sane dependencies -- a positive look at 'fix your packages'

[Ulrich Drepper]

Andy Hanton wrote:

> On Linux the dependencies of a library or binary get inflated by the
> system.  For example all binaries built on Redhat 9 depend on libc 2.3
> but they usually don't depend on any new APIs introduced in 2.3.

That's wrong.  The versioning mechanism always picks the minimum
required versions.  There is no automatic inflation.  The fact that most
apps linked against glibc 2.3 will also require GLIBC_2.3 is that some
fundamental interfaces changed.


> It might look something like gcc -o foo foo.c
> `pkg-config --cflags --libs gtk+-2.0:2.0 libgnome-2.0:2.0 libc-2:2.2`

That's something I never want to see.  Compiling against old headers and
linking with old libraries always means a) more bugs and b) less optimal
results.  For instance, compile some code using conditional variables
with old headers and new headers, and compare the resulting performance
and memory consumption (and maybe even stability).

If I have the possibility to have better binaries I am not willing to
give this up just because some people clinch to their old installations
and demand equal treatment when it comes to package updates.

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