<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Bill Nottingham wrote: <blockquote cite="mid20051116154815.GA8404@devserv.devel.redhat.com" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Tom 'spot' Callaway (<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:tcallawa@redhat.com">tcallawa@redhat.com</a>) said: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Perhaps, but: 1. There is tangible benefit to this, it will shrink the size of Core. 2. This method can be easily short-circuited for those apps which need it. 3. Most other RPM based distros have already done this (or something similar). </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""> 1. and 2. can simply be solved by removing the static libs, though. </pre> </blockquote> The problem is that many people believe that static libraries are necessary. This circumstance is proved by the present discussions, and also by precedents in other distros. IMO, Fedora is not an ordinary distro. Because of its history (RedHat Linux etc.) it is one of leaders, and even the first in a number of leaders. Therefore sharp changes (even correct) and full ignoring of minority's opinion should be avoided. Such things are allowable for some new, "revolutionary", marginal distros, not for wide-spread enough. There is a sign of infinity in the new Fedora's logo. The neglecting of opinion and needs of an appreciable part of users is not an infinity :( I believe that suggested solution (in the part of changes in the spec files) can be useful for any static lib policy. If sometime in the future the decision to change policy will be accepted, it will lead just to change of the appropriate system macros, without any interventions into packages themselves. (I.e., define %find_static "rm -f *.a"-like, and include "--disable-static" into default %configure ). Additionally, spec-files properly edited by this way, can help people who will want to create some additional repository with static libraries (Livna-like), because creating of such a repository can be automated. Dmitry Butskoy </body> </html>