Re: [gentoo-dev] .la files and their future on Gentoo

[David Leverton]

On 3 October 2010 15:29, Luca Barbato <lu_zero@g.o> wrote:
> I think the simpler solution is that if it needs .la, before reaching the
> tree it has to be fixed...

What I'm not keen about that is that using the .la files isn't really
"broken" - if libfoo uses libtool, and some other software uses
libfoo's .la files in a way that works with the upstream version of
libfoo, then it ought to work with Gentoo's libfoo too.  (This gets
into arguments about what sorts of changes are appropriate for a
distribution to make, versus being left to upstream.)

Also, not every piece of software that people might want to use is
going to go into the main tree - people can use Gentoo to develop
their own software (and might have their own ideas (or their
company/project's ideas) about what parts of libtool it's appropriate
to rely on), use packages from overlays, compile other people's
software outside the package management system, run precompiled
binaries, etc.  Again, from here I'm sure you can have a big
discussion about whether libraries in the tree exist only to support
applications in the tree, or whether they're "products" (for want of a
better word) in their own right.

Again, maybe not earth-shatteringly important issues, but I do think
these should at least be considered when deciding the policy.