Do GModules require *.la files?

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Wed, 2005-10-26 at 11:02 -0400, Jeremy Katz wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-10-26 at 08:25 -0500, Rex Dieter wrote:
> > Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
> > > Looking at the gmodule documentation now, I see its documented that
> > > g_module_open("qof_backend") would search for:
> > > qof_backend
> > > qof_backend.G_MODULE_SUFFIX (.so for unix-like, .dll for win, .sl for
> > > HP-UX)
> > > qof_backend.la
> > > 
> > > and use whichever opens the module.  Would this not work on all
> > > platforms?
> > 
> > That was my point, AFAIK, no, not all platforms support "native: 
> > loadable modules (ie, .so,.dll, etc...) and/or shared-libraries... they 
> > need help via the .la files.
> 
> Right, so g_module_open ends up using the .la files on those platforms.
> There's no need to penalize users on "sane" platforms ;-)
No, it's the price of portability. Either you write portable software or
you write non-portable, proprietary SW.

BTW: Does g_module really open *.la at run-time? AFAICT, libtool's *.la
are designed to be used at "configuration time" not at "run-time".
If you'd like to hear a confirmative answer on this subject you'd better
ask on the libtool at gnu.org list.


Ralf