proposal to remove static libs from -devel packages for FC5

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Tue, 2005-07-26 at 10:14 -0400, Jeremy Katz wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-07-26 at 15:07 +0200, Ralf Ertzinger wrote:
> > On Mon, Jul 25, 2005 at 11:57:27AM -0400, Jeremy Katz wrote:
> > > I'd rather not ship them in most cases and not add a package in the case
> > > where it might be needed.  It ends up leading to a much worse comps
> > > nitemare otherwise.
> > 
> > Well, I'd like to be able to link a library statically if I choose to.
> > I do not care much if the .a file is in the -devel or a -static package,
> > but I'd like to have it.

> I think there are plenty of cases at the lower levels of the stack where
> it makes sense
Well, though I have to agree, there are rare/exceptional cases where
static linkage is useful, IMO, as part of a distribution, the downside
of shipping (and using) static libs by far outweighs the rare occasions
where static libs are useful.

>  and thus I think they should remain in -devel.

I beg to differ, moving static libs to separate packages would make
packages using static libs explicit, because their specs would have to
have an explicit "BR: *-static" in their spec.

As a side-effect, "*-static" rpms to a large extend would render
Warren's considerations moot.

All in all, I am favor to avoid shipping static libs whenever possible
and am in favor of Jens' proposal.

Ralf