Re: Reason for 10.2 -fPIC requirement

[Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>]

Bill Allombert <allomber@math.u-bordeaux.fr> writes:

> My understanding is that policy require to compile with -fPIC, but not
> that the resulting library be PIC, which cover the case above.

This is an unfortunate aspect of the current Policy wording, and I'd
rather see this section reworded to avoid this "feature."  Policy should,
in general, state the requirements for the results, not the means by which
those results are achieved.  Saying that everything must be built with
-fPIC but that it's fine if the option happens to have no effect is a very
un-Policy way of stating something.

If there are specific circumstances under which shared libraries are
allowed to not be PIC, I'd much rather see that stated clearly in Policy
and the reference to the specific GCC option be made informative rather
than normative.

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