Le 03/10/2010 16:29, Luca Barbato a écrit :
> I think the simpler solution is that if it needs .la, before reaching
> the tree it has to be fixed...

Using libltdl (libtool's dlopen wrapper) is a *legitimate* use of .la
files. Those programs do not need to be fixed as they are not broken.

The discussion here is about random apps and libs, that install .la
files for no other reason that they were *built* using libtool.

Such programs will work just fine without .la files. The only risk is
breaking :

 1) building other packages (see the dbus bug)
 2) building *static* programs/libs

#1 can be "fixed" using lafilefixer which sanitizes .la files so that
they stop referencing other .la files.

#2 is harder :

#2a) pkg-config is one solution (what upstream Xorg says: "if you want a
static libX11, use pkg-config --static"), other teams/herds could fix
their packages' .pc files to correctly list all required packages for
proper static linking. It's not rocket science.

#2b) drop support for static linking altogether. It can make sense for
some packages, but definitely isn't suitable for the entire portage tree.

So again, these are the only 2 issues we should be addressing.

Cheers,

Rémi