*.la files in xorg* packages

[Jeff Johnson]

On May 30, 2011, at 2:05 PM, Arkadiusz Miskiewicz wrote:

> On Monday 30 of May 2011, Jeff Johnson wrote:
>> On May 30, 2011, at 1:45 PM, Arkadiusz Miskiewicz wrote:
>>> On Monday 30 of May 2011, Tomasz Pala wrote:
>>>> While updating my system I've noticed that xorg* packages still got
>>>> *.la files, while they all got *.pc as well.
>>>> Are there any other (not discussed before) reasons not to remove them?
>>>> Having *.pc was the main rule allowing to do this.
>>> 
>>> No one was brave enough to rebuild all dependencies on ftp.pld- which
>>> would be required if la were dropped.
>> 
>> Is it merely a matter of "bravery" or is there still a need for *.la?
>> 
>> I'm asking the engineering, not the advocacy, question here:
>> 	Are *.la files useful?
> 
> Not useful for dynamic linking, only for static linking sometimes (when pc 
> files are not used).
> 

Thanks (ant to Thomasz) for sane opinions. Re-vositing statically linked RPM
is most definitely one of my todo++ items (and means *.la for all rpm prereq's).

Does PLD attempt to reduce build/install prereq's by doing static linking?

E.g some real world examples I've had to deal w in last 10 days:

I'm working from serentos (RHEL6 clone) bolting on Fedorable devel
packaging, to establish a sane "development" platform.

There are two easy to express "dependency hell" snarls that might
be solved (there are other solutions) by static linking:

1) ossp-uuid -> PHP -> a_whole_lotta_stuff (this started as build prereq and
quickly becomes a hugely painful wrestling match)

2) bitbake -> help2man,tex2html -> a_whole_lotta_ancient_tetex
bitbake is the OpenEmbedded and Poky/Yacto "rpmbuild" without using rpmbuild
that I'm trying to cross-compile for arm5tel images.

(aside)
The ulterior motive in asking is that I'm considering writing the
dependency analysis tool(s) that try to identify the point at which
the transition ... -> a_whole_lotta_stuff might be recognized
automatically. I'm quite sure there's enough sanity in PLD that the
tool(s) aren't critically needed. But _SOME_ objective measurement
is most definitely needed in Fedorable and Mandriva to help unsnarl
prerequsites and identify objectively where a_whole_lotta_stuff
starts to become annoyingly painful with *.rpm packaging.

73 de Jeff
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