Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 09:54:37 -0500 From: Bryan Drewery <bdrewery@FreeBSD.org> To: Tijl Coosemans <tijl@FreeBSD.org>, Alexander Leidinger <Alexander@leidinger.net> Cc: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: To all port maintainers: libtool Message-ID: <5391D62D.205@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <20140606162736.205806af@kalimero.tijl.coosemans.org> References: <20140508002420.5d37e7f6@kalimero.tijl.coosemans.org> <20140508212756.00000df3@Leidinger.net> <20140509001641.63310821@kalimero.tijl.coosemans.org> <53908119.5040505@FreeBSD.org> <20140605185303.474063c6@kalimero.tijl.coosemans.org> <20140606150224.Horde.DQm9mw37wR_4m0sWWrikjA1@webmail.leidinger.net> <20140606162736.205806af@kalimero.tijl.coosemans.org>
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On 6/6/14, 9:27 AM, Tijl Coosemans wrote: > On Fri, 06 Jun 2014 15:02:24 +0200 Alexander Leidinger wrote: >> Quoting Tijl Coosemans <tijl@freebsd.org> (from Thu, 5 Jun 2014 >> 18:53:03 +0200): >>> On Thu, 05 Jun 2014 09:39:21 -0500 Bryan Drewery wrote: >>>> I don't know what .la files are used for and have no time currently to >>>> research it. >>>> >>>> What is the impact to non-ports consumers of removing .la files? Do they >>>> also need patches to make them build? >>> >>> Removing a .la file is somewhat like a library version bump. Anything >>> that depends on it needs to be recompiled. >> >> I remember from tests waaaaay in the past that not all programs will >> be happy when the .la files are not there. I remember that I once >> tried to remove the .la files but it didn't work as the program wanted >> to open the .la files (after recompile). Maybe libltdl is openening >> them? Did you make some checks/tests in this regard? > > Essentially .la files are small shell scripts that set some variables so > in theory they can be used in all kinds of places, but this seems of > little practical value. Libltdl can open and parse .la files (to find > the name of the .so file it can dlopen) but it can also work directly > with .so files. > > If a program uses .la files directly then the port can't delete them of > course, but so far I haven't encountered such programs. > My main question was non-ports consumers though. What is the impact on them? We're talking a lot about bumping revisions and forcing rebuilds. Will non-ports consumers require rebuild or changes if .la files are missing? Would these non-ports consumers be able to properly build and link without .la files and without modifications? These .la files seem similar to .pc files which are often critical to out-of-tree consumers that assume Linux /usr paths instead of /usr/local paths. -- Regards, Bryan Drewery
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