Mart Raudsepp <leio@g.o> posted
1214877951.29224.54.camel@localhost
, excerpted below, on  Tue, 01 Jul 2008
05:05:51 +0300:

> Over a year or two ago, it was communicated that it supposedly a policy
> that USE=static should only control if a package installs static
> libraries INSTEAD of shared libraries, and never to be used to control
> if static libraries are installed in _addition_ to shared ones or not.

That's as I understand it too.

> Packages were coerced to stop using USE=static for controlling that, and
> most of them ended up unconditionally installing both static and shared
> libraries. What's worse - they were told that if a package can provide
> both shared libraries and static libraries at once, it just MUST (or
> SHOULD) install them both instead of choosing to not ship the static
> libraries.

OK, but see below.

> End result that affects me: GNOME does not fit on LiveCD installation
> media anymore.

Ouch!

> So I'm proposing a USE=static-libs or similar to get out of this
> problem, and a lifting of the supposed (I wasn't around as a dev that
> long ago to know for sure) policy of having to install both instead of
> choosing to never install static libraries.

I'm not sure this is warranted.  See below.

> I am quite sure that absolutely nothing whatsoever uses about 97% of the
> static GNOME libraries we are now installing as an end result. [...]

Probably others than GNOME, too.

> There are packages in the tree that are required to install static
> libraries, or something else in the system breaks. So INSTALL_MASK=*.a
> is not a solution in my eyes.

This is the ticklish bit, but there's still a way around it for users 
(such as those trying to fit GNOME on a liveCD) that need it.  Useing 
portage's bashrc, setup a conditional that excepts packages that need 
static libs and set INSTALL_MASK='*.a' for everything else.

If you've not yet seen Ed Catmur's bashrc script setup, "I+'5 d4 60mb!"  
I don't personally find many of its capabilities useful, but his auto-
patching setup has sure come in handy, and the entire thing is just 
incredibly extensible on a nicely solid base. =8^)  It should make 
setting this up a breeze, and be handily expansible for 'most anything 
else you might come up with as well.  If it were me, I'd use that as a 
base and go from there utilizing the idea I suggested above.

http://catmur.co.uk/gentoo/

Additionally, you don't mention whether you checked with them already or 
not, but releng and subprojects may have some suggestions in this area.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

-- 
gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list