static libraries/devel subpackages

Christian.Iseli at licr.org Christian.Iseli at licr.org
Tue Aug 23 07:02:39 UTC 2005


ville.skytta at iki.fi said:
> On Mon, 2005-08-22 at 15:51 +0200, Patrice Dumas wrote:
>> 1) In the packaging guidelines there is a paragraph about
>>   Exclusion of Static Libraries
>> with is the following sentence:
>> "Static libraries should only be included in exceptional circumstances"

>> Should it really be followed? I may be wrong but all the packages I know 
>> in extra distribute the static libraries in -devel subpackages.

> The guideline is newer than most packages in Extras, and nowhere near all
> packages have been adopted yet, but some have.

> IMO, dropping the static libs from an existing package should be done only
> between distros, not during the package's life cycle between package release
> bumps for example in FC-4.  The people likely being bitten by this (if
> anyone) are almost certainly 3rd parties as the static libs are very rarely
> being used within Extras -> we can't know exactly what are the consequences
> so better not inflict it on anyone within one distro version.

Right.  There also was a discussion on fedora-maintainers about dropping 
static libs from devel package:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-maintainers/2005-July/msg00061.html

In fact, the discussion was more about splitting a -static part out of the
-devel part.

IIUC, the -devel package would then contain:
 - .h files
 - .so files
 - utilities needed for devel things (config scripts, etc)

and the -static package would contain
 - .a files


The pros for the split:
 - -devel package is smaller, and is what most developers really need
 - people who use the static libs will need to put a BR: -static in their 
   spec, thus making it obvious which packages need to be rebuilt when a 
   problem with the library is discovered.
 - it is a balanced way to keep static libs around for those that need them

The cons:
 - current spec files will need to be modified
 - it doesn't help for packages using static libraries that contain a copy
   of the lib source
 - some people think static libs should be banned altogether

Personaly, I tend to prefer the -static split...

Cheers,
					Christian





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