[gentoo-user] What is libX11.la, and how do I build it?

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, Gentoo.

I try to emerge, say, gtk+.  It fails building the cairo lib.  The build
log indicates:

    /bin/sed: can't read /usr/lib64/libX11.la: No such file or directory

.  Looking into lib64, most libraries have versions .a, .la, .so*.  What
is .la?  "file libevtlog.la" says "libtool library file".  What does
this mean?  Is it the 64 bit version, or something?

Why is libX11 lacking the .la version?  More to the point, what do I
have to do to build it?  I've already tried setting the "static-libs"
use flag in /etc/portage/package.use, to no avail.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).