheers

Laurent Bigonville