[Mageia-dev] [RFC] Removing .la files

[Olav Vitters]

On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 04:35:57PM +0200, Christiaan Welvaart wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Jun 2011, Olav Vitters wrote:
> 
> >On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 04:15:01PM +0200, Christiaan Welvaart wrote:
> >>>https://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/RemovingLaFiles
> >>
> >>"... but the dirty hacks that jhbuild plays ..."
> >>
> >>Problems with dirty hacks are NOT a valid reason to remove libtool
> >>convenience libraries aka .la files.
> >
> >Seems you skipped the initial bit, where it explains that the .la has
> >the full path.
> 
> What's wrong with those paths? I'm saying the problem is in
> gnome-shell, not in the .la files.

You snipped the paragraph which explains it.

To repeat: If you link against 1 system lib, the .la files will make it
link to /usr/lib stuff, instead of the self compiled gtk or anything
like that. If the .la does not exist (all of them), it links correctly.

> >>>Seems some distributions misunderstand the need and changed the wiki
> >>>page. Removing .la files is needed however, otherwise you'll quickly mix
> >>>distribution installed libraries and self-compiled libraries.
> >>
> >>What are you talking about here?
> 
> <gnome-shell stuff>

It is not gnome-shell, it is jhbuild and doing development (mainly
GNOME). Basic GNOME already has ~200 modules.

> So you are really talking only about gnome-shell, which I can't even
> test because apparently it doesn't work in a VM. It is now packaged,
> so you don't need to build it.

Nope, I'm talking about doing development using jhbuild. E.g. if you
want to contribute to GNOME, you'll have to get rid of all the .la
files no matter which distribution you use.

A new GNOME does not happen automatically. It requires people to compile
the Git versions and committing stuff until a tarball is released and
packaged.

Making such development easier would result in a better GNOME, and I
don't mind if the .la files stay, but prefer if they are removed.

Jhbuild is also used by Wayland and Hildon btw.
-- 
Regards,
Olav