[gentoo-dev] prune_libtool_files() and pkg-config dependency

[Michał Górny]

Hello, fellow developers.

I'd like to note that the prune_libtool_files() in eutils.eclass has
a pretty specific dependency on pkg-config. Whenever it is used
in an ebuild, it should depend on virtual/pkgconfig if all
of the following conditions are met:

1. The ebuild installs at least a single static library with
a corresponding .la file,

2. the .la files has no 'shouldnotlink=yes' (i.e. is not a plugin),

3. the .la file has non-empty 'dependency_libs' and/or
'inherited_linker_flags',

4. the '--all' option is not being used.

In other words, pkg-config is only used when no other criteria allows
it to classify the particular .la file as suitable for removal or not.
Sadly, it's rather, ehm, unfriendly to ebuild developers who obviously
don't even read the relevant part.

Do you have any ideas how we can improve that?

One thing that comes into my mind is finally making pkgconfig
a required, implicit part of toolchain (or @system). Since we have
pkgconf now, this is more feasible than before.

-- 
Best regards,
Michał Górny