Bug#168435: debian-policy: Remove the requirement to install static libraries
Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.5.7.0
Severity: wishlist
I suggest the following alteration to the policy:
--- policy.sgml.old 2002-11-09 14:48:01.000000000 +0100
+++ policy.sgml 2002-11-09 16:19:08.000000000 +0100
@@ -5592,12 +5592,12 @@
<sect>
<heading>Libraries</heading>
<p>
- In general, libraries must have a shared version in the
- library package and a static version in the development
- package. The shared version must be compiled with
- <tt>-fPIC</tt>, and the static version must not be. In
- other words, each source unit ( <tt>*.c</tt>, for example,
- for C files) will need to be compiled twice.
+ All libraries must have a shared version in the
+ <tt>lib*</tt> package and may have a static version in the
+ <tt>lib*-dev</tt> package. The shared version must be compiled
+ with <tt>-fPIC</tt>, and the static version must not be. If a
+ package has a shared and a static version, each <tt>*.c</tt>
+ file will need to be compiled twice.
</p>
<p>
In some cases, it is acceptable for a library to be
@@ -5625,13 +5625,6 @@
If a library is available only in static form, then it must follow
the conventions for a development package.
</p>
- <p>
- All libraries must have a shared version in the
- <tt>lib*</tt> package and a static version in the
- <tt>lib*-dev</tt> package. The shared version must be
- compiled with <tt>-fPIC</tt>, and the static version must
- not be. In other words, each <tt>*.c</tt> file will need to
- be compiled twice.</p>
<p>
You must specify the gcc option <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>
Rationale:
The removed paragraph was redundant with the first paragraph of the
section and was moved there.
The main aspect of this proposal is the removed requirement of
including static versions of each library in the corresponding -dev
package. Many modern libraries don't work well as a static library and
usage of static libraries should be deprecated except for a few
specific cases.
This policy change would allow maintainers to decide for themselves,
whether a static version of their library is useful, thereby decreasing
the size of many -dev packages and in turn decreasing download time and
archive size. In the rare cases, where a static library is needed and
the package maintainer doesn't provide it, the user can either request
the inclusion from the maintainer or compile the library his/herself.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux jroger 2.4.19 #1 Don Sep 19 22:32:19 CEST 2002 i686
Locale: LANG=de_DE@euro, LC_CTYPE=de_DE@euro
Versions of packages debian-policy depends on:
ii coreutils [fileutils] 4.5.1-2 The GNU core utilities
ii fileutils 4.5.1-2 GNU file management utilities
-- no debconf information
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