Re: removal of .la files from Debian and a possible solution to the libtool shared libs problem

[Anssi Hannula]

Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> * Bob Friesenhahn wrote on Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 05:01:18AM CEST:
>> Is someone here willing to contribute a portable m4 macro which
>> tests the compiler (and/or linker) to prove beyond a shadow of a
>> doubt that it adequately supports the implicit linkage required? The
>> tests should work for more than Linux and should be based on
>> observed behavior.
> 
> Is support in Debian full now?

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

> Do dlopen'ed modules that have indirect
> dependencies outside of default-searched library paths get loaded
> correctly now, with DT_RPATH entries only pointing to direct deplibs
> (and recursively for their DT_RPATH entries)?

This works fine without linking in dependency_libs. I continue the test
from my earlier message:

$ cd ../enchant-1.4.2
$ ./configure --prefix=/home/anssi/odd/usr \
        --libdir=/home/anssi/odd/usr/lib \
        LDFLAGS=-L/home/anssi/odd/usr/lib \
        CPPFLAGS=-I/home/anssi/odd/usr/include
$ make && make install
$ sed -i "s,^dependency_libs=.*$,dependency_libs=''," \
        /home/anssi/odd/usr/lib/libenchant.la \
        /home/anssi/odd/usr/lib/enchant/libenchant_*.la
$ /home/anssi/odd/usr/bin/enchant-lsmod | grep voikko
voikko (Voikko Provider)

$ objdump -p /home/anssi/odd/usr/lib/enchant/libenchant_voikko.so | grep
-e NEEDED.*voik -e RPA
  NEEDED               libvoikko.so.1
  RPATH                /home/anssi/odd/usr/lib

$ objdump -p /home/anssi/odd/usr/lib/libvoikko.so.1   | grep -e malaga
-e RPATH
  NEEDED               libmalaga.so.7
  RPATH                /home/anssi/odd/lib

$ ls /home/anssi/odd/lib/libmalaga.so.7
/home/anssi/odd/lib/libmalaga.so.7@

So when enchant dlopens libenchant_voikko.so, the dependency on
libvoikko.so.1 and in turn its dependency on libmalaga.so.7 in another
directory are resolved fine.

>> Support for indirect dependencies should be a configure option so
>> that it should be specifically requested.
> 
> See $link_all_deplibs (which is "no" on Debian but "yes" in FSF
> Libtool).

IIRC link_all_deplibs only affects executables, not libraries.

The comment describing link_all_deplibs seems to agree:
# Whether libtool must link a program against all its dependency libraries.

-- 
Anssi Hannula