On Feb 10, 2011, at 11:26 AM, Michael Haubenwallner wrote:

>>>>> Although runpath search is affected by LIBPATH, I'm just fine with that.
>>>>> This is the outcome of using "-L" and "-l" linker flags together.
>>>> I thought this was one of your objectives based on the fact that java sets LIBPATH
>>>> to something weird and it breaks everything.
>>> Nope. The problem with LIBPATH set by java was that there is nothing
>>> like "soname". Iff my binary had searched for the /file/ "libiconv.so.2"
>>> (either archive or not) instead of "libiconv.a(libiconv.so.2)", even with
>>> LIBPATH set to "/usr/lib" it would not have found "/usr/lib/libiconv.a"
>>> (without "libiconv.so.2" member), but continued along LIBPATH + runpath
>>> until it found the "libiconv.so.2" file in its usual place.
>> Hmmm... ok.  I had forgotten that detail.
> 
> Yes, a detail - but a really important one for package managers.

It occurred to me that this was true in your particular situation but
if Java (or a user) removes key paths from LIBPATH, the runtime
search will fail.  Having 100% hardcoded paths solves that issue.

So, the system you have developed solves the particular issue
with Java but not the bigger issue of setting LIBPATH to some
whacko thing.

Perry