Re: Mac OS X library path woes / issues / complaints

[Noah Misch]

On Tue, Jul 26, 2005 at 02:57:29PM -0400, tom fogal wrote:
> Of course, the user has the option of specifying
> LDFLAGS="/opt/local/lib" (or whatever) on their ./configure line, and
> then the configure script finishes. I am of the opinion (and correct me
> if I'm wrong) that unless the user jumped through special hoops when
> compiling/installing software, they should not have to jump through
> special hoops for other software to utilize that install. Arguably

The portable way to configure a package that uses another package installed with
--prefix=$other is `./configure CPPFLAGS=-I$other/include LDFLAGS=-L$other/lib'.

Perhaps INSTALL should document that invocation pattern.  Even so, the need is
common enough to justify providing a shorthand.  I do have a solution in mind.
I hope to be able to contribute it real soon now.

> On the other hand, I don't know how to work around OS X's strange
> linker and unconfigurable default search paths. It seems very strange
> to me that the Mac folk would design it this way; could someone please
> point out what I'm missing?

Facilities like /etc/ld.so.conf are the exception, and one needs access to root
to use them where they do exist.  Passing -I and -L via CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS is
the standard solution.

Your configure script could itself try adding -L/opt/local/lib.  That would
accommodate your Darwinports users.